Cawthon Interviewed for Expert Q&A on Assessment of Deaf and Multilingual Learners
Large scale assessment of students is a foundational piece of state and federal policy. Yet deaf and disabled students and English learners often face evaluations that are not designed with the full range of test-takers in mind.
Educators and administrators who have questions about how to ensure assessments are accessible for all students can learn more in a recent Q & A session with Dr. Stephanie W. Cawthon for Advancing ALTELLA, which partners with policymakers, educational institutions and agencies, and other professionals to develop rigorous assessments for English learners with significant cognitive disabilities. Dr. Cawthon serves on their panel of national experts.
With her expertise in improving the accessibility, fairness, and accuracy of assessments, Dr. Cawthon’s mission is to give students an equitable chance to demonstrate their knowledge, while also providing educators and parents with important information to support decisions about learning and growth opportunities.
Key takeaways from Q&A
Language deprivation in the home can have a long term impact on language acquisition.
Young deaf students are very diverse in language modalities, amplification, identities, and access to social networks.
English proficiency is more than phonological awareness, and deaf students may acquire language at different rates across language domains.
Encourage students to develop self-advocacy strategies and have high expectations for their success.
Consider language deprivation
Inaccessible home language environments and language deprivation are critical issues for educators to consider, not only for assessment but for instruction. When thinking about whether a deaf student might be eligible for English language services and whether they may also have a disability, we encourage educators to examine home language access. The intake process for English learners almost always includes a home language survey. For deaf students, this requires additional consideration of access to both visual and auditory language input. Even if the school focuses on deafness as students’ primary disability, be sure not to overlook academic and cognitive challenges related to language deprivation in early childhood.
English may look (and sound) different for deaf students
English proficiency tests typically include four domains — reading, listening, speaking, and writing — and challenges for deaf youth cut across all four of them. There are several issues with assessment practices and educational services that attempt to compile a single test measuring multiple English language domains. For example, there are often many questions about administering a listening test to a deaf student. For students who do not have any access to sound, a listening test may be considered a hearing test that sets up a student for failure. However, some deaf people have a wide range of access to sound. Assistive listening devices, hearing aids, cochlear implants, visualizations, and lip-reading can help deaf populations listen to and process auditory information.
Metacognitive energy is exhausting
There is also a metacognitive aspect to listening — knowing if you’ve understood what is being communicated while at the same time crafting a response. When you do not have full access to the language modality, this metacognitive energy increases significantly. In the Q&A, Dr. Cawthon relayed her own physically and emotionally exhausting experiences being multilingual, using different skill sets and techniques to simultaneously read lips, ask questions, and fill in the blanks during a conversation to ensure she didn’t miss out on anything important. “As a hard of hearing person, I am using both my eyes and ears to listen in a voiced conversation. Our brains work much harder to turn our inferences into meaningful interactions with the help of visual cues,” she explains.
ASL translation is not necessarily the easy answer
A standard accommodation for deaf students who use American Sign Language (ASL) is to have the directions and test items translated into ASL. While it is tempting to suggest the same strategy for a test such as Advancing ALTELLA, this practice comes with several important considerations. A test in ASL would be more accessible for a student whose first language is ASL, but the construct being measured would be language and not specifically the English language. Dr. Cawthon reminded the audience that ASL is not merely a visual version of English. It is its own language with different grammatical structures and vocabulary that is often embedded within a cultural context. Another question that often arises is whether a translated or interpreted version of the test between ASL and English would be a possible alternative. Back translation of student responses in ASL, for example, would require a skilled interpreter that also is familiar with the student’s language.
Advice for supporting access for deaf students
Best practices in assessment are to have more than one source of information, rather than a single test. In looking at English language proficiency, particularly for deaf students, multiple assessments, sources, and accommodations aligned with instruction practices should be reviewed before making an inference about a student’s proficiency level. Dr. Cawthon also recommended that educators reach out to the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes, where she serves as Founding Director and Strategic Advisor, which works to disseminate resources and information to support the development and transition for deaf students, including English learners. Teens, especially, may benefit from resources that support the development of their own agency and self-determination, particularly in advocating for their own needs in instruction and assessment.