Academic assessment of diverse students.

Abstract

In schools today, educators are frequently assessing students' academic performance and growth for a variety of reasons, including planning and evaluating the effectiveness of instruction, determining placement in special programs and services, and fulfilling accountability requirements. Each of these assessment purposes raises unique questions and concerns about what is measured, how it is measured, and how the information is used. These concerns are heightened for students who are linguistically and/or culturally diverse (e.g., Abedi, 2004;Abedi & Gándara, 2006) and contribute to the substantial differences in educational opportunities and academic achievement that continue to exist between English learners (EL) and non-ELs and students of historically underserved racial and ethnic groups