Special Needs Children

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, when discussing the statistical reliability and validity of tests that attempt to identify students with special needs, Libby G. Cohen and Lauren Spencier believe that it is critical that the tests also take into accounts students' diverse cultural as well as academic idiosyncrasies and needs. The author points out that the textbook reminds the reader that merely adhering to the concepts of standard error of measurement and confidence intervals in creating such a 'reliable' norm does not automatically make a test a fair assessment in cultural terms. The paper stresses that the initial labeling of the student must not be a marker of the student's deficiency in a permanent fashion.

From the Paper:

"The question of the usefulness of assessment tests, as well as test scoring procedures is called into question by the evident racial and differences of many test components, however unintentional these potential sources of cultural bias may be. For example, a test that requires students to make use of vocabulary words only pertinent to certain areas of the country, whether rural or urban (a city child may have never seen a cow, or know that a cow and a bull are the same animal) might result in poorer assessment of that child than is warranted."

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