From Reports to Results: Associations Between Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge Items and Bilingual English–Spanish Assessment Performance for Bilingual Kindergarteners

PURPOSE: This study examined whether parents' and teachers' ratings on the Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge (ITALK) questionnaire align with bilingual students' language performance on the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA). Specifically, we investigated (a) within- and cross-language correlations between individual ITALK items and BESA subtest scores in English and Spanish and (b) interrater reliability between parent and teacher ratings of children's language knowledge across both languages. METHOD: = 5;8 [years;months]), including 243 typically developing children and 40 with developmental language disorder. We conducted correlation analyses separately by informant and language. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess reliability between parent and teacher ratings. RESULTS: Parent and teacher ITALK ratings showed weak-to-moderate positive within-language associations with corresponding BESA subtest scores in both English and Spanish. Cross-language correlations were generally weaker and often negative. Contrary to expectations, several items showed no meaningful association with BESA subtest scores. Parent-teacher agreement was poor to moderate within language. CONCLUSIONS: Parents' and teachers' ITALK ratings show meaningful, although variable, associations with bilingual children's direct language performance on the BESA. Negative cross-language and some unexpected nonsignificant associations underscore the influence of language context, rater proficiency, and domain-specific factors on rating accuracy. Findings support the ITALK's partial construct validity and highlight the complementary perspectives parents and teachers provide in bilingual assessment.