ABSTRACT
One of the more protracted struggles surrounding bilingual/bicultural education in the United States centers on program evaluation. Many researchers have documented the inappropriateness of standardized testing as a measure of program and student “success” (see, e.g., Cummins, 1984, 1989; Deyhle, 1986; Edelsky, 1991; Gipps, 1999; Lessow-Hurley, 2000; Stefanakis, 1998; Troike, 1984; Valdés & Figueroa, 1994). Researchers also have shown the assumptions of neutrality and objectivity attached to such tests to be both fallacious and pernicious. Yet the pressures for standardization continue, fueled by political expediency, public complicity and naiveté, and expositions on the alleged inheritability of intelligence (see, e.g., Hernstein & Murray, 1994; Rushton, 1999).
