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Abstract
Culturally-relevant assessment materials include content and strategies that prioritize the ways that students of color demonstrate competence. These materials have been shown to improve academic and assessment outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study applies a diagnostic classification model (DCM) to investigate the impact of culturally-relevant assessment materials on Black students’ reading comprehension scores. Firstly, I conducted a simulation study examining three methods of incorporating a covariate into a DCM. Results indicate that the simultaneous inclusion of covariates in DCM estimation yields higher accuracy and reliability than post-hoc methods. Secondly, I conducted an empirical analysis to explore the impact of Black examinees’ prior reading level and cultural knowledge on their mastery classifications for reading. Results of the empirical analysis suggest that average-level readers with high prior knowledge of African-American culture have a higher chance of being masters on African-American texts than they do on other cultural texts.