ABSTRACT
During the first half of this century, the inappropriate use of psychological tests with linguistic and cultural minority students has served both to reinforce educators’ misconceptions about the detrimental consequences of bilingualism and to justify the active eradication of students’ first language (LI) in the school context (see Cummins 1983; Mercer 1973). In recent years there has been a greater awareness among educators in Western countries of the more obvious pitfalls associated with psychological testing of minority students. In the United States, for example, court litigation during the 1970s highlighted the discriminatory use of IQ tests to label disproportionate numbers of minority students as ‘mentally retarded’ and resulted in the adoption of assessment and placement procedures which attempt to take into account minority students’ cultural and linguistic background. However, actual implementation of nondiscriminatory procedures has been slow as a result of both practical difficulties (e.g. lack of appropriate instruments and personnel) and conceptual confusion about many of the issues (e.g. what is a ‘learning disability’?).
