Entry Testing and the Overrepresentation of Romani ... - UR Research

R38PITFALLS AND BIASand had to repeat the fourth grade. During the next school year he was bullied and teased for having gone to a“special school,” and his mother eventually transferred him to a primary school attended almost exclusively byRomani children. There is no legal mechanism or procedure for re-assessing pupils to determine if their placementshould be reconsidered or changed. Only if there is a “significant change in special educational needs,” which isleft undefined, will there be a reassessment or review of a pupil’s placement (Decree 73/2005 §9.3) and this reexaminationmust be requested by the child’s parent or legal guardian.TESTS USED FOR ASSESSING SCHOOL READINESS AND ABILITYThe methods of assessment by which Romani pupils were placed into special schools was one of the considerationsof the European Court of Human Rights in their judgment against the Czech Republic in the case of D.H. andOthers v. Czech Republic. The decision cited observations by the International Step by Step Association, the RomaEducation Fund, and the European Early Childhood Research Association, and concluded that language and culture,prior learning experiences, or lack of familiarity with testing situations were not considered in the assessmentof Romani children in this case. The court also cited the fact that “[t]esting was done in a single administration,not over time. Evidence was not obtained in realistic or authentic settings where children could demonstratetheir skills. Undue emphasis was placed on individually administered, standardized tests normed on other populations”(paragraph 44). An example of the bias that is inherent in psychological tests, of not taking into account theways that children experience the world, is recounted by Bedard (2008, 30) where a psychologist asked a Romanigirl where her mother goes to buy bread and the girl replied, “To the Vietnamese guy’s place.” Even though theowner of the bakery where her mother shopped was in fact Vietnamese, the psychologist told the mother thatthe answer was incorrect, that she should have replied, “To the bakery.” Bedard (2008) also provides anecdotalevidence that psychological examinations of Romani children tend to last between 15-30 minutes, far less thanthe time it would take to conduct a thorough examination, collecting multiple data points through observations,interviews, and family histories in making a determination of disability status or a recommendation of placementto special schools.In an report commissioned by the government on the analysis of diagnostic tools used with children from sociallydisadvantaged backgrounds, including Romani children, Valenta and colleagues (2009) quote the Report of theGovernment on General Measures Exercising the Judgments of the ECHR (Government Resolution No. 303 of 16 March2006), where the government states that it will take corrective measures and conduct an analysis of assessmentsused to diagnose intellectual ability of children that are used by Educational and Psychological Counseling andSpecial Educational Centers. Thus, the study was charged with collecting data on the validity of the assessmentswith Romani children who are at risk of being or who are socially excluded, including the methods by whichpsychological and counseling workers test children from diverse backgrounds and factors that can influence thetest results, with the goal of improving the quality and cultural relevance of diagnostic tools and the interpretations