Resources

Assessment plays a powerful role in the education process in the United States and has a disproportionately negative impact on students who do not come from mainstream, middle-class backgrounds. Given the significance of testing in education today, cultural validity in assessment is an urgent issue facing educators.

This resource for practicing and prospective teachers—as well as others concerned with fair and valid assessment—provides a thorough grounding in relevant theory, research, and practice, and is essential reading for addressing this important, relevant topic. The book lays out criteria and recommends strategies that teachers can use to design and implement culturally valid classroom assessments.

WestEd’s Nanette Koelsch contributed a key chapter on language arts and former WestEd staff member Ursula Sexton contributed a key chapter on appropriate assessment processes.

This book addresses the following questions:

• What is assessment and how is it a cultural practice?
• How does failure to account for linguistic and cultural variation among students jeopardize assessment validity?
• What is required to achieve cultural validity in assessment?