Culturally Appropriate Assessment

Books

Collected Wisdom: American Indian Education

This book tackles the issues of how cultural differences and real-world issues affect the education of American Indian students. It shares approaches that nearly 60 teachers have found that work well with American Indian students today as it describes the successes and challenges these students and teachers face when working together. It also acknowledges issues of historic oppression and its impact on contemporary Indian education.

Reclaiming Youth at Risk (Revised Edition)

This book integrates Native American philosophies into how to work with youth. The authors introduce the Circle of Courage and the four major components: belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. They describe what it means for any aspect of the circle to be broken and how to support students in reclaiming themselves as whole people within the community. Past scholars have used the Circle of Courage as a framework for assessing interventions with their students, as well as examining their own stories and educational journeys.

Teaching 21 Thinking Skills for the 21st Century: The MiCOSA Model

This book is one of the most cited resources by past scholars for understanding mediated learning and dynamic assessment with youth. The book details 21 essential critical thinking skills, using case examples from real classrooms to illustrate each skill. It is a great resource for not only deepening your understanding of the 21 thinking skills, but also for providing concrete strategies you can bring directly into your work with students.

Tools

Dynamic Assessment (DA) Tools

Dynamic Assessment uses both formal and informal tools to assess the learning assets and the factors that enhance the learning of a particular individual. It is closely linked with the mediation of learning, which is embedded within the intervention-based portion of the assessment. In contrast to standardized assessment tools, dynamic assessment responds to four unique questions about student achievement and learning: (a) assesses conditions under which student change occurs, resulting in improved student approaches to learning and problem-solving: (b) assesses the effect of using deliberate examiner-examinee interactions designed to support learning engagement; (c) produces information about how a student responds to specific supports when they are challenged by learning; and (d) it (can) draw on cultural assets of the student, making it more culturally responsive. School psychology students at SDSU learn a number of formal tools for DA in their third year of the program. Informal dynamic assessment can be done using cultural, home, or school contexts for learning. The articles linked above further illustrate dynamic assessment.

Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents

The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents has been used by past scholars to determine baseline data as a needs assessment when conducting resilience groups. The scales are administered individually to students, and they measure resilience across three scales. The Sense of Mastery Scale assesses optimism, self-efficacy, and adaptability; the Sense of Relatedness Scale assesses trust, support, comfort, and tolerance; and the Emotional Reactivity Scale assesses sensitivity, recovery, and impairment. Past scholars have created both individual and group goals that align to both the resiliency scales and the Circle of Courage. Scholars have also shared that they like this tool because many rating scales focus on determining deficits, while these scales place an emphasis on determining strengths. You can check out the paper copies of these assessments through the school psychology test office.

Videos

The Doctrine of Discovery: Unmasking the Domination Code

This one hour documentary is based on Steve Newcomb’s (Shawnee, Lenape) thirty years of research and is a collaborative effort with Dakota filmmaker and director Sheldon Wolfchild. It tells the history of Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) and the implications for Native people since then as the Supreme Court continues to use that ruling for major decisions today. It also explores colonizers’ belief that they had a biblical right to discover and dominate non-Christian land and how that formed the foundation of Christian domination around the world. Newcomb also wrote a book, Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery that explores these topics. While this resource is not a commentary on assessment or strategies for assessing youth, it is a great resource for building your own knowledge of the history of colonization which will in turn help you to understand culturally appropriate assessment.