Validity of Socioculturally Responsive and Culturally Sustaining Assessments: Issues and Practice

Session Type: Coordinated Paper Session

Abstract

Our diverse student population learns in a range of ways; however, assessments tend to require demonstrations of learning in relatively narrow, prescribed ways. There are implications for how students from different cultures engage with and apply their knowledge and skills to assessment tasks that either are not relevant or aligned with their culture. Additionally, expectations and criteria for evaluating performance on these tasks tend to privilege the culture of the test developer and may not acknowledge ways of knowing in other cultures. Culture is a critical consideration vis-a-vis students' ways of knowing, thinking, learning, and doing, and culture ought to be considered in assessment design and development. In this coordinated paper session, issues and practices related to the validity of socioculturally responsive and culturally sustaining assessments will be discussed. Presenters address the role of culture as foundational to assessment development and (re)evaluate considerations and evidence related to establishing assessment validity. Since assessment can shape and drive needed educational reforms and improve student achievement, the papers in this session are intended to be resources for indigenous communities, state departments of education, policymakers, test developers, and the research community to support such efforts and to promote social justice, fairness, and equity.

Sub Unit

• Individual Papers, Innovation Demonstrations, Coordinated Sessions, or Organized Discussions

Session Organizer

• Edynn Sato, Sato Education Consulting LLC

Moderator

• Edynn Sato, Sato Education Consulting LLC

Individual Presentations

• Integrating Cognitive and Psychometric Models to Produce Socioculturally Responsive Assessments - Edynn Sato, Sato Education Consulting LLC; Grace Li, WIDA at the University of Wisconsin – Madison; Justin Kelly, Center for Applied Linguistics

• Assessment of First Nations Languages: A Review of Literature - Lorena Alarcon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Culturally Sustaining and Valid Alaska Native Language Assessment - Rosalie Grant, WIDA at the University of Wisconsin – Madison

• Reconceptualizing Assessment for Equity and Social Justice: Native language Assessment in HawaiLi - Pohai Kukea Shultz, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Kerry Englert, Seneca Consulting, LLC

Discussant

• Sally Samson, University of Alaska, Fairbanks