Authentic Assessment

And

Cultural Diversity

Anne Murray

Educational Psychologist

CEC Conference

St Johns,

Newfoundland

1999

Moving to a New Country

• Phases of Acculturation

– Pre contact

– Contact

– Conflict

– Crisis

– Adaptation

Factors in Acculturation

• Role of schools

• English as a second language

• Non verbal communication

• Awareness of refugees and stress

Context and values of the larger

society

• Pluralist

• Tolerance/prejudice

• Multicultural ideology

Types of Acculturation Groups

• Immigrants

• Refugees

• Ethnic groups

• Sojourners

Key factors

• Prior knowledge of host culture

• Prior intercultural encounters

• Prior motives and attitudes

• Education

• Employment status

• Age/gender/marital status

• Current contact experiences

• Identity confusion/consolidation

• Attitudes to modes of acculturation

• Acquisition of knowledge and skills

• Congruity between expectations and actualities

Socio-cultural Characteristics of

Acculturating Group

• Settlement patterns

• Opportunity for status mobility

• Size of Groups

• Rapidity of Change

• Social Support and Networks

• Group Acceptability

Wish to maintain cultural identity and

characteristics

YES NO

Wish to maintain

Relationships with

other groups

YES

____

NO

Integration assimilation

Separation marginalization

Model of Acculturation (Berry)

Intervention process• Primary

Policy and training

• Secondary

Identify pupils at risk

Provide services

ISSP

• Tertiary

Multi professional response

Common Problems

• Perceived as a behavioural problem

OR

• Diagnosed as slow learner

OR

• All difficulties attributed to oral language skills

OR

• Exceptionality not considered

Potential Barriers to Assessment

• Cultural experience of pupil

• Perception of ‘Assessment’

• Oral language skills

• Literacy skills

• Lack of awareness of the causes of

learning difficulties

Authentic Assessment

• Valid: What are you testing?

• Reliable: How does the pupil usually

perform?

• Comprehensive: Do you have a complete

picture of the person’s strengths and

needs?

• Consistent: Do the results make sense?

Pre- Referral

• Purpose: To determine if appropriate and

sufficient approaches have been attempted to

help the child:

-Direct observation

-Ecological assessment

-Learning Style

-Teaching style

-Previous educational and cultural experiences

Pre- Referral

Ongoing Teaching and Assessment

• Daily/weekly- reporting periods

• Multiple sources of information

• Direct instruction language skills

• 4-5 years teaching and immersion needed

for language proficiency

Good Teaching Strategies

• Multicultural awareness and advocacy

• Use pupils’ experiences

• Cooperative and multi sensory learning

activities

• Range of teaching and evaluation

strategies

• Clear expectations and standards

• Specific focused feedback

School and Family

Open communication/sensitivity

• Stress factors: socio-economic status/

previous experiences

• Beliefs about exceptionality ( blame)

• Response to authority/school

• Expectations of child ( gender)

• Language and literacy skills

Common Literacy Difficulties

• First language/no written code

• Very little educational experience

• Interrupted school experiences

• Non Roman alphabet

Factors Linked to

Learning Difficulties

• Lack of educational experience

• Health/Vision/Hearing/Motor problems

• Social/emotional problems

• Traumatic events

• Developmental delay

• Learning disability

Culturally Diverse Groups

• Immigrants/Refugees/Ethnic Groups/

Aboriginal People/Sojourners

Cultural Identity/Relationships

• Assimilate/integrate/separate marginalise

Literacy levels in first language

• Pre-literate (oral culture)

• Non- literate (never needed to read or

write)

• Semi-literate (did not finish school)

• Functionally literate in first language

-Non Roman alphabet

- Roman Alphabet

Supports

• English as another language

• Literacy (reading, writing, mathematics)

• Technology

• Awareness of Exceptionalities

• Educational expectations

• Alternate courses

Accommodations

IEP

• Frequent re-location/needs written in an

educational plan

• Extra time to process language in class

and during tests

• Use of technology

• Books on tape

• Clear verbal instructions

• Visual cues

Interpreting Results

• Evidence Based (3 sources/ Triangulation)

• Consistent over time

• Patterns of Strengths and Needs

• Is a diagnosis indicated?

Behavioural Assessment

Problem Behaviour

• Awareness of problem, ability to control self,

environments contributing to and maintaining

problem

Adaptive Behaviour

• Personal independence and social responsibility

appropriate for age and cultural norms

Emotional and Social development

• Intrapersonal and interpersonal factors

What can the pupil do?

Pre- Reading Skills: decoding print

• Visual analysis (use visual features)

• Contextual analysis (looking for clues in

surrounding print)

• Phonological analysis (using information

about the sounds in words)

• Structural analysis (recognising and giving

meaning to parts of words)

What can the pupil do?

Reading and Understanding Texts

• Reading aloud/silently

• Verbal comprehension

• Re-telling stories

• Fill in missing words

• Provide synonyms

• Identify correct answer

• Generate correct answer

What can the pupil do?

• Written language

• Spelling (recognition and recall)

• Handwriting (legibility, spacing and speed)

• Content (describing/reporting/expression)

• Craft (organise/sequence/vocabulary/

punctuation/capitalisation)

What can the pupil do?

• Mathematics (calculation and reasoning)

• Problem solving (language)

• Computational skills (+/-/-:-/x#)

• Place value/memory

• Predict/estimate/evaluate

• Measuring concepts

• Interpret graphs and charts/geometry

• Computer knowledge

How does the pupil process

information?

• Cognition (low result may be unreliable)

• Oral Language (receptive and expressive)

• Attention and Memory

• Perceptual Processing

- Auditory/Visual/Perceptual/Motor

• Consistent with Academic Achievement ?

Referral Criteria

• If the pupil has received appropriate and direct

educational interventions for a sustained period

AND:

• The following areas have been assessed as not

significantly contributing to the learning

difficulties

- Language skills/Health/Vision/Hearing/social/

- emotional/cultural factors then…..

Comprehensive Assessment

Components

• Multi-disciplinary/flexible

• Multiple sources of information- formal and

informal

• Results consistent with historical evidence

• Criterion referenced tests (measured

against task not against others)

• Oral proficiency in English

Typical Prevalence of Learning

Disabilities

• 5-10% of population

• Mild- Moderate- Severe (1%)

• Learning disability occurs in every culture

and socio economic group

• Consanguinity may lead to higher levels of

severe disability in population ( 2%)