Reimagining Assessment in PBL: Welcoming Dandelions and Designing Culturally Sustaining Protocols for CLD Learners

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: From Deficits to Assets: Designing Inclusive and Collaborative Educational Practices

Abstract

This theoretical paper offered a framework for designing culturally sustaining assessment protocols within project-based learning (PBL) environments to advance equity for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners. Grounded in multicultural education, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and equity-oriented assessment, it reimagined how educators define success and recognize learning. By centering student reflection, community knowledge, and multilingual expression, the paper invited a shift toward more authentic, humanizing practices. Using a gardening metaphor, where dandelions represent resilient brilliance misread as weeds, it challenged deficit-based logics and standardization. This framework calls on educators and researchers to cultivate assessment rooted in care, justice, and the cultural wealth students bring, especially those historically marginalized by dominant systems of evaluation.

Author

• Emma H. Cho, University of Washington