Editor's Comments: The Importance of Culture for Improving Assessment and Pedagogy

Abstract

What does in the context of culture and mean in an operational sense? How does its meaning differ from what is typically understood when we say assessment? After all, it is generally accepted that school assessment results reflect what children have been taught and are thus influenced by pedagogy. Further, the concept that a child's social class and cultural background are factors in test performance has been regularly demonstrated since the early work of Allison Davis (1948) to the most recent report of college admission test scores (The College Board,1998). A model developed by Johnson (1979, 1984) illustrates the many aspects of tests, test takers, and test-taking settings that may influence test scores. At one time, assessment and testing were viewed as pristine processes based on classical true-score models. Later they were based on item-response theory (IRT) models. In either case, a given measure was seen as measuring the same construct in the same manner, regardless of the population characteristics or the academic experiences of the learners. Currently, most responsible approaches to assessment recognize the vital importance of both the cultural characteristics and educational experiences of students to the understanding of the ways in which students interact with assessment situations and the meaning of the products obtained from assessments. Assessment results are no longer seen as existing in a vacuum. Instead, they are recognized as a function of a set of culturally based and academically related prior experiences. Yet much of what happens in testing development, assessment, scoring, and interpretation proceeds as if the importance of culture to pedagogy was not known. There is a clear need to move educational assessment practice so that it better reflects the diverse cultures of students and contributes more substantially to meeting the educational needs of various groups. Viewing assessment in the context of culture and pedagogy implies an even broader range of cumulative reciprocal and interactive effects between these three major components. It also holds important implications and opportunities for teachers, teacher educators, parents, and students. Attention to the background factors influencing the assets children bring to school can assist in advancing learning. Boykin (1997) contends that poor children of color bring many strengths that can be built upon in the educational setting. Moreover, LadsonBillings (1995) has maintained that pedagogy that is responsive to cultural strengths motivates and engages children to perform better in school. When it is sustained, this type of culturally responsive pedagogy leads to higher achievement and better performance in assessment settings (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Lee, 1992) . If prospective teachers can be shown how to engage students' cultural strengths while they are still in teacher education programs, as new teachers they will be off to a better start in addressing the needs of the increasingly diverse populations of students they will be asked to serve, and the large outward flow of early career teachers may be stemmed. The downside of the relationship between assessment, pedagogy, and culture is that schools that serve low-income communities and children of color tend to get teachers with less grounding in their subject matter, fewer years of teaching experience, and weaker pedagogical skills. Moreover, the circumstances under which these teachers are often forced to teach may further limit the extent to which their instruction is effective. These negative effects are likely to be sustained and cumulative, often resulting in teachers who put in minimum time and expect (and get) little from their students as well as students who are increasingly alienated. …