The Importanceof Culture III III in the Assessmentof ChildrenandYouth

...... ........ In recent years, psychologists studying children's development have become increasingly concerned about issues of cultural sensitivity. Although this heightened awareness is encouraging, there is stilI considerable confusion and lack of clarity about what cultural sensitivity is and how it should be infused into research and practice, Perhaps nowhere is this more critical than in the area of assessment, with its role in the selection and classification of individuals, the evaluation of treatments, and the testing of scientific hypotheses (Cronbach, 1970),This is also particularly relevant in the United States at this time, given the diversity of cultural groups represented, the radically changing demographic profile, and current social, legal, and political concerns about the disadvantaged status of many ethnic minority groups. Indeed, issues of cultural sensitivity in assessment have been at the forefront of educational reform over the last few decades. Given the poorer performance on standardized achievement and aptitude measures and disproportionate placement of certain groups of children into special programs, federal mandates such as Public Law 94-142 have been enacted, requiring school districts to ensure nondiscriminatory assessments. Faced with the difficult task of operationalizing such mandates, educators and psychologists have devoted substantial efforts toward reducing bias in standardized testing. From these efforts, a large literature on test validation and test bias has emerged (e.g., Berk, 1982;Cole, 1981;Geisinger, 1992;Messick, 1980;Olmeda, 1981). On the other hand, developmental psychologists have devoted less systematic efforts to defining a culturally sensitive research agenda and establishing guidelines for culturally sensitive assessments. In fact, researchers often believe that mere inclusion of children from diverse cultural backgrounds is suf-