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Abstract

The number of multilingual/bilingual students has increased across schools in the United States. Assessment in both the native language and English is considered the standard for evaluating bilingual children referred for language testing. Conceptual Scoring is an evaluation approach for bilingual students that considers the students’ responses in both languages to obtain an overall language score; however, there is variability among practitioners on best practices for multilingual assessment.

Purpose: The current study (a) sought to explore the decision-making process of bilingual SLPs when evaluating bilingual students, (b) to gain a deeper understanding of how bilingual SLPs incorporate conceptual scoring in the evaluation process, and (c) to explore what areas are considered strengths and challenges.

Methods: Participants included eight English-Spanish bilingual SLPs from a single school district. The researcher included the following data collection instruments: an online questionnaire, archival data review, and individual interviews.

Results: Data analysis indicated the following essential components when conducting bilingual evaluations (a) a comprehensive teacher evaluation of the student’s classroom performance, (b) the collection of a case history, (c) formal or informal language proficiency testing, (d) formal or informal language testing in the dominant language, (e) re-prompting or testing in the less dominant language, and (f) supplemental testing (i.e., language samples).

Implications: Three primary themes emerged as follows (a) conceptual scoring helps create a clearer picture of the student, (b) conceptual scoring promotes self-confidence in the student, and (c) conceptual scoring is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Further research could explore bilingual evaluation procedures and the use of conceptual scoring by other school districts.

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