Ensure your assessment’s psychometric integrity doesn’t get lost in translation.
Any translation company can translate, but there are few translation companies equipped to preserve the psychometric properties of your high-stakes assessments in translation. That’s why companies like NWEA, Edmentum, Pearson and Multi-Health Systems trust Responsive Translation to help achieve fair results for their test takers.
Opening up your high-stakes assessments to new linguistic and cultural audiences requires outcomes that are fair, reliable, valid and defensible. We know how to make that happen.
Every day Responsive Translation delivers high-stakes translations and adaptations that are conceptually, semantically and pragmatically equivalent to the original assessment, as well as appropriate, relevant and meaningful to the target audience. We ensure compliance with internationally-recognized testing standards.
All of our assessment work is based on the International Testing Commission’s "ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests" as well as translation best practices. This includes making sure that the adaptation process considers linguistic, psychological and cultural differences in the intended populations through the choice of team members and experts with relevant expertise.
We know that one size does not fit all. Responsive Translation works with our clients to create customized workflows and quality assurance processes based on each client’s specific requirements, psychometric goals and the needs of each audience.
As one example, we may recommend the inclusion of a TAR review step to help establish whether each test item will translate well, can be adequately adapted or should be rejected for unsuitability. A TAR review considers issues such as conceptual ambiguity, linguistic equivalence, differing comprehension levels and unacceptable cultural contexts.
Another example is the choice of validation method. We may recommend methods such as subject matter expert review and validation, in-country review, third-party review, client review or pilots/focus groups depending on a variety of factors, including target audience, desired timeline, regulatory requirements, budget and the client’s desired level of involvement.
For one educational assessment we did, Spanish-language instructional experts went through each source item to search for conceptual ambiguity in the source and target languages, flag potential regionalisms and other terms where comprehension levels might differ between an English word and its Spanish translation. Reviewers were also on the lookout for cultural adaptation when English concepts would not work in a Spanish cultural context. After items were scored, the successful ones were then selected for translation and adaptation.
After translation teams worked their magic, the translations were then reviewed again to see if they met linguistic standards for equivalence. For such a process, which relied on the professional judgment of individuals, iteration was key. Multiple reviews, accompanied by detailed rationale, were essential to the process as team members and validators came to a consensus on each question. In addition to the linguistic review, item selection criteria also included alignment with CCSS and Texas standards, suitability for the target grade, standalone status and a no-permissions requirement.
Responsive Translation can help you maintain the psychometric integrity of your high-stakes assessments in translation. To learn more, please get in touch at [email protected] or 1-800-872-6752 (+1-212-818-1102 outside the US).