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The Challenge of Testing Bilingual Students for Special Education Eligibility Dr. Richard A. Figueroa Professor Department of Education University of California, Davis Overrepresentation of bilingual children is occurring in special education categories that are susceptible to social construction…(My) hypothesis is basically that school psychologists, speech and language therapists, and anybody that does diagnostic assessment for special education, are not doing nondiscriminatory assessment.

Dr. Figueroa talked about nondiscriminatory assessment. Since the early 1900s tests and testers have been haunted by issues of race, culture, and bilingualism. Although Public Law 94-142 in 1975 created a mandate to do nondiscriminatory assessment, there is still a lack of operational definition or standardization for this type of diagnostic assessment and a lack of attention from the testing community to it. Professional texts offer only broad generalities. And, overrepresentation of bilingual populations in special education is still present. This is ironic given that the testing policy arena has addressed the issue of minority students and bilingualism.

Dr. Figueroa then discussed some of the past solutions for testing children whose first language is not English and who have been referred for special education testing:
• Nonverbal IQ tests

• Spanish language tests, but they used American norms

• Use of interpreters

• Adjusting the scores to accommodate for low English proficiency

• Using multiple tests and scores to get a diagnosis

• Measuring adaptive behavior, but it was normed on American middle class social behavior

Next, Dr. Figueroa gave four detailed examples of students struggling with English and schooling where the tests could not account for the variety of linguistic experiences or the students’ current status or future linguistic development.

Dr. Figueroa concluded by discussing six sources of test bias with Hispanic test takers:
• Significant exposure to a language other than English.

• Processing speed of the weaker language. Second language learners process information slower in the weaker language, which for native Spanish speakers is the language in which they are usually taking tests.

• Using translations of tests. In translating tests, the words may survive the renorming but the exact same level of difficulty does not necessarily survive.

• Diminished opportunity to learn. This is occurring as we are moving away from bilingual education since most elementary school teachers are not serving as English as a second language teachers.

• Using an interpreter during a test.

• Decisions based on tests. These decisions are difficult to make because so many variables have to be taken into consideration.

One participant asked about the importance of contextual assessment since Dr. Figueroa focused mostly on psychometric assessment. Dr. Figueroa responded that the best way to diagnose special needs is to do it in an optimal instructional context over the long term with student word products as the basis for making a determination.

BIOGRAPHY

Richard A. Figueroa is Professor of Education at the University of California at Davis. His primary research interest has been in the area of testing bilingual, Hispanic children for special education placement. He has worked with California, U.S., and Mexican policy makers in defining best professional practices in school psychology and special education diagnosis. His most recent work has involved working with federal court monitors in California school districts with severe compliance problems relative to the implementation of IDEA with minority pupils.