Curriculum-based English and Spanish vocabulary assessment: A culturally- and linguistically-fair response to culturally biased assessment

Tools to assess academic progress that are sensitive to cultural and linguistic differences are lacking in the fields of speech-language pathology and education. One specific area of need is the language assessment of native Spanish and bilingual Spanish-English speaking children. A possible solution is curriculum-based assessment because it focuses on the child's performance in relevant environments. The purpose of this study was to develop a curriculum-based vocabulary assessment task (CBA-V) in Spanish and English appropriate for 3- and 4-year-old children, evaluate the validity and reliability of the tasks, and compare them to standardized, norm-referenced vocabulary tests and language samples. The subjects in this study were fifteen 3-year-old and eighteen 4-year-old children attending Head Start. Seventy percent of the children were monolingual Spanish or bilingual Spanish/English. All children were administered the CBA-V tasks weekly for 15 weeks and standardized, norm-referenced vocabulary tests. Language samples were obtained for the 4-year-old children.; Results of this study showed that the 4-year-old's mean scores (level estimates) on the CBA-V tasks were significantly higher than the 3-year-olds in their dominant language (p {dollar}{dollar}.95). Correlation coefficients indicated that the CBA-V tasks were significantly correlated with standardized, norm-referenced vocabulary tests (p {dollar}<{dollar}.001) but not with language sample measures. The Spanish CBA-V task was also found to be sensitive to vocabulary growth for both age groups and the English CBA-V task for 4-year-olds.; The findings from this study indicated that the CBA-V tasks have potential for use in identifying preschool children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that are at-risk for or have vocabulary delays. The advantages of the CBA-V tasks over commonly used vocabulary tests include: (a) assessment of vocabulary relevant to the children's environment, (b) alternate forms which allow the repeated administration over time and familiarity with the evaluator, (c) ease of administration, and (d) the potential for use by teachers for systematic and objective student observation.