Enacting a Process for Developing Culturally Relevant Classroom Assessments

• In Event: Racial Justice in Educational Assessment

Abstract

Recent scholarship in education recognizes the role that educational institutions play in upholding and reproducing inequality. We extend these discussions of racial justice in assessment to the context of culturally relevant classroom assessment. A critical aspect of the development of culturally relevant classroom assessment is the design of tasks that affirm students’ racial and ethnic identities and community cultural practices. In this presentation, we build on prior research on culturally responsive assessments by providing a model for how cultural funds of knowledge can be used to develop classroom assessments with the potential to support and promote anti-deficit narratives. We describe the process implemented by our research and assessment development team to build a shared understanding of what constitutes culturally relevant assessment, to pursue ways of bringing more diverse voices and perspectives into the development process to generate new ideas and further our understanding, and finally to integrate those new understandings into the design of scenario-based interim assessments (i.e., ETS Testlets). We describe our engagement with research literature, employee-led affinity groups (with members from Black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, and LGBTQ+ communities), students, and external consultants. Following this, we highlight how lessons learned were applied in the development of new assessments that address racial justice through topics such as the Black-led urban agriculture movement and student-authored poetry about personal experiences with racism including within educational institutions. Finally, we reflect on the aspects of this development process, including the challenges faced, that can inform current work in the field as we collectively work together to make advances toward racial justice in assessment.

Authors

• Eowyn P. O'Dwyer, Educational Testing Service
  Presenting Author

• Jesse R. Sparks, Educational Testing Service
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leslie Nabors Olah, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author