discussion format for Nelson-Barber & Trumbull Article

Making Assessment Practices Valid for Indigenous American Students
Nelson-Barber, S. & Trumbull, E.

This article discusses ways in which educators can make assessment practices valid for the Indigenous American students.
I. Research; what it has shown:
a. Maintaining linguistic and cultural congruence between home and school
b. Educating students in their heritage language
c. Using local knowledge and culture in the curriculum
II. Implications for assessment
Why, if the above is true, is this not being applied to the realm of assessment? Are the standards that most of us use in our districts culturally relevant to our communities? In what way does NCLB effect implementation of culturally relevant curricula?
III. Incorporating “cultural validity” as a core concept in assessment
In your context, how does belonging to your sociocultural group relate to learning and doing? Do the current practices in assessment reflect that? In what ways can a developer or educator make a difference?
IV. Cultural Nature of Assessment
How is assessment part of a cultural process? Are the expectations of children at school culturally relevant? What are the expectations in your context? What works?
V. Sources of Cultural Biases in Assessment
In minimizing bias and increasing equity in the assessment of Native students what steps did the author mention in the reading? Name the sources of cultural bias, see Table 1 on page 138. Discussion on discussion board;
Group 1 (Sally, Emily, Quana) discuss and share: Turning to the Wisdom of Local Culture (p. 139).
Group 2 (Erin, Theresa, Joanne) discuss and share: Paying Particular attention to the language of testing (p. 140).
Group 3 (Mae, Carol, Marilee) discuss and share: Using cultural experts to score (p.141)

As I was working on putting this together, I was thinking about the many ways in which the students come to school with so much prior knowledge. Sometimes, I think what happens to the students is that they lose faith in learning, because the curriculum that is offered to them in their classrooms is foreign to them. It doesn't make sense to them.
In thinking about developing assessment for the students, I was thinking how difficult a task this would be. When developing assessments, I have learned that it takes more than one teacher to develop one. In the school that I'm at, the turn-over would effect this process.