Understanding Test Anxiety and the Multicultural Learner

Abstract

With the increasing enrollment of multicultural students in public schools, it is necessary to understand how to provide appropriate services to students from diverse backgrounds. Testing situations are also increasing with the addition of the No Child Left Behind Act. In order to accurately assess whether students are performing poorly due to not understanding the material or whether their poor performance is due to test anxiety, three different assessments show promise: The Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC), the Lie Scale for Children (LSC), and the Defensiveness Scale for Children (DSC). These assessments will help to determine the level of test anxiety and whether or not children are being defensive or lying when they take the TASC. If test anxiety exists in the classroom, the classroom teacher can provide treatment in conjunction with the school counselor. In this article, we discuss how to assess test anxiety and how to apply several cognitive-behavioral techniques for addressing it for more effective multicultural learning and teaching.