THE REAL WORK OF ASSESSMENT: EQUITY-CENTERED SENSEMAKING IN DUAL LANGUAGE LEADERSHIP

This mixed-methods study investigates how multilingual learners’ reading development is positioned under competing normative reference systems and how educational leaders interpret and act upon those representations within accountability-driven contexts. Grounded in Quantitative Critical Race Theory, the Biliteracy Trajectories framework, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, and translanguaging perspectives, the study examines how normative benchmarking structures shape statistical representation and institutional meaning-making in dual language education.The quantitative phase analyzes 101,929 assessment events from 9,573 multilingual learners in Grades 2 through 6 across 12 districts using hierarchical linear modeling. Findings demonstrate that multilingual learners’ percentile positioning and modeled growth trajectories differ substantially depending on whether performance is interpreted through monolingual or biliteracy-aligned norming frameworks. Under monolingual norms, lower initial positioning and cross-language divergence are amplified; under biliteracy-aligned norms, trajectories appear more parallel and developmentally coherent. These results indicate that normative reference systems actively structure statistical representation rather than serving as neutral reflections of student performance. The qualitative phase, consisting of focus groups and interviews with school and district leaders, examines how administrators make sense of assessment data within dual language programs. Leaders demonstrated consistent equity-oriented interpretation across languages, yet operated within institutional contexts where state accountability systems and monolingual reporting structures constrained structural redesign. Equity commitments were most often translated into advocacy, narrative reframing, and sustained relational labor rather than formal modification of assessment infrastructures. This study contributes to bilingual education leadership and assessment scholarship by empirically applying and conceptually extending the Biliteracy Trajectories framework and by developing and specifying the R.E.A.L. Sensemaking Model. It clarifies how competing normative reference systems are interpreted and institutionalized within leadership contexts and identifies the institutional conditions under which equity-centered interpretation becomes durable within accountability systems.

Author dc:creator

• Chavez-Linville, Doris

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Flores, Nelson

• Education
• Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/62927

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.upenn.edu:20.500.14332/62927