Use, Analysis, and Development of Classroom Assessments with a focus on Culturally Responsive Educational Practices

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The number of children enrolling in U.S. schools representing culturally diverse families continues to rise and will soon become the majority. Yet, we continue to use inadequate assessment measures that center white middle-class children’s experiences within the school. Using these assessments invalidates the knowledge and experience obtained by a growing majority of U.S. students. The information obtained from these assessments provides false narratives focused on intervention instead of promoting a shift towards culturally responsive educational practices (CRP). The current symposium includes three papers centering the need to measure CRP in the use, analysis, and development of assessments. In the first paper, the authors investigate long-term patterns of student-teacher relationships with Latinx children. Using a resiliency framework, closeness and conflict between teacher and student are measured. Findings showed distinct and atypical relationship quality patterns experienced by Latinx children and their teachers, highlighting the need for more valid measures of CRP within classrooms to capture the vulnerability of these relationships. Complementing this work, the authors in the second paper report on an extensive literature review documenting how CRP is operationalized and measured in U.S. classrooms. Findings raise important questions regarding classical test theory metrics (e.g., measurement invariance) in the measurement of CRP. Considering the need for new measures, the authors of the final study describe their process of engaging the community in the development of CRP measures as a first step in addressing concerns raised in the previous papers. The discussant will further bring together the key points across the three papers.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Lisa Maria López, University of South Florida

Discussant

• Lisa Maria López, University of South Florida

Individual Presentations

• Considering Atypical Student-Teacher Relationship Patterns: A Latent Transition Analysis of Latinx Children in Early Elementary - Presenting Author: Melissa Lucas, Yale University

• Exploring Indicators of Consequential Validity Among CRP Measures in PK-12 U.S. Classrooms - Presenting Author: Meredith Dentes Powers, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Catherine P Bradshaw, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Jessika Bottiani, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Results of the Feasibility and Utility of an Early Literacy Assessment - Presenting Author: Alejandra Miranda, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Carlos Chavez, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; Alisha K. Wackerle-Hollman, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Karen Zyskind, University of Oregon; Yessy Medina, University of Oregon; Lillian Karen Duran, University of Oregon