During assessment, a child that comes from a culturally and linguistically diverse background may not have had exposure to the knowledge or experience that is present in the test or expected by the evaluator. This lack of culturally or linguistically sensitive assessments and/or evaluators can lead to high rates of disproportionality in referrals to special services.
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Category: Cultural Bias
Cultural bias is present when standardized tests are comprised of tasks that are more common in a culture, particularly mainstream American culture. A test that includes labeling of objects is said to be culturally biased since labeling is not a salient language socialization pattern in some cultures such as low-income Puerto Rican and African American cultures.
Understanding Assessment: Problems with Percentile Rank and Age Equivalency
The percentile rank of a score is percentage of total scores from the normative sample that were equal or lesser than the value of the score. It can be plotted on the bell curve of a normal distribution. Read More
Understanding Assessment: Assessment Materials- Dynamic vs. Static Assessment
A variety of sessmentsessment materials and procedures are frequently used in speech and language as well as psychoeducational evaluations. These include static and dynamic assessments and language samples. Read More
Understanding Assessment: Understanding the Normative Sample
The terms normative sample and standardization sample refer to the same concept and are often used interchangeably, though standardization sample is the term more frequently used in statistics and normative sample is more common within psychometrics. A norm referenced test uses a normative or standardization sample from the general population to determine what is “typical” or “normal” in that population. Read More
Understanding Assessment: Assessment Materials- Fast Mapping
Fast mapping is a type of novel word-learning, dynamic assessment used in evaluating preschool and school-aged children. Read More
Understanding Assessment: The Importance of Clinical Judgement
Clinical judgment is the knowledge an evaluator develops over years of practice and ongoing education about typical language development and second language acquisition in a certain community. Read More
Understanding Assessment: Assessment Materials- Language Sample
Language sampling is an essential part of any speech and language evaluation and research has shown it to be less biased against culturally and linguistically diverse children than standardized tests. Information presented in the language sample will consist of utterances collected from the parent interview in critical question 9 as well as language elicited during the evaluation. Read More
Understanding Assessment: Methods for Evaluating Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic status (SES) affects cultural perspective and speech and language development and can be found in testing materials and the evaluator’s interpretation of assessment performance. Read More
