ERIC Number: EJ1321195
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Dec
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1086-296X
EISSN: N/A
Always at the Bottom: Ideologies in Assessment of Emergent Bilinguals
Journal of Literacy Research, v53 n4 p468-490 Dec 2021
Recent scholarship has identified how the reading assessment process can be improved by adapting to and accounting for emergent bilinguals' multilingual resources. While this work provides guidance about how teachers can take this approach within their assessment practices, this article strengthens and builds on this scholarship by combining translanguaging and raciolinguistic lenses to examine the ideologies that circulate through assessment. By comparing interview data from English as a new language and dual-language bilingual teachers, we found that while reading assessments fail to capture the complexity of all emergent bilinguals' reading abilities, they particularly marginalize emergent bilinguals of color. Thus, we expose the myths of neutrality and validity around reading assessment and demonstrate how they are linked to ideologies about race and language. We offer a critical translingual approach to professional learning that encourages teachers to grapple with these ideologies and shift toward a more critical implementation of reading assessments.
Descriptors: Ideology, Student Evaluation, Reading Tests, Bilingual Students, Multilingualism, Reading Ability, Test Bias, Misconceptions, Language Usage, Formative Evaluation, Elementary School Students, Elementary School Teachers
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A

Peer reviewed
Direct link
