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S3.8.2 Adapting Tests for Different Cultures

The purpose of this symposium is to describe methods for adapting tests created in one language or culture so they are valid and reliable assessments of children who speak a different language and are from a different culture. Many tests have been developed in the United States, and are often simply translated and administered. Then, norms are established. Appropriate and valid adaptation involves a longer and more comprehensive process. A committee of experts representing The International Test Commission (ITC, 2016) has established 18 guidelines for adapting tests, including assessing pre-existing conditions, test development, confirmation, administration, scoring scales and interpretation, and documentation. These guidelines will be presented briefly to guide discussions of the methods used by the researchers and the discussions that will be encouraged after all the presentations.

Researchers who have translated and adapted assessments developed in the USA to make them appropriate for use in Gulf Coast countries in the Arabic language will describe the processes they used to translate and adapt three assessments, two performance-based, criterion-referenced assessments and one norm-referenced assessment. Researchers will discuss how their procedures were similar to and different from the ITC guidelines, and if different, will explain their reasons and the results.

When adapting the performance assessments, observers were trained in the process developed in the USA. Then in one adaptation, approximately 120 Arabic-speaking children from three elementary schools were assessed, and in the second adaptation, the assessment was field tested in the USA with 120 children in both a private school for gifted students and then in the UAE with approximately 900 children in public and private schools in every emirate. When adapting the norm-referenced assessment (the Profile of Creative Abilities [PCA]) was administered to 990 high-achieving male (506) and female (484) students from grades 1 to 10 in five governorates in Oman.

In all three cases, iterative procedures were used for translating, piloting, and modifying instructions, materials and/or items. Teams of professionals familiar with Arab culture and native speakers of Arabic translated test instructions and items. The Arabic version was then back translated. Bilingual experts in the assessment reviewed the Arabic and English versions of the tests and made additional changes as needed to ensure that the language was natural.

International Test Commission. (2016). The ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second edition). [www.InTestCom.org]

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