This module introduces the psychometric characteristics used to judge the validity of assessments that are used in determining disabilities. Read More
Category: Accuracy (Discriminant Accuracy)
Accuracy describes a measure’s ability to approach the true value of the quantity being measured. Any measure has the capacity for error due to variables and conditions. For example, a scale may not be very accurate if the spring it uses is old and not as flexible as it originally was. In language testing, a test has diagnostic accuracy if it is able to distinguish between typically developing and language impaired individuals with a high degree of accuracy (at least 80% of the time).
Law and Policy: Guidelines for NYSED Preschool Evaluations June 2013
Guidelines for NYSED preschool evaluations.pdf
This memo outlines current issues in the speech and language evaluation process in New York. Read More
Research Text: Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education
Source URL: View this document on the National Academies Press website
This article highlighted the role that evaluators play in perpetuating the achievement gap between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. When an evaluator uses assessment procedures, such as standardized tests, that are biased against students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, it results in typically developing students being placed in special education where they are much less likely to graduate from high school and college.
Relevant Research: Using Norm-Referenced Tests to Determine Severity of Language Impairment in Children: Disconnect Between U.S. Policy Makers and Test Developers
Source URL: View this document on PubMed
This study has exposed the disconnect between research, state and federal law, and clinical practice. Despite lack of validity in determining disability and even though federal law (IDEA, 2004) recognizes that lack in requiring assessment materials to be “valid, reliable and free of bias,” many state laws continue to require norm-referenced tests in determining disability and in establishing severity level.
Relevant Research: Dynamic Assessment of Word Learning Skills: Identifying Language Impairment in Bilingual Children
Source URL: View this document on the ASHA website
The purpose of this article was to determine whether dynamic assessment (DA) of word learning was accurate in identifying the presence of language impairment (LI) in preschool-age bilingual children. Bilingual children are often misidentified as language impaired under current assessment practices due to flawed assessment procedures.
Law and Policy: Knowledge and Skills Needed by Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists to Provide Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services
Source URL: View this document on the ASHA website
This is a policy document published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) establishing its position on what skills are needed by speech language pathologists in order to work competently with culturally and linguistically diverse clients.
Relevant Research: Selection of Preschool Language Tests: A Data-Based Approach
Source URL: View this document on the ASHA website
This article demonstrated that despite the 10 years that had passed between the publication of McCauley and Swisher (1984) and this article, the vast majority of commercially available norm-referenced tests did not provide psychometric measures deemed necessary in order to establish a test as valid.
Relevant Research: Psychometric Review of Language and Articulation Tests for Preschool Children
Source URL: View this document on the ASHA website
This was one of the first of many articles publishing research demonstrating the severe limitations of using commercially available child language tests when assessing children for speech and language disability. Read More
