Effect of Format and Language on the Test Scores of Bilinguals - Are the test scores obtained by bilinguals comparable to the test scores of U.S. stud

As American colleges become more diverse, cultural §differences among students raise important concerns §about large scale assessment of students whose §primary language is not English. Are the scores §obtained by these students comparable to the scores §of U.S. students for whom the assessments are §designed? Score comparability ensures that the §meaning and interpretation of test scores are the §same for all groups of students. The purpose of the §present study was to examine the effects of lingual §background and item format on the test performance §of bilinguals. Contrary to what was expected, format §and lingual background did not collectively affect §the performance of bilinguals on the construction §items to a larger extent than on multiple-choice §items. The majority (88%) of the bilinguals used in §this study were students born and schooled in Puerto §Rico, where the constructed-response format is §traditionally used to test students throughout their §schooling. This study confirmed the findings of §Cooley & Leinhart (as cited in O Leary, 2001) and §O Leary (2001), that frequent exposure to a test §format will make a difference to performance.