A Matter of Vocabulary II: Low-Income African American Children’s Performance on the Expressive Vocabulary Test

Abstract

The Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT) has recently been found culturally fair for an economically mixed sample of African American children, and others have argued that it is fairer for such participants than the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test— III (PPVT-III). In this study, the authors sought to replicate these findings with an exclusively low-income group in the southeastern United States and to analyze errors. An African American graduate student administered the EVT and the PPVT-III to 53 African American children ages 5 years 4 months to 12 years 3 months (kindergarten through fourth grade) receiving free lunch. Contrary to prior research, children performed significantly below the norm on both the EVT and the PPVT-III. Neither test seemed easier. An item analysis of 785 errors revealed that approximately 75% were strong associates of target words and/or accurate descriptions of EVT pictures. African American children from low-income backgrounds appear to interpret EVT instructions differently from the official instructions, which led to compromised performance.

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