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Technology-based Assessment in Special Education
The growing diversity of students
in special education warrants new and innovative approaches to
assessment practices. Minorities who qualify for special services require
culturally relevant assessments, particularly in the areas of language and
social behaviors.
Culturally Relevant Assessment
It is important that minorities be assured of equal representation in
special programs. It is well known that ethnic minorities are
under-represented in advanced programs for the gifted, such as AEP
(Advanced Education Program). Yet, there is an over-representation of
certain ethnic minority groups that fall into special education categories
such as Intellectually Disabled and Learning Disabled.
Studies have shown, for example, that until recently there were
approximately twice as many Mexican-American students in classes for
the educable mentally retarded (EMR) in the U.S. as would be expected
on the basis of proportion in the school population.3,4 As far back as
1916, Miller pointed out that special or "backward" classes furnished
"an easy means of disposing of (a non-English-speaking) pupil who,
through no fault of his own, is an unsatisfactory member of a regular
grade."5
This over-representation of ethnic minority students in classes for the
mentally retarded has been attributed to the indiscriminate use of
psychological tests, especially IQ tests, combined with the linguistic
and cultural orientation of school programs.6 It may also be due to
human factors in evaluation regarding personal biases and prejudices,
as well as a lack of adequate tools to accurately assess without cultural
relevancy.
Native languages have been used in individual evaluations, but much of
the information is lost during the translation from English to the
students' dominant language. This is possibly due to the different
cultural dialects and historical backgrounds between evaluators and
students. Also, students may perform very well on certain items in their
native language, but many items within the testing tools are likely to be
either culturally unfamiliar or not even existent in their native language.
These students end up with low scores and poor overall results.
New technology, however, makes it possible for evaluations to include
all items in a student's native language and also to bring in a broader
range of culturally relevant items.
Expanding Definitions of Learning
Another reason for change in our current assessment practices is that
we, as educators, know more about the learning process. According to
Irvin and Walker, we know considerably more about what to measure
than about how to measure it.
