Equity-Driven Assessments in Medical Education

For a more inclusive and just future health care system, equitable assessments must be a fundamental component for all levels of medical education.

Social justice in medical education is crucially dependent upon the methods of assessment to ensure equity. We can classify assessments as formative, which guide future learning, provide reassurance, and promote reflection, or summative, which provide an overall judgment about the competence, qualification for advancement to higher levels of responsibility, etc.1 When we develop assessments in the vein of social justice, we must consider factors such as race, culture, language proficiency, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health, along with ability, while attenuating bias and oppression in the evaluation of student learning.