The Relative Importance of Language and Culture in Making Assessment Decisions About Hispanic Students Referred to Special Education

This essay reports on a study that examined the relative importance of linguistic and cultural information in assessment decisions made by psychologists and educational diagnosticians about Hispanic students referred to special education. These clinicians were presented with hypothetical cases and asked to make four decisions: (1) what language should be used in testing; (2) what language skills the examiner would need; (3) what cultural background the examiner should have; and (4) the degree of cultural relevance the testing materials and procedures should have in order to make adequate decisions. Each case contained information on students’ English language proficiency, Spanish language proficiency, cultural background of home, level of Spanish usage in the home, and level of English usage in the home. Results indicated that language and culture were not equally considered for all decisions; in fact, information on home language appeared to play little or no role in any of the four decisions. Students’ language proficiency, on the other hand, played a strong role but only in determining the language of testing and the language skills of the examiner. In addition, the study examined the correlation between these statistically derived results and the clinicians’ own perceptions of their use of the student characteristics.