extended · article · 2025

Cultural sensitivity of early childhood assessments based on learning progressions: a Rasch person fit analysis

Joshua Sussman; Karen Draney; Mark Wilson; George Engelhard Jr.

Abstract This study investigated concerns about potential racial/ethnic bias in the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a widely used observational assessment in early childhood education (ECE). Specifically, we examined whether the learning progressions (LPs) underlying the DRDP items exhibit differential applicability to children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families—comparing groups of children identified as Latino/a, Black, or White. Using Rasch person fit analyses with a large public preschool sample ( N = 80,058), we tested the hypothesis that greater positive misfit for Latino/a and Black children would indicate bias. Contrary to this hypothesis, our findings revealed comparable person fit distributions across the three racial/ethnic groups, suggesting no evidence of racial/ethnic bias in the DRDP. Additionally, the study identified key trends, includ...