Bilingual Special Education Evaluation Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Individuals Using Woodcock Tests

BILINGUAL SPECIAL EDUCATION EVALUATION OF CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE INDIVIDUALS
USING WOODCOCK TESTS

Criselda Guajardo Alvarado


Psycho-education evaluation of culturally and linguistically diverse students is a complex and often confusing undertaking that can intimidate even the most experienced evaluation professional. Until recent years a standardized bilingualevaluation was not possible because of a lack of test instruments in languages other than English. Within the last two decades however, more and more test batteries in other languages, especially Spanish, have been developed. These new test instruments have been warmly welcomed by professionals in the field hopeful that the advent of these tests will prove useful in conducting an appropriate andequitable evaluation of culturally and linguistically diverse students. The Woodcock tests include batteries in several languages and currently lead the field in bilingual psycho-educational evaluations. This document provides information examiners may need in order to conduct a bilingual evaluation and to help clarify some assessment issues related to the culturally and linguistically diversepopulation. Although this document focuses on evaluation issues of students bilingual in English and Spanish, a considerable amount of the information applies to students bilingual in English and other languages. The topics addressed are:
• general function and age range of the various English and Spanish Woodcock tests,
• special features in the English and Spanish cognitive batteries fortesting individuals from bilingual backgrounds,
• special feature in the English and Spanish cognitive batteries for testing individuals with language deficiencies or language disabilities,
• interpretation considerations of test results for culturally and linguistically diverse students,
• co-normed and equated test batteries as they relate to culturally and linguisticallydiverse populations,
• fine points in assessing oral language proficiency and determining language dominance,
• discussion of the four basic steps in a bilingual psycho-educational evaluation, and
• bilingual cross-battery testing using Woodcock tests.




Woodcock Tests
The Woodcock tests provide a variety of assessment measures that can be utilized in bilingualevaluations. For appropriate selection of tests and their efficient use, the evaluation professional should be familiar with the available tests and their general function, language(s) of the test, age range, and assessment features specific for testing individuals from bilingual backgrounds. Table 1 lists the English and Spanish tests and provides some basic information for each test.

Table 1Woodcock Tests
| |Parallel Spanish Test |General Function |Age Range |Assessment Features for |
|English Test | | | |Bilingual Testing |
| |Batería III Woodcock-Muñoz®|Assesses seven cognitive |2 to adulthood, university and|Spanish equated to English |
|Woodcock-Johnson® III Tests of |Pruebas de habilidades |factors, several clinical |college |allows direct comparisons |
|Cognitive Ability |cognitivas (Batería® III COG) |factors, and general | |between languages|
|(WJ® III COG) | |intellectual ability | |Includes a measure of |
| | | | |Bilingual Verbal Ability |
| | |...