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Please check
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Todays Topic

• Cautions for test interpretation Bilingual
  students

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Quick questions or quandaries?
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Announcements

• Turn in your Terminology Treasure Hunt.
• A brief summary of your choice of next weeks
  readings is due next week.
• November 25 will be here before you know dont
  delay in reviewing your diagnostic test.
• Come see me or Nitasha if you have ANY questions!
• There is a worksheet for next weeks class on the
  class outline. Dont forget to bring it next week.

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IDEA Requirements for Evaluation
Tests are selected and administered so as best
to ensure that if a test is administered to a
child with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking
skills, the test results accurately reflect the
childs aptitude or achievement level or whatever
other factors the test purports to measure,
rather than reflecting the childs impaired
sensory, manual, or speaking skills (unless those
skills are the factors that the test purports to
measure).
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For all test takers, any tests that employs
language is, in part, a measure of their language
skills.
(AERA, APA, NCME, 1999, p. 91)
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How do you "norm" a test?
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Questions to ask

• Who was included in the normative sample?
• Was the normative sample adequately described?
• Was the normative sample similar to the students
  who are being tested with the instrument?

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More questions to ask

• Were students from minority backgrounds included
  in similar proportions to our local population?
• What about bilingual students? Were they
  included? If so, were they adequately described?

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Even more questions to ask

• What about dialect? Would use of a non-standard
  dialect influence test responses? If so, was that
  taken into consideration in the normative sample?
  
• What about socio-economic status? Were students
  from a range of SES backgrounds included? How was
  SES determined? Was that adequately explained?

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HINT!
You just might want to think about these
questions when critiquing "your"test...
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Quick small group activity

• Read at the quotes on the next 4 slides
  individually and make notes on
• What you understand.
• What you dont understand.
• With 1 or 2 other colleagues, share your
  understandings and questions.
• Decide on 1 major question to pose to the group
  as a whole. Write it on big paper.

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If normative data do not exist for the
population for which a test is being
administered, it is the responsibility of the
examiner to validate the test for that specific
population. If the examiner fails to do so, the
results of the test will be considered invalid.
(Leary Boscardian, 1992, p. 53)
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Tests should not be administered to individuals
who are known to have specific handicapping
conditions if that test has not been
appropriately normed on their specific
population.
(Leary Boscardian, 1992, p. 54)
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When testing students who have been exposed to
more than one language norms developed for
monolingual English-speaking populations should
either not be used or should be interpreted with
the understanding that English language
proficiency is a contaminating factor.
(Presidents Advisory Commission on Educational
Excellence for Hispanic Americans, 2000, p. 11)
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"When a bilingual individual confronts a
monolingual test, developed by monolingual
individuals, and standardized and normed on a
monolingual population, both the test taker and
the test are asked to do something they cannot
do. The bilingual test taker cannot perform like
a monolingual. The monolingual test cannot
measure in the other language."
(Valdés Figueroa, 1994, p. 87)
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But only radical professors say that stuff...
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Really?

• Test developers should collect for each
  linguistic subgroup studied the same form of
  validity evidence collected for the examinee
  population as a whole.

(AERA, APA, NCME, 1999, p. 97)
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Buyer Beware!
Dont buy a used car without looking under the
hood!
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Three minute pause

• What were the main or key points about normative
  populations?
• How does this information relate to what weve
  learned so far in the course?
• What questions do you still have related to
  norming tests?

From ReadingQuest.org
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10 minute break!
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Translating a test assumes that the items in one
language arrange themselves in the same order of
difficulty as in another language.
(Valdés Figueroa, 1994, p. 105)
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The use of interpreters should be discouraged,
if not proscribed. Interpreters are basically
poor substitutes for what should be provided...
culturally knowledgeable, linguistically
competent testers... in special education, the
use of interpreters may lead to invalid
inferences and conclusions.... This is a practice
that may really be malpractice.
(Presidents Advisory Commission on Educational
Excellence for Hispanic Americans, 2000, p. 47)
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A translated test is an inappropriate test. The
practice should be proscribed.
(Presidents Advisory Commission on Educational
Excellence for Hispanic Americans, 2000, p. 11)
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Think-Pair-Share

• Think about what information you learned about
  translating and interpreting tests.
• Pair up with the person next to you and discuss
  what you have learned.
• Share with the group as a whole the most
  important thing you have learned about
  translating and interpreting tests.

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Main Points

• It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
  develop adequate norms for diverse populations,
  such as individuals with multiple disabilities or
  culturally and linguistically diverse
  populations.

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Main Points

• Given the purpose of norm-referenced tests (in
  contrast to criterion-referenced tests) their
  usefulness with individuals who differ
  significantly from the normative group is highly
  questionable.

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Main Points

• The test results for these individuals must be
  interpreted with great caution.

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Small Group Activity

• Formulate a list of SPECIFIC suggestions within
  your group as to how the information from
  tonight's readings could be used in the test
  description assignment.

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Looking ahead

• Cautions for test interpretation Students with
  severe disabilities

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Please take a minute for the minute paper