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We investigated relative clause (RC) comprehension in 44 Russian-speaking children with typical language (TD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) (M age = 10;67, SD = 2.84) and 22 adults. Flexible word order and morphological case in Russian allowed us to isolate factors that are obscured in English, helping us to identify sources of syntactic complexity and evaluate their roles in RC comprehension by children with typical language and their peers with DLD. We administered a working memory and an RC comprehension (picture-choice) task, which contained subject- and object-gap center-embedded and right-branching RCs. The TD group, but not adults, demonstrated the effects of gap, embedding, and case. Their lower accuracy relative to adults was not fully attributable to differences in working memory. The DLD group displayed lower than TD children overall accuracy, accounted for by their lower working memory scores. While the effect of gap and embedding on their performance was not different from what was found for the TD group, children with DLD exhibited a diminished effect of case, suggesting reduced sensitivity to morphological case markers as processing cues. The implications of these results to theories of syntactic complexity and core deficits in DLD are discussed.

This meta-analysis reviews 79 studies (N = 46,605) that examined the existence of gender difference on intelligence in school-aged children. To do so, we limited the literature search to works that assessed the construct of intelligence through the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC) batteries, evaluating eventual gender differences in indices and subtests. The theoretical framework we adopted is the cross-battery approach which locates cognitive abilities into different levels, also considering the possible mediating effect of the version of the WISC being used. As for broad abilities, a notable discrepancy emerged in favour of males for visual and crystallized intelligence, while female/male differences on fluid intelligence were negligible. Conversely, females’ performance on the processing speed factor was superior. Interesting results emerged at the subtest levels, albeit with less pronounced differences in performance. Results generally showed that older versions of WISC batteries displayed larger gender differences compared to the most recent ones.

Visuo-spatial reasoning tests, such as Raven's matrices, Cattell's culture-fair test, or various subtests of the Wechsler scales, are frequently used to estimate intelligence scores in the context of inter-racial comparisons. This has led to several high-profile works claiming that certain ethnic groups have lower intelligence than others, presumably due to genetic inferiority. This logic is predicated on the assumption that such visuo-spatial tests, because they are non-verbal, must be culture-fair: that their solution process does not significantly draw on factors that vary from one culture to the next. This assumption of culture-fairness is dubious at best and has been questioned by many authors. In this article, I review the substantial body of psychological and ethnographic literature which has demonstrated that the perception, manipulation and conceptualization of visuo-spatial information differs significantly across cultures, in a way that is relevant to intelligence tests. I then outline a model of how these inter-cultural differences can affect seven major steps of the solution process for Raven's matrices, with a brief discussion of other visuo-spatial reasoning tests. Overall, a number of cultural assumptions appear to be deeply ingrained in all visuo-spatial reasoning tests, to the extent that it disqualifies the view of such tests as intrinsically culture-fair and makes it impossible to draw clear-cut conclusions from average score differences between ethnic groups.

In this experimental study, 20 multiple-choice test items from the Massachusetts Grade 5 science test were linguistically simplified, and original and simplified test items were administered to 310 English learners (ELs) and 1,580 non-ELs in four Massachusetts school districts. This study tested the hypothesis that specific linguistic features of test items contributed to construct-irrelevant variance in science test scores of ELs. Simplifications targeted specific linguistic features, to identify those features with the largest impacts on ELs’ test performance. Of all the linguistic simplifications used in this study, adding visual representations to answer choices had the largest positive effect on ELs’ performance. These findings have significant implications for the design of multiple-choice test items that are fair and valid for ELs.

Selection of students for places at universities mainly depends on GCSE grades and predictions of A-level grades, both of which tend to favour applicants from independent schools. We have therefore developed a new type of test that would measure candidates' 'deep learning' approach since this assesses the motivation and creative thinking that we look for in university students. We recruited 526 applicants to Oxford University and gave them a short commentary test and a learning style questionnaire. Specific deep learning approach questions correlated with results in the new test, and both predicted whether the candidate subsequently obtained a place at Oxford. Furthermore high scores on one open-ended commentary question, demanding arguments in favour of a case, produced a greater than 70% chance of obtaining a first class degree at the end of their course irrespective of the candidates' type of school attended or GCSE scores. Candidates from State schools scored as well as those from Independent schools in both tests. Thus our test seemed to index candidates' potential to succeed at a highly selective university, and might usefully be added to current selection procedures for such universities.

The literature indicates that the effects of sources of demographic biases on fairness in classroom assessment (CA) are under-researched in the Iranian higher education context. Hence, this study aims to explore the Iranian university teachers’ perceptions of the effects of demographic biases (e.g., gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic (SES)) on their assessment fairness. With this aim, fifteen university teachers were selected using a criterion sampling method at Ayatollah Borujerdi University, Iran. To gather the required data, a reflective written statement was completed by the participants. The participants’ responses were translated verbatim into English and subjected to a standard thematic coding analysis. Findings yielded three recurring themes: ‘gender bias is prevalent in assessment practices’, ethnicity bias affects adversely assessment practices, and ‘SES bias jeopardizes fairness in assessment practices’. The results evidenced that gender, ethnicity, and SES biases can act as a major source of score pollution in CA. This study ends with proposing a range of implications for different testing stakeholders.

Although the Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ) and the Generalized Tracking Questionnaire (GTQ) were created to enhance empirical analyses of rule-governed behavior, more cross-cultural research with these instruments is warranted to examine their validity. Therefore, the current study aimed to replicate previous research with a group of undergraduate students in the United States (N = 325). Overall outcomes from the current study replicated those previously reported indicating that pliance and tracking may be similar across different cultural contexts.

Utilizing a complex theory of teacher learning and practice, this chapter analyzes ~120 empirical studies of content teacher development (both preservice and inservice) for working with multilingual learners as well as research on content teaching for multilingual students. Our analysis identified three dimensions of quality content teaching for multilingual learners that are complex and intricately connected: context, orientations, and pedagogy. This chapter explores the results of our literature analysis and argues for improving content teaching for multilingual students through improved theoretically grounded research that embraces, exphres, and accounts for the expansive complexities inherent in teacher learning and practice.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of standardized assessments of expressive grammar and vocabulary in a sample of preschool-age dual language learners (DLLs) who use Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Adult models from the same linguistic community as these children were used to inform culturally and linguistically appropriate interpretation of children's responses to a standardized assessment. Method: JC-English-speaking preschoolers (n = 176) and adults (n = 33) completed the Word Structure and Expressive Vocabulary subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool--Second Edition. Adults' responses were used to develop an adapted scoring procedure that considered the influence of JC linguistic features on responses. DLLs' responses scored using the standard English and adapted JC procedures were compared. Results: JC-English DLLs and adults used similar linguistic structures in response to subtest questions. DLLs' scores differed significantly from the standardized sample on both subtests. Preschoolers received higher raw and corresponding standard scores with adapted scoring compared to standard scoring. Adapted scoring that made use of adult models yielded high classification accuracy at a rate of 93.8% for Word Structure and 92.1% for Expressive Vocabulary. Conclusions: Adapting standardized assessment scoring procedures using adult models may offer an ecologically valid approach to working with DLL preschoolers that can support a more accurate assessment of language functioning. These findings suggest that the use of standardized assessments for bilingual JC-English speakers requires a culturally responsive approach.

Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) has been proposed as a culturally and linguistically fair measure of children's language abilities that is useful for the identification of specific language impairment (SLI). However, Moyle, Heilmann, and Finneran (2014) suggested that the density of a child's nonmainstream forms also influences NWR in ways that could complicate its use. Using speakers of either African American English (AAE) or Southern White English (SWE), we asked if NWR performance differed in children with SLI and same dialect-speaking typically developing (TD) children and if nonmainstream form density impacted their scores. Method: The participants were 106 kindergartners (AAE: SLI n = 35; TD n = 35; SWE: SLI n = 18; TD n = 18; groups matched for age and IQ) who performed the NWR task of Dollaghan and Campbell (1998). Nonmainstream form density measures were gathered from listener judgments of conversational samples. Results: NWR performance differed between those with and without SLI, but the difference was smaller in AAE than in SWE, especially at the longest syllable length. Nonmainstream form density was found to further explain NWR performance beyond the children's SLI status for AAE speakers; density and SLI status were confounded for the SWE speakers, making it harder to disentangle the effects of each in that dialect. Conclusions: Results indicate the NWR may differ in diagnostic utility between speakers of different dialects. Results also support Moyle et al.'s (2014) finding that density affects NWR. Thus, NWR is more sensitive to dialectal differences than originally assumed.