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| Contentid | 200 |
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| Title | Five Strategies to Reduce Overrepresentation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Special Education |
| Body | http://www.cal.org/ericcll/faqs/rgos/special.html The above website is worth a visit. Lots of resources, articles, and other links related to English Language Learners with Special Needs. Below is one of the articles from the website. FROM: Anselmo Villanueva ============================================ ============================================ http://ericec.org/digests/e596.html Five Strategies to Reduce Overrepresentation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Special Education ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education (ERIC EC) The Council for Exceptional Children 1110 N. Glebe Road Arlington, VA 22201-5704 Toll Free: 1.800.328.0272 E-mail: ericec@cec.sped.org Internet: http://ericec.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ERIC/OSEP Digest #E596 Authors: Cynthia Warger and Jane Burnette August 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds comprise a large percentage of public school students. Diversity is increasing, and one of the most troublesome issues associated with its growth is the overrepresentation of minority children in special education-that is, more minority children are served in special education than we would expect based on their percentage in the general school population. In the 1960s, at the height of the Civil Rights movement, the issue of disproportionality of minority students in special education first received national attention. Since that time, researchers and practitioners have studied the issue in an effort to understand and explain how the processes used to identify, assess, and place students in special education programs may contribute to the overrepresentation of minority students. In addition, they are identifying processes that successfully prevent inappropriate placement and ensure that the opportunities for educational achievement offered to minority students equal those offered to the majority group. To this end, researchers Beth Harry and Janette Klingner, with support from the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), are investigating exemplary special education referral and decision making processes for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Although Harry and Klingner are in the early stages of their work, they are finding that professionals generally attribute overrepresentation to one of the following sources: family and community issues, external pressures in schools (e.g., mandated curriculum, high stakes assessments), classroom instruction and management, and teacher perceptions and attitudes. There is widespread recognition that supports provided to teachers and other professionals by the school district are essential to building the capacity of district personnel to work with students of different cultures and languages. This digest provides examples of strategies created by researchers and practitioners to address some of these issues. Promote Family Involvement and Respect Diverse Backgrounds Researchers continue to point to family involvement in the school and its operation as a major factor in improving student achievement. However, researchers also show that for successful collaborations to occur, school personnel must respect the cultural background of the family. Several years ago, the Highland Park School District in Michigan received support from OSEP to develop a demonstration model to prevent emotional disturbance and treat children with emotional disturbance in a culturally competent manner. Family involvement is a key component of the Highland Park approach. Throughout all aspects of the program, families are essential team members. They are key in identifying supports and designing implementation plans for the services they and their children receive. The success of the approach is based on an underlying belief that families are not the source of their |
| Source | ERIC: http://ericec.org/digests/e596.html |
| Inputdate | 2003-05-28 00:36:00 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2003-05-28 00:36:00 |
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