Reframing Standardized Assessments for Child African American English Speakers

This study reviews the sociocultural, linguistic, and historical foundations of standardized testing with African American children who speak African American English. Challenges associated with the use of traditional models of assessment that rely heavily on the use of standardized assessments have contributed to persisting disproportionalities in speech-language clinical and eligibility decisions. Advantages of using alternative assessment frameworks that rely less on standardized tests and more on the contextualization of the individual child, taking relevant sociocultural influences into account, are proposed.