Intellectual assessment of language minority students: What do school psychologists believe are acceptable practices?

A survey was sent to 500 school psychologists in eight states to examine the acceptability of methods used to assess the cognitive ability of language minority students. Responses of 195 participants indicated that (a) the use of a bilingual school psychologist, and (b) the use of tests in English when a student is dominant in English were usually or always acceptable. Sometimes or usually acceptable were the use of nonverbal tests and foreign-normed tests. Administering tests in English when a student is dominant in another language, and using nonverbal tests that require oral instructions without the presence of an interpreter were considered to be never or rarely acceptable. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 599–603, 2003.