Current Practices in Multicultural Assessment by School Psychologists Eric J. López, Loretta Salas, Elsa Arroyos-Jurado & Kathleen Chinn Abstract:Conducting appropriate assessments that take into account multicultural issues is a cur- rent research topic in the field of counseling psychology. However, little, if any, research has been conducted on how practicing school psychologists deal with this issue. Pilot studies have indicated, in general, that multicultural issues were not considered. The current investigation, as part of a larger study, analyzed the responses of numerous members of a school psychology state association along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Vignettes were developed in which two studies were presented varying only in ethnic identity of the student having academic problems. Only one vignette is analyzed and presented in this paper. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Results 4. Discussion Acknowledgments Appendices References Authors Citation 1. Introduction Best practices in school psychology (ORTIZ & FLANNIGAN, 2002), ethics (AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 1993), and federal law (i.e., Individual with Disabilities Education Act; TURNBULL, TURNBULL, SHANK, SMITH, & LEAL, 1999) indicate that when conducting evaluations for students being considered for Special Education (extra services offered to students who have learning disability, speech and language impairment, or emotional disturbance, etc.), a nondiscriminatory assessment must be conducted. Nondiscriminatory assessment entails that the practitioner is assessing for multicultural issues that could be impacting the functioning of students being referred for testing (LUIS A. VÁZQUEZ, personal communication, May 2004; LÓPEZ, 2003; ORTIZ, 2000). Yet, predictions indicate that approximately five million individuals are misdiagnosed a year due to multicultural issues not being taken into account during such evaluations (PADILLA, 2001). [1] As indicated by VÁZQUEZ (1997), obtaining cultural competency implies being aware of yourself and your biases as well as understanding and applying the constructs of world view, ethnic identity, and acculturation as they relate to the self and student/client. Along with this are issues of acculturative stress © 2004 FQS http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/ Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research (ISSN 1438-5627) Volume 5, No. 3, Art. 23 September 2004 Key words: multicultural, school psychology, qualit- ative research FORUM: QUALITATIVE SOCIAL RESEARCH SOZIALFORSCHUNG