Performance of African American preschool and kindergarten students on the expressive vocabulary test.

PURPOSE To examine the validity of the Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT; K. Williams, 1997) for assessing the expressive vocabulary skills of African American students. METHOD/RESULTS One hundred sixty-five African American preschool and kindergarten students were administered the EVT. The mean EVT score for these African American students was 96.44 (SD = 11.42), which is not appreciably lower than the standardized mean of 100 (SD=15). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Scores were normally distributed, indicating that the EVT is culturally fair and appropriate for use with some African American preschool and kindergarten children as part of an early screening battery. The importance of culturally fair vocabulary measures is discussed relative to this population.