ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter to the edited volume begins with a brief explanation of the context, purpose, and intended audience of the volume. The editors then provide a historical overview and background on the term “culturally responsive assessment” and trace the development of ideas in this area from the early 1940s to today. The need for this edited volume is described along with how this edited volume presents a state of the field at this moment in time. The editors also describe how they approached definitional issues related to the plethora of terms used in the field at present to describe culturally responsive assessment. The introduction concludes with an overview of contributions from the chapters in this volume and an explanation of how the three parts of this volume relate to one another and yet provide unique insight into how human diversity shapes assessment’s theoretical foundations and concepts, shapes large-scale assessment, and shapes classroom assessment.
