I'm using a <xsl:param> element globally to dynamically sort based on
elements. This is working well, the problem is along with the sort by
element I alos have other params to identify the data-type and order
attributes of <xsl:sort> the params I'm using for those don't seem to be
getting passed as everything comes ascending, the sort by element is passing
just fine, but the order and data-type aren't...any advice.

    <xsl:sort select="*[name()=$sortby]" data-type="$sortdatatype"
order="$sortorder"/>

The attributes data-type and order are string values which take AVTs.
You can't supply a XPath expression directly, use
 <xsl:sort select="*[name()=$sortby]" data-type="{$sortdatatype}"
   order="{$sortorder}"/>
instead.