Interpretation and Use of Standardized Language Assessments for Diverse School-Age Individuals

Abstract

Purpose: The ultimate aim of an assessment is to help examiners make valid conclusions about an individual's skill given their performance on a particular measure. Yet, assessing the language abilities of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals requires researchers and practitioners to carefully consider the appropriateness of traditional parameters of test psychometrics (e.g., reliability, or consistency of assessments as measurement) plus the intersectional identities that inform the generalizability of these parameters. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to provide clinicians and researchers with resources to interpret and use common standardized language assessments in English for culturally and linguistically diverse school-age youth. We present theories from psychometrics, legal studies, and education relevant to language assessment of diverse individuals, review standardized language assessments in English, and provide theory-to-practice applications of language assessment scenarios.

Conclusions: Implementing intersectional approaches in working with diverse children and using assessment scores as just one piece of evidence amid a broader evidence base will contribute to a more accurate evaluation of culturally and linguistically diverse children's language abilities. A comprehensive approach involving multiple stakeholders across the field of communication sciences and disorders may support achieving such implementation.

Keywords: assessment; cultural and linguistic diversity; interpretation and use.

Figure 1.

Proposed Pathway from Assessment Performance to Interpretation and Use of Performance When Drawing Conclusions about an Individual’s Language Ability and Making Subsequent Decisions Note. For the sake of space, we only present this pathway when two assessments (A & B) are conducted. We recognize, however, that there may be more depending on the scope of the assessment. In this case, we encourage examiners to consider the first part of the process (i.e., performance on assessment to interpretation of an individual’s language ability) as repeating for each assessment included.