How Can LEA's Ensure That Evaluation Materials and Procedures Used to Assess Racially and Culturally Diverse Children Are Appropriate?

According to Parents Rights in Special Education (Procedural Safeguards) distributed by South Carolina's Office of Exceptional Children at the State Department of Education, it is important that professionals conducting evaluations be aware of the potential bias that exists in all areas of assessment and seek to choose techniques and tools that reduce bias to the largest extent possible. This may involve being more aware of the growing body of research literature on this topic, developing a deeper understanding of the cultural and linguistic diversity represented in the district, purchasing evaluation materials that have been developed to reduce bias, and utilizing trained bilingual examiners. Further, professionals conducting the evaluation must document the extent that an assessment was not conducted under standard conditions (e.g., giving a standardized test in a language other than the one it was originally developed for). Teams should carefully consider the presence of bias and interpret the results of that evaluation accordingly.