Concurrent Development of Dual Language Assessments: An Alternative to Translating Tests for Linguistic Minorities

This article describes a model for the concurrent development of assessments in two language versions, as an approach intended to promote more equitable testing. The model is offered as an alternative to the traditional approach of translating tests originally created for a mainstream population of native English speakers. We contend that serious theoretical, methodological, and practical limitations of test translation result from two facts. First, simple translation procedures are not entirely sensitive to the fact that culture is a phenomenon that cannot be dissociated from language. Second, student performance is extremely sensitive to wording, and the wording used in the translated version of an assessment does not undergo the same process of refinement as the wording used in the assessment written in the original language. We report how we used our model to develop mathematics exercises in a school district with a high enrollment of English language learners (ELLs). Seven bilingual teachers from that school district were trained to use the model and developed the English and Spanish versions of the same sets of items. We provide evidence that the model allows assessment developers to give deeper consideration to culture as part of their discussion throughout the entire process of assessment development.