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Consider Culture Before Referral of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students for Special Education Services

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Consider Culture Before Referral of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students for Special Education Services

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Important cultural factors that affect teaching and learning need to be examined, for culture may be more influential than language in obtaining educational achievement.

In interpreting student behaviors, teachers must look at the three cultures in the classroom:

1) the culture of the student (i.e., values and beliefs students bring to the classroom)

2) the culture of the school (i.e., existing values, expectations and practices)

3) the resulting culture in the classroom (i.e., students’ practices intersecting with school practices)

Students must learn the language of instruction and the content at the same time, as well as learn to participate in the classroom community. As a result, academic competence may be compromised by students need to develop social competence

Transformation occurs when students and teachers cultural assets are combined in a community of learners. Instead of top-down teaching, the teacher connects with students to find the best answers to student driven topics. The teacher facilitates success through a variety of activities to explore academic discourse (e.g., Socratic seminar or “dinner party” where students role play different characters), and participant structures (e.g. whole class, small group, one-on-one, fishbowl). Teachers also balance activities rooted in individualism (independent tasks) and collectivism (e.g., buddy reading, choral reading, cooperative learning groups, Think-Pair Share, Phone a Friend options).

Obtaining the label is not the goal, but discovering the environment (including type of instruction) in which the student is most successful is.

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Megan Farnsworth is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Southern Oregon University. In this article written for Colorín Colorado, she explores different kinds of culture and explains the impact that culture can have not only on a child's experience in school but on how teachers interpret and evaluate that experience.

Video bonus: Dr. Alba Ortiz discusses the impact that culture can have on behavior in the classroom.

Recently, a colleague of mine approached me in the staff lounge ten minutes before school started. She exclaimed, "Rosa just isn't getting anything. I'm a bit frustrated because she's been here for two and half years, and I think she has a learning disability. I know the complications with standardized assessments, so I can't rely on those. What should I do? How can I teach her?" I am not surprised by this question, for general education teachers have been asking me it consistently over the numerous years I have been providing English Language Development to English Language Learners (ELLs) in both Oregon and Arizona.

I wanted to tell my colleague that I have been in her shoes. The first year I taught school was in a sixth grade classroom in central California. I had received my certificate for teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) students in my credential program, which was like training for an open water swim in a lap pool. That first year, 60% of my students were ELLs and I was overwhelmed with the language differences in my classroom. I did not know how to teach them, and referred two students in the beginning stages of language acquisition for assessment of SPED services. Like many teachers, I had confused language acquisition with a learning disability (Ortiz & Yates, 2002; Abedi, 2000).

Understanding the Needs of ELLs

During my years as a district ELL specialist, I attended more and more Child Study Team meetings, discussing why my CLD students were "failing." Over 25% of my students had been referred for assessment for Special Education (SPED) services, which is consistent with the national average (Artiles, Rueda, Salazar, & Higareda, 2000). Over-representation of CLDs in special education remains a problem even after forty years of inquiry (Artiles, Kozleski, Trent, Osher, & Ortiz, 2010). While the issue is complex, one factor contributing to the over-representation of CLD students in special education is that most general and special education teachers do not have adequate training for working with CLD learners, nor understanding of the specific needs of ELLs (Kushner & Ortiz, 2000).

Cultural factors

Over- and Under-Identification of ELLs with Disabilities

For more information on the challenges of appropriately identifying ELLs with disabilities, see our related resource section and videos.

Important cultural factors that affect teaching and learning need to be examined, for culture may be more influential than language in obtaining educational achievement. Culture becomes an invisible script that directs us through our daily decision making processes. Culture enables or constrains us, by blinding us to those who are different than us (Hollins, 2008).

For example, teachers and students from the dominant culture (i.e., Euro-American, middle class, monolingual standard English speaking) tend to be field independent (i.e., detail oriented and analytically inclined), value competition, and individual accomplishment (Banks & Banks, 2010). Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students tend to be field dependent, approach learning intuitively rather than analytically and logical, and tend to perform better in cooperative learning contexts (Gollnick & Chinn, 2009). This cultural mismatch contributes to teachers' misunderstandings about student achievement. (See more about the differences between individual and collective cultural orientation in the book Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students' Cultural Strengths.)

The Teacher Perspective

Teachers play a pivotal role in determining the quality of opportunities, experiences, and outcomes that students receive in schools (Gay, 1997). Since teachers bring their own cultural lens (e.g., values and beliefs) into the classroom, they may unintentionally attempt to encourage students to conform to their values and beliefs (Hollins, 2008), which potentially can marginalize students who do not share the same cultural lens. As teachers, we must critically examine our beliefs and attitudes toward language and diversity by questioning our assumptions of CLD students (Gay & Kirkland, 2003).

I also wanted to encourage my colleague to examine her expectations of Rosa, for teachers' expectations have a profound effect on student performances (Brophy & Good, 1974), especially among students from stigmatized groups (Jussim & Harber, 2005). Research shows that a teacher's degree of concern about a CLD student's needs is an important factor in referral to SPED (Algozzine & Ysseldyke, 1981), which is higher in a school with low minority enrollment (Collier, 1987) such as ours, with only 6% CLD enrollment. The cultural mismatch between teachers and students contributes to teachers' interpretation of CLD students' behaviors in the classroom.

In interpreting student behaviors, teachers must look at the three cultures in the classroom:

1) the culture of the student (i.e., values and beliefs students bring to the classroom)

2) the culture of the school (i.e., existing values, expectations and practices)

3) the resulting culture in the classroom (i.e., students' practices intersecting with school practices) (Gallego & Cole, 2001; Personal communication, Artiles, 2007).

Let's explore these different kinds of cultures through Rosa's story and what I learned about her as I looked for ways to support my colleague.

Culture of the Student

Funds of Knowledge

Culture and cognition are intertwined, and are negotiated through social interaction (Rogoff, 2002). For example, a student like Rosa comes to school with a vast amount of rich experiences that contribute to her knowledge, skills and perspectives called, funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). Funds of knowledge are seen as household practices, daily activities, and how people think about what they do. Families accumulate bodies of beliefs, ideas, skills, and abilities based on their experiences in response to larger societal forces (e.g. social class, gender, religion) that affect the situations of students and their families (Moll, 2014).

This premise is driven by an equity agenda that advocates for educators to build on students and their families' knowledge and experiences as resources for connecting schooling practices. Funds of knowledge are most effectively uncovered through methods such as:

observations in and out of the classroom

student surveys

parent/family surveys or home visits.

Surveys or visits often begin with how and when the family arrived at the recent location and challenges they have faced. Collecting narratives of occupations, mobility, views of roles as caretakers, and how the family is connected to group support and access to economic resources (i.e., sociocultural capital) are important sources of funds of knowledge (Hollins, 2008). After observing Rosa at school, and sending home a survey (in Spanish), I located some of Rosa's cultural assets (see Table 1 for examples).

TABLE 1: Rosa's CULTURAL ASSETS

Cultural Assets

Student--Rosa

Social and Emotional Needs

The social and emotional needs of a child experiencing problems in the classroom may be both negatively and positively affected by changing from the home culture/language to that of the mainstream classroom. The differing culture change patterns of CLD children must be taken into consideration in assessment and instruction. The effects upon language, cognitive style, personality, and self concept affects development of a child's full potential, especially when the child may have special learning/behavior problems in schools (Collier, 1987). Rosa's family fled Honduras to escape violence, which creates the obstacles of acculturative stress, anxiety, homesickness and separation from support networks that affect creating positive interpersonal relationships.

Although Rosa has been in the U.S. two and one-half years, she can still experience acculturative stress that may manifest by deviant behavior, psychosomatic symptoms and feelings of marginality (Berry, 1970, as cited in Collier, 1987). This type of stress has particular implications for educators as the side effects look similar to Emotional Behavioral Disabilities, and used to place children in special education classes (Hoover, 2004; Collier, 1987). Students must learn the language of instruction and the content at the same time, as well as learn to participate in the classroom community. As a result, academic competence may be compromised by students need to develop social competence (Rymes & Pash, 2001). Students may show "passing" (Goffman, 1981), by looking to their peers' cues, instead of drawing on their own experiences. Therefore, performance may reflect the child's degree of acculturation to middle-class Western cultural norms and behaviors, and the culture of the school.

Culture of the School

Academic Discourse

U.S. schools often still operate under an efficiency model, which measures students against a "norm" of Euro-American middle class expectations, with hidden cultural rules and correct language usage. Some rules of language are explicitly stated with passage of legislation including English-Only laws (e.g., Arizona), but hidden rules also occur in academic discourse patterns. Specialized discourse patterns occur in literacy practices such as:

quizzing

questioning patterns

narrative styles

read-alouds.

Students must acquire the discourses of the school, and be able to communicate in them fluently for their performances to be perceived by others as successful (Hawkins, 2004). Rosa does not use academic discourse patterns, so she has the potential to be marginalized. Classroom texts and teachers' belief systems are also cultural scripts and measure the acceptance of the "right" answer (Mehan, 1984). Students must align themselves with the teacher's knowledge to answer the question correctly, whether or not their background knowledge informs them of a different answer. Even when asking open-ended questions, teachers still may look for the "right" answer (Rymes & Pash, 2001).

Some children are socialized with academic discourses, and others are not. Middle-class Euro-American parents often segregate children from the adult world in child-focused activities, and play language games that involve test questions in the same format as academic discourses (Rogoff, 2003). Martini & Kirkpatrick (1996) found that parents ask their children about their day and helped them organize "reports" by restating children's words in academic discourse. My colleague can provide students like Rosa with safe opportunities to practice academic ways of talking (O'Connor & Michaels, 1996).

Storytelling

Expectations for academic discourse also exist in the right way to tell a story (Michaels, 1981). Children from middle-to upper-middle-class families typically use narrative styles in their homes containing story grammars consistent with ones used at school (e.g., characters, setting, problem and solution) (Heath, 1983). If teachers expect students' stories to follow a linear script, they overlook how CLD children use narratives in many contexts (Scott, Straker & Katz, 2009). Acquiring a standard format facilitates success in responding to standardized tests, but teachers need to accept children's sociocultural narrative styles in developing oral literacy (Bloome et al., 2001). Children tell stories not in isolation, but through interactions with peers and adults who help them make sense of their world. Stories are derived from real or imagined experiences, and contain cultural forms from the groups they belong to (Street, 1993).

For example, when Rosa retold me a story, she added personal experiences that were not included in the original version. The original story consisted of a linear story line about a dog who tried to cross a river, got stuck in the middle, and then was rescued by a boy with a stick. The story Rosa retold followed a similar linear organization; however, the boy was transformed into a security guard who employed several resources to complete the rescue. My task was to make a decision if this "version" of her story retell was acceptable.

In accepting her version as an effort to integrate her background experiences with her current identity, I can affirm Rosa's retell due to my belief in accepting multiple narratives as valid. My colleague can discover ways Rosa's family tells stories by assigning homework in which Rosa's parents tell her a story, and then Rosa retells it in class. In this way, teachers can bridge home to school in creating culturally responsive literacy practices.

Culture of the Classroom

The culture created in the classroom is a result of the moment-to-moment interactions of the school's history meeting the child's history. A teacher's educational background, experiences, behavior management, personality, motivations, instructional paradigm, and commitment to social justice all have an impact on her ability to create an inclusive environment of equity. Critical dispositions that contribute to teachers' successful interactions across cultures include empathy and open-mindedness. Empathy refers to one's ability to empathize with the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of those from a different cultural background. Being open-minded includes demonstrating an open and unprejudiced attitude toward different groups and toward different cultural norms and values. Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, & Tejada (1999) describe safety in the equitable classroom referred to as the "third space" for those seeking to explore intersections of knowledge that foster growth in students' voices.

Transformation occurs when students and teachers cultural assets are combined in a community of learners. Instead of top-down teaching, the teacher connects with students to find the best answers to student driven topics. The teacher facilitates success through a variety of activities to explore academic discourse (e.g., socratic seminar or "dinner party" where students role play different characters), and participant structures (e.g. whole class, small group, one-on-one, fishbowl). Teachers also balance activities rooted in individualism (independent tasks) and collectivism (e.g., buddy reading, choral reading, cooperative learning groups, Think-Pair Share, Phone a Friend options).

Classroom Connection

After getting to know Rosa better, I followed up with my colleague by offering to help plan lessons that build on Rosa's cultural assets. For example, when teaching about the Oregon Trail (4 th grade Oregon social studies curriculum), she can connect Rosa's knowledge of moving from one place to another, as well as her agricultural background to major concepts of the Oregon Trail. By creating opportunities for a) Rosa's background knowledge to be valued, and b) Rosa to be a leader in her classroom, her teacher can create equitable classrooms that promote growth in students' voices.

Cognitive development occurs as people learn from more experienced others. One concept of participation is that students participate in later situations according to how they relate to previous ones (Rogoff, 2003). Seeing the connection between the old and new situations involves support from a more skilled participant, who can help the child see the applicability to classroom activities. For students to generalize appropriately across experiences, apprenticeship helps in deciding which strategies relate to each other, and which approaches fit different circumstances. Rosa's teachers need to make explicit, (e.g, think-alouds or task analysis) the skills and strategies needed to negotiate different types of problems, and then make explicit connections between them. Assigning an older mentor (e.g., 2-4 years older) can help scaffold opportunities to help students become responsible for their own learning and solving problems both in and out of the classroom.

Final Thoughts

Regardless of obtaining a label, we still have to teach Rosa. Obtaining the label is not the goal, but discovering the environment (including type of instruction) in which she is most successful is. If we are to serve Rosa, we must revisit goals the school holds for her, her family holds for her, and she herself holds. Success is most often achieved together, as collaboration is a truly culturally responsive practice.

In order to determine eligibility for special education services, an evaluation team must decide if the CLD's learning or behavior problems are primarily due to language and cultural factors (See reauthorization of IDEA, 2004). Therefore, we need to become familiar with our cultural factors that affect our teaching, and students' cultural factors that affect learning. The solution is usually found in teachers' abilities to integrate students' home cultures with school cultures, resulting in a hybrid, third-space, inclusive classroom culture.

Dr. Alba Ortiz discusses the role that culture can play on behavior in the classroom.

References

Abedi, J. (2000, April). Confounding students' performance and their language background. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New Orleans, LA

Algozzine, B. & Ysseldyke, J. (1981). Special education services for normal children: Better safe than sorry? Exceptional Children, 48 (3), 238-243.

Artiles, A.J., Rueda, R., Salazar, I., & Higareda, I.(2000). Factors associated with English learner representation in special education: Emerging evidence from urban school districts in California. Paper presented at the conference on Minority Issues in Special Education in the public schools, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Artiles, A.J. Kozleski, E.B., Trent, S.C., Osher, D. & Ortiz, A. (2010). Justifying and explaining disproportionality; 1968-2008: A critique of underlying views and culture. Exceptional Children, (76)3, 279-299.

Banks, J. & Banks, C. (2010). Multicultural perspectives: Issues and perspectives. Wiley & Sons.

Bloome, D., Champion, T., Katz, L., Morton, M.B., & Muldrow, R. (2001). Spoken and written narrative development: African American Preschoolers as storytellers and storymakers. In Harris, JL., Kamhi, A.G., & Pollock, K.E. (Eds.). Literacy in African Amercian communities. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Brophy, T. & Good, T. (1974). Teacher-Student relationships: Causes and consequences. New York: Holt

Collier, C. (1987). Comparison of acculturation and education characteristics of referred and nonreferred culturally and linguistically different children. NABE Theory, Research and Application: Selected Papers, 1987, L. M. Malare (Ed.), Buffalo, NY: State University of New York at Buffalo, pp. 183-195.

Gallego, M. A., Cole, M., & The Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (LCHC) (2001). Classroom cultures and cultures in the classroom. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (4th ed.) Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Gay, G. & Kirkland, K. (2003). Developing cultural critical consciousness and self-reflection in pre-service teacher education. Theory into Practice, 42(3), 181-187.

Gay, G. (1997). Curriculum for multicultural teacher education. In F.H. Klassen & D.M. Gollnick (Eds.), Pluralism and the American teacher: Issues and case studies (pp 31-62). Washington, D.C: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Ethnic Heritage Center for Teacher Education.

Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of Talk. In Duranti, L. (Ed.), Linguistic Anthropology: Cambridge University Press, 9, p.298.

Gollnick, D.M. & Chin, P.C. (2009). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society. Pearson

González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (Eds). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Gutierrez, K., Baquedano-Lopez, P. & Tejada, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, culture, and activity, 6(4), 286-303.

Hawkins, M (2004). Researching English language and literacy development in schools. Educational Researcher, 33(3) 14-25.

Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Hollins, E. (2008). Culture in School Learning. London: Routledge.

Jussim, L. & Harber, K.D. (2005). Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophesies: Knowns and unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(2), 131-155.

Kushner, M. I. & Ortiz, A.A. (2000). The preparation of early childhood education teachers for English language learners. In New teachers for a new century: The future for early childhood professional development (pp. 124-154). Washington, DC:U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education.

Martini M., & Kirkpatrick J. (1992). Parenting in Polynesia: a view from the Marquesas. In Roopnarine & Carter (Eds.) Parent-Child Socialization in Diverse Cultures: Annual Advances in Applied Developmental Psychology, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, pp. 199-222.

Mehan, Hugh (1984). Institutional Decision-Making In Rogoff, B. & Lave, J (Eds.) Everyday Cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 41-66.

Michaels, S. (1981). Sharing time: Children's narrative style and differential access to literacy. Language in Society, 10, 423-432.

Moll, L. (2014). Funds of identities: A new concept based on the funds of knowledge approach. Culture & Psychology, 20,31-48.

O'Connor, M., & Michaels, S. (1996). Shifting participant frameworks: Orchestrating thinking practices in group discussions. In D. Hicks, (Ed.), Discourse, learning, and schooling. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 63-103.

Ortiz, A. & Yates, J. (2002). Considerations in the assessment of English Language Learners referred to special education. In Artiles, A. & Ortiz, A. (Eds.) English Language Learners With Special Education Needs. Illinois: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Rogoff, B. (2002). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University

Rogoff, B., Paradise, R., Arauz, R.M., Correa-Cavez, M., & Angelillo, C. (2003). Firsthand learning through intent participation. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 175-203.

Rymes, B. & Pash, D. (2001). Questioning Identity: The case of one second language learner. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 32(3), 276-300.

Scott, J.C., Straker, D.Y., & Katz, L. (2009). Affirming students right to their own language. New York: Routledge

Street, B. (1993). The new literacy studies: Guest editorial. Journal of Research in Reading, 16(2), 81-97.

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Consider Culture Before Referral of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students for Special Education Services

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Megan Farnsworth is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Southern Oregon University. In this article written for Colorín Colorado, she explores different kinds of culture and explains the impact that culture can have not only on a child's experience in school but on how teachers interpret and evaluate that experience.

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Addressing ELLs’ Language Learning and Special Education Needs: Questions and Considerations

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Addressing ELLs’ Language Learning and Special Education Needs: Questions and Considerations

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Before testing/referral to special education, you must have the following information:

Student background

Family background (health, education, trauma)

Process of acculturation

Tracking student work and behaviour over time

Is the learning disability evident in both languages

Try the following interventions:

Give ELL students access to the content by having them read multiple level readings (in English and in students' non-English languages) and other resources (brochures, websites, outlines, Powerpoints, podcasts, etc.) on the topic of study.

Write hints or reminders in the text. Analyze text structure of the materials read and highlight/bold key characteristics and content.

Use real life experiences when discussing the reading material.

Using Language Experience Approach / Shared reading/ Shared Writing across the content areas and grade levels to build on students’ linguistic resources and bridge to literacy.

Use manipulatives or hands-on materials and visuals to build content area schema and to support oral academic language development.

Use a tape recorder to play books on tape. Have students develop podcasts / recordings of their own dual language stories, memoirs, reports, etc.

Have students preview content visually, orally and through literacy (when available) in their non-English language before reading/learning about content in English. Actively invite students' languages and cultures into the classroom.

Explicitly teach study skills/habits, as well as effective ways of using educational resources and materials.

Use the student's name in instructional examples. And use culturally and linguistically relevant materials, books, as well as multicultural literature

Provide visuals to support academic work.

Encourage re-reading of tasks/instructions. Or, using multiple texts and other resources on the same topic to give access and to deepen comprehension and build vocabulary.

Provide more time to finish assignments/tests.

Answer the following questions before deciding whether or not testing is required:

Does documentation show limited or no progress or change resulting from instructional strategies, alternative instruction, or interventions?

Do ESL and/or bilingual staff support the position that the student is performing differently than his/her cultural peers?

What evaluation measures are most appropriate for this situation (even if those are different than what the district typically uses)?

What is our evaluation plan and parent communication plan?

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"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow but we forget that he is someone today." - Karl Meninger

Samira's Story

A number of years ago, Kristina taught a Somali English language learner (ELL) named Samira who was dedicated, attentive, and friendly. Kristina thoroughly enjoyed teaching her as they worked on Samira's English skills. When it came to assigning final grades, though, Kristina had a dilemma - Samira wasn't able to successfully complete assignments. She came to the classroom often, asked for additional help, and did her best to understand the directions and complete the work. Kristina felt discouraged every time she corrected her assignments because she realized that, despite her best efforts, Samira either wasn't able to do the assignment or she had copied someone else's work.

Samira was obviously struggling, and at the time Kristina attributed it to her refugee experience and lack of formal education. She thought that she just needed more time and English language exposure.

Now that Kristina has had the benefit of collaborating with Special Education teachers who have experience working with ELLs, she believes it is likely that Samira had a learning disability that went undiagnosed because she and her colleagues had not received training in how to recognize and address special education needs for ELL students.

Kristina also remembers a student who was having significant struggles with learning; when his teacher met with the family and a bilingual interpreter, she was told that the boy had had a brain injury in his home country and that learning had always been difficult for him. There were no special supports available to him in his prior school, so his parents never thought to ask for them.

Eyeglasses Needed!

On the other hand, Lydia recalls a story told by Education Week reporters Lesli Maxwell and Nirvi Shah of a San Diego teacher who referred six ELLs for special education evaluation; after some initial health screenings, it turned out that all of them needed eyeglasses, and one needed a hearing aid. None of the students, however, needed special education services.

Educators know how confusing this issue can be, and in our work, we frequently hear the question "Language or disability?" The authors of Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services, . (Caslon, 2013) suggest, however, that a more appropriate question would be, "What are this student's needs and how are they being met?"

This complex question of identifying the reasons why students are struggling is one of the most difficult challenges for teachers of English language learners to address. While it is tempting to look for easy answers, solutions are unlikely to come from a single checklist, workshop, meeting, or intervention; rather, they are more likely to come over time and with the help of a team that includes family members working together on behalf of the student.

It sounds like a lot of work, and it is! The extra time and work are worth it, however, as a misdiagnosis will may result in students:

continuing to struggle without the services they need

regressing without the right support

getting tracked into inappropriate programs for the remainder of their school career

A holistic approach

This article is meant to serve as a broad introduction to some of the important issues to consider when determining whether a student's educational needs are being meant. Rather than laying out a series of steps to follow, we offer suggestions and guiding questions to a holistic approach that look at each individual student's situation in lieu of quick decisions about testing or program assignments. For additional in-depth information about putting together a support team, language learning factors, cultural considerations, and instruction for ELLs with disabilities, please look at our in-depth resource section on special education and ELLs.

We also highly recommend the above mentioned Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners and our video interviews with experts in this area, including Dr. Alba Ortiz, Dr. Debbie Zacarian, Dr. Nancy Cloud, and Dr. Lynn Shafer Willner.

Webcast: ELLs with LD

Video bonus: For a great introduction to this topic, take a look at Colorín Colorado's webcast featuring Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan on the topic of ELL students with learning disabilities.

In addition to the suggestions offered in this article, we also strongly encourage educators working with ELLs to:

Educate themselves as much as possible about the process of language acquisition and other important factors in working with ELLs so that they become familiar with typical patterns of language development

Request the support and training needed to provide effective instruction for students, conduct accurate assessment and evaluations, and manage interaction with diverse families effectively

Review and revisit the assessment, evaluation, and screening procedures currently in place in the school or district to determine whether they make sense for ELLs

Seek out collaboration with school or district colleagues who specialize in ELL and bilingual education, special education, speech-language therapy, and parent outreach in order to pull together different areas of expertise as part of a team

Update and improve evaluation processes if needed with input from colleagues who have relevant experiences as well as staff from other districts

While it may seem like these are changes that you can't make on your own, taking small steps to collaborate with colleagues and administrators can have a significant impact for students. The more information all educators have, the better informed their decisions will be and the better their chances are of finding ways to help their students succeed.

Why Do We Need to Get It Right?

As indicated in the introduction, there are two troubling trends when it comes to identifying the services that ELLs need to succeed: over-identification for special education, which results from assigning students to special education programs who do not actually need those services, and under-identification, which is what happens when students who do have learning disabilities or special education needs do not receive appropriate services. It is important to note that an awareness of one trend can sometimes lead to an over-correction towards the other, which is why it is essential to establish a process that focuses on each individual student rather than a vague sense of what has or has not worked it the past.

In the above-mentioned Education Week article, Lesli and Nivri report that a 2003 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education found that over-identification tended to happen in districts with small numbers of ELLs (less than 99 ELL students) and under-identification occurred in districts with a large ELL population. More recently, though, research suggests that under-identification is a bigger problem nationally. Yet at the same time, high numbers of special education referrals don't indicate that a district's evaluation program is working and that students are getting the services they need.

Case Study: San Diego

Lesli and Nirvi share the story of San Diego, a district faced with class action lawsuit in 2007 due to its poor special educations services. The district asked Harvard's Thomas Hehir to evaluate their program, and he found that Latino ELLs were 70% more likely to be referred to special education than Latinos who were not ELLs. Two years later, bilingual educator Jaime Hernandez followed up in San Diego with additional research and found that there was still limited use of special education assessments in students' native language as well as a lack of evidence of efforts to take "extrinsic factors" such as health, family conditions, or previous academic experiences into account.

Following these reports, the district began to create a more comprehensive evaluation process that would "slow everyone down" and "look at all the features of a child's life" before making a special education referral. Lesli and Nirvi write, "The goal was valid referrals and accuracy of special education decisions for ELLs, so educators and specialists from across the district - bilingual teachers, special educators, psychologists - developed a set of procedures for district staff members to follow when students are flagged as possibly needing services."

It is easy to understand why under-identification is problematic when students don't receive the services they need, particularly if valuable time goes by when the student could be receiving the necessary help that would address their difficulty or information could be gathered on the student's academic experiences over time.

It is less obvious to understand why over-identification is a problem. In fact, many students have been placed in special education with the best of intentions so that they will receive "some kind of help." The wrong placement, however, is not only unhelpful; it can also be harmful.

The authors of Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners outline a number of reasons why over-identification of ELLs in special education is problematic:

ELLs without special education needs and those students with special education needs require different kinds of support. Even though ELLs and special education students are frequently grouped together as "special populations" and some support strategies that help one group may help another, their needs are quite different. In this excerpt from their book, the authors explain that "interventions that are specifically geared to help processing, linguistic, or cognitive disabilities often do not help children acquire second language proficiency. In fact, special education services can limit the kind of learning that ELLs need."

Misdirected special education placement can actually result in a reversal of achievement. The authors note in this second excerpt from their book that "(s)tudies have shown that Hispanic students who were classified as learning disabled performed at a lower level after three years of special education placement."

There is the question of stigmatization and lowered expectations. ELLs with special education needs may find that their entire academic trajectory, as well as expectations for their success, have changed even though the school has determined that the student's needs have been met. As a result, students may be restricted in their access to challenging academic content and the appropriate language instruction that would address the root cause of their difficulties. (pg. 2)

In addition, when an ELL has difficulties, the authors note that "there is a tendency to assume something is intrinsically wrong with the student," particularly if difficulties are described without any specifics, such as saying a student "can't read." The authors encourage teams of educators to "answer the question 'What' before attempting to answer the question 'Why'" in order to take the appropriate next steps (pg. 36-37). Approaching this issue from the assumption that something is "wrong" with the student also misses an important opportunity to build upon student strengths - an important resource in looking for ways to help students succeed, as described by Lynn Shafer Willner in her article about using a "Can Do" approach in the classroom.

Note on ELL and Special Education Services

If the district does identify an ELL student as also requiring support from special education, then the student should get both kinds of services - it's not a question of one or the other. For example, if the district develops a more culturally and linguistically responsive RtI process / Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS), then the district will need to intensify the ELL-appropriate support a child/children receive. If the student then additionally qualifies for special education services, the collaboration that began in RtI would continue so that all the child's needs are met (both ELL and special education.)

Physical Difficulties or Disabilities

There are, of course, situations in which immediate action is needed. If a child has obvious signs of cognitive or physical issues such as those listed below, they need to receive immediate support. Factors leading to immediate referral include (but are not limited to):

Documentation of known previous medical condition(s)

Known brain damage

Problems with hearing or vision

Physical disability

Cleft palate

Cerebral palsy

Brain injury

Polio

Post traumatic stress

Documented severe malnutrition

A concern or concerns shared by parents, family or the student herself/himself

An accident/injury

Information from family members may provide more background on these conditions. See our tips for working with diverse families around questions of special education below for more guidance, as well as information about the various categories of disabilities under the special education legislation IDEA.

What Information Do We Need?

When the cause of difficulty is not so obvious, where do educators begin to look for answers? Here are some questions to ask about the student.

Student background

How much do you know about your student's previous educational experiences?

Has the child switched schools or language programs?

Are there any traumas or difficult family situations that you should know about?

Do you have access to accurate records of the student's previous school experience, the location of previous schools, and length of time at each school?

Tips for learning more about your student's background information can be found in Getting to Know Your ELLs: Six Steps for Success.

Family background

Another source of information about the student's background is the family, and it may be most effective to conduct a family interview to gather additional background. Parents have a legal right to interpretation for IEP notifications and meetings, and it is extremely important that a highly trained interpreter be available to assist in this conversation, as well as to explain any information in a way the family can understand. For example, in the Somali language, there is no direct term that means "Special Education." If the interpretation is not done sensitively, the family may believe the staff is referring to the student as "crazy" or "mentally defective."

If there is no trained interpreter at the building, it is possible that the district has a central interpretation staff that has had training in special education assessments. If the district does not have such staff, the state may have resources to assist with translation or a local technical assistance center may be able to help. Ideally, the translator will have experience interpreting about these topics and within a particular cultural setting.

How can administrators help?

There are a number of ways that administrators can support this process, including allowing time for collaboration. It's also important to begin to increase the number of multilingual staff to reflect the languages and cultures of the students at the school.

As a pro-active action, this helps give families and students access to the school and curriculum much earlier in the process, possibly preventing some challenges in the future. This also allows schools to build a commitment to cultural reciprocity (Kalyanpur & Harry, 2012). This is also true at the district level; hiring bilingual professionals who have received training and/or are certified in Bilingual/ESL education, which can have a significant impact for students.

At the interview, a special education staff member and an interpreter can ask many in-depth and background questions to get more insight into environmental or physical factors that may be affecting the child's learning. Example questions might include:

Have there been any serious health problems in the family? Parents? Grandparents? Aunts and uncles?

What is the formal educational level of the parents and of the child?

What was the child's educational experience prior to coming to the U.S.? At previous school districts? At other schools / classrooms within the same district?

Has there been any trauma in the family? For example, has the child been involved in a violent situation, or witnessed violence and death in a war situation?

Has anyone in the family ever had psychological issues such as depression? (This may need to be described more in behavioral ways, such as describing someone who was sad or slept a lot.)

Have there been any other identifiable behaviors in the family such as stuttering or dyslexia? (Again, the behaviors may need to be explained.)

Families may be hesitant to answer these questions, particularly if they are newcomers to the U.S. Assure them that their answers will only be shared with staff who support the students as well as social workers and are only meant to guide decisions for providing the best possible services for their children.

The process of acculturation

Another factor to keep in mind is that ELL students need time to adjust to their new surroundings and language and to have an opportunity to demonstrate their learning over time. This process may take quite some time when accounting for cultural adjustment, a silent period, and the development of literacy skills in a second language. This is why familiarity with the language acquisition process can help provide some context for the student's language development. What appears to be slow growth in learning English may actually be quite typical for the child's age and educational background.

Student work and behavior

Over time, it is important to track the student's work and behavior in order to establish some benchmarks. It can be tricky to determine if the challenges the ELL student is experiencing are a result of the normal developmental process of learning a new or additional language or if he/she has special needs because at the surface many of the behaviors displayed appear to be the same.

This excerpt from Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners shows some example of contrasting explanations for similar observed behaviors:

Has trouble following directions

Not enough English proficiency to understand what is being said

No demonstrations or context given for directions/procedure

Can't process the entire set of directions with sufficient speed

Distractibility

Memory limitations

Not able to understand the temporal or spatial concepts

(Table 3.2, pg. 47)

For example, if during English instructional time, a teacher observes an ELL student who refuses to answer questions, makes inappropriate comments, has poor recall, comprehension and vocabulary, and struggles when sequencing ideas, the teacher might be concerned that the child needs special education support. While that may be the case, it's important to remember that these behaviors can also be explained from the perspective of an ELL student in the process of developing academic English. In the case of "refus(ing) to answer questions," ELL students may often not participate in class because while they might have proficiency enough to understand the message, they might not have enough proficiency in English to answer. Here are two examples of questions you can ask to tease out whether a student's difficulties may be part of learning a new language.

Is the disability present in both languages?: One important clue is to see whether the disability is present only in English. If the student only shows the difficult behavior in English settings and not in his/her non-English language(s), then it cannot be an indicator of a disability. A true disability will manifest across all the child's languages and in most settings. If an ELL "struggles to retell events" in English and not in his/her home language or in a bilingual retelling, then this cannot be evidence of a disability.

How does the student compare with his/her peers?: Another initial question to ask is whether the student is making academic progress at about the same rate as other ELL students from similar backgrounds (students who share similar linguistic, cultural, educational, or refugee experiences) and to compare that progress over time.

Academic interventions

It is essential that different academic interventions are tried and the results recorded before any formal special evaluation assessment is requested. This process may be part of a Response to Intervention approach. (You can learn more from this RtI framework developed by Cristina Sánchez-Lopez for WIDA.) This is important because students may have very different learning styles or comfort levels with the U.S. educational environment, or may be struggling with literacy skills. When a teacher does intentional interventions to provide support and documents the results, valuable information is then available if an assessment is needed in the future. Here are some common academic intervention options:

Give ELL students access to the content by having them read multiple level readings (in English and in students' non-English languages) and other resources (brochures, websites, outlines, Powerpoints, podcasts, etc.) on the topic of study.

Write hints or reminders in the text. Analyze text structure of the materials read and highlight/bold key characteristics and content.

Use real life experiences when discussing the reading material.

Using Language Experience Approach / Shared reading/ Shared Writing across the content areas and grade levels to build on students' linguistic resources and bridge to literacy.

Pair ELL students with other ELLs.

Use manipulatives or hands-on materials and visuals to build content area schema and to support oral academic language development.

Use a tape recorder to play books on tape. Have students develop podcasts / recordings of their own dual language stories, memoirs, reports, etc.

Have students preview content visually, orally and through literacy (when available) in their non-English language before reading/learning about content in English. Actively invite students' languages and cultures into the classroom.

Explicitly teach study skills/habits, as well as effective ways of using educational resources and materials.

Use the student's name in instructional examples. And use culturally and linguistically relevant materials, books, as well as multicultural literature

Provide visuals to support academic work.

Encourage re-reading of tasks/instructions. Or, using multiple texts and other resources on the same topic to give access and to deepen comprehension and build vocabulary.

Provide more time to finish assignments/tests.

Pair the English Language Learner with a gifted or older same-language student in tutorial situations.

Once those options have been exhausted and the student is progressing much more slowly than other ELL students with a similar background, or needs a lot of repeated instruction when other ELLs with similar educational experience do not, it is time for the team get together to examine the data gathered and determine if the student is eligible and entitled to receive special education services.

Who Should Be Involved?

Creating a team

In examining a student's needs, a collaborative team approach is best. Background information on why coordinating support services for ELLs is provided in this tip sheet from the Michigan Department of Education. Someone who speaks the child's native language must be involved in the process along with colleagues with expertise in ELL and/or bilingual education, special education, speech-language therapy, and parent outreach. Even if your school doesn't formally use a team when assessing or evaluating students, creating an informal team is a better option than trying to figure it out alone, and informal steps may lay the groundwork for more formal processes in the future.

This vignette from Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners highlights the ways in which bilingual professionals can provide valuable insight into how students are using and learning language. A bilingual coordinator recalls an instance of a kindergarten teacher who was preparing to refer a student to special education screening because she thought he didn't understand her questions about the sounds that letters make. The bilingual coordinator was able to determine that the student was in fact answering the teacher's questions correctly - but he was answering them in Spanish.

In Palm Beach County, Florida, Lesli and Nirvi report that the multicultural team that works on evaluating ELLs for disabilities includes bilingual psychologists and speech-language therapists and that the district hires interpreters and consultants when necessary to work with students and families who speak other languages.

Working with families

Families are a valuable source of information about their children and an important part of a student's support team. It's essential that ELL families are kept informed about their student's progress so that they understand each step of the way, just as would be done for monolingual English students. Keeping families informed also builds trust so that if evaluation or referral are needed, the family understands what is happening and why. This is another reason why getting to know ELL families throughout the year is a key part of student success since it builds a positive foundation that makes it easier to find solutions together!

What Happens If Special Education Assessment Is Needed?

If your team determines that special education assessment is needed, the next question is to ask which evaluation methods will be used to determine what kinds of services the student might need and to learn more about the language used in those tools. According to expert Kathy Escamilla, who Lesli and Nirvi interviewed for their article, "When most of the tools that are used to assess learning disabilities are in English and were normed on monolingual English-speaking kids who are part of the dominant culture, you can't rely on that to tell you if a child with a different primary language has a learning disability or if they just don't know the language." An added complication is the evaluation of long-term ELLs who were born in the U.S. but don't have strong literacy skills in English or Spanish. Ideally, the evaluation process will include multiple sources of data that can take those realities into account.

Here are some questions to ask:

Does documentation show limited or no progress or change resulting from instructional strategies, alternative instruction, or interventions?

Do ESL and/or bilingual staff support the position that the student is performing differently than his/her cultural peers?

What evaluation measures are most appropriate for this situation (even if those are different than what the district typically uses)?

What is our evaluation plan and parent communication plan?

Parent conference

If the interventions have not been effective up to this point, then further information must be gathered and an initial conference must be held with the parents of the student. In the initial conference, it is important to share with the parents (and make sure that they understand) the interventions that have been tried in the classroom, an explanation of what is involved in an initial assessment, what support would be available to the child if he/she qualifies, and the parent and student rights. Find out from a bilingual staff member or interpreter if there are any cultural considerations that will need to be addressed during the conversation.
Special Education Support
If the child qualifies for special education services, then due process is followed, and an Individualized Education Program (IEP) will be created based on the services and instruction that the student needs. This information from the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities offers IEP considerations for ELLs. (Note: This document will be online through September 2014.)

Again, it is very important that the family have a skilled interpreter at the meeting when they consent to service and for all future IEP meetings. It's important that professionals continue to collaborate in order to support all of the student's needs as an ELL student as well as a student with particular special education needs.

Your district or state may be the best source for figuring out what guidelines to follow or how to create an IEP for an ELL. These statewide resources, modules, and guidebooks also have extensive information, support materials, and translated forms:

You can find additional information in these resources, as well as those that follow this article:

Concluding Thoughts

As educators begin to collaborate more and look more deeply into students' experiences and needs, there is a better chance that students will get the support they need to succeed. Building a more culturally and linguistically responsive RtI / MTSS process will help to address the needs of ELLs who are having significant challenges in a more timely manner as well as provide a framework for making more informed decisions about ELLs who may also have special education needs.

Even if you feel like you don't have all of the answers, we encourage you to come together with colleagues and think about what steps you can in the short-term and long-term to improve these practices in your setting, ensuring that students like Samira get the services they need to become successful.

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Addressing ELLs' Language Learning and Special Education Needs: Questions and Considerations

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"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow but we forget that he is someone today." - Karl Meninger A number of years ago, Kristina taught a Somali English language learner (ELL) named Samira who was dedicated, attentive, and friendly. Kristina thoroughly enjoyed teaching her as they worked on Samira's English skills.

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The Over and Under Identification of ELLs in Special Education

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The Over and Under Identification of ELLs in Special Education

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Key Points:
Some schools stall the process for such a long period of time that when the referral and identification process finally occurs, it is too late to provide the types of interventions that would have helped the student the most effectively, if at all.

The educational needs of ELs require that we understand the diversity among our student populations and plan and deliver instruction that is tailored for the individual needs of this group.

The process needed to create a more effective means for identifying ELs with disabilities and, more important, for providing an instructional program that is effective for all ELs requires leaders to address the disproportionate representation of ELs in special education by using a multistep scale of response commonly referred to as Response to Intervention (RTI).

Formal testing (WISC-III) are heavily language based.

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Administrators play an important role in shaping the policies and procedures for identifying the language and academic needs of English language learners (ELLs), particularly those that might have disabilities. In this excerpt from Chapter 7 of Transforming Schools for English Learners: A Comprehensive Framework for School Leaders, Debbie Zacarian explains the trends of over- and under-identification of ELLs with disabilities and provides two related case studies.

Student Case Studies

Case Scenario 1: Carlos

Carlos enrolled in Mrs. Monahan's third-grade classroom during the spring term. Prior to enrolling, he had attended school in a neighboring city for less than a year and been referred for a special education evaluation because of his poor academic progress. Prior to that time, Carlos had had limited prior schooling in his home country as his parents could not afford to pay for the education that was available to him. When he enrolled in Mrs. Monahan's class, Carlos was tested to formally determine the type of learning disability that he had. The testing was conducted in English, as was the family and social history interview with his parents. The interview was conducted by the school's guidance counselor, who noted that Carlos's parents were unable to answer many of the questions "in full."

After the testing process was completed, a meeting was held with his parents to review the results of the special education evaluation. The time allotted for the meeting was the same as it was for all special education evaluation meetings. In attendance were the school psychologist, special educator, guidance counselor, Carlos's teacher, and a translator employed by the school to translate the meeting. The school psychologist and special educator confirmed what they had suspected, that Carlos had a language learning disability. During their explanation of the test findings, they looked directly at the translator and made very little eye contact with Carlos's parents.

One of the services that they recommended was for Carlos to receive instruction from a special educator in lieu of ESL classes because they thought it would be a more effective way for him to learn the compensatory skills that he needed to cope with his disability. Carlos's parents were respectful of the school's findings and recommendations. They felt out of place at the meeting, as they did not really understand most of the technical language that was being used. They politely nodded in agreement with all that was stated and recommended.

Case Scenario 2: Abad

When Abad enrolled in the third grade in America, he did so after having been enrolled in school in his native country. In his native country, while he spoke Arabic at home and was instructed in Arabic, he had had a good deal of difficulty in school and often did not comprehend what was being taught. His teachers and parents had been concerned about his academic progress and that he might have a language delay. While Abad was a very well-behaved child, he struggled in school and often came home crying in frustration.

When he moved to the United States, his parents continued to be concerned about his academic progress. When they expressed their concerns to his teacher, she responded that it was important to give Abad time to learn English. Thinking that his teacher knew the right thing to do, his parents did not continue to express their concerns or pursue a referral. Rather, they waited and waited and waited. By the end of his first year in America, Abad was failing his classes miserably. However, his teacher continued to believe that his failure was due to his lack of English.

What Are Some of the Nation's Trends Regarding English Language Learners and Special Education?

In the United States, there is growing concern about over-identifying and under-identifying English learners (ELs) with disabilities (Artiles & Ortiz, 2002; Hamayan, Marler, Sanchez-Lopez, & Damico, 2007). In some schools, when ELs don't seem to be making the same academic progress as their peers or learning English rapidly, they are referred for a special education evaluation. The dilemma of overidentifying students, such as in the case of Carlos, leads to a high and disproportionate number of culturally and linguistically diverse learners being referred for a special education evaluation and, ultimately, diagnosed with a learning disability. Overrepresentation is a chronic issue that requires our attention.

On many levels, this is likely occurring due to educators' lack of training, familiarity, and preparedness to teach diverse populations. That is, students who are "different" from their teachers are all too often regarded as having disabilities. The educational needs of ELs require that we understand the diversity among our student populations and plan and deliver instruction that is tailored for the individual needs of this group (Artiles & Ortiz, 2002; Haager, Klingner, & Vaughn, 2007; Haynes & Zacarian, 2010). Until this is done, it is likely that we will continue to overidentify a large number of students as having disabilities when they do not.

Simultaneously, some schools fear that they might be referring ELs too quickly and that time is needed for a student to learn English before a special education referral is made and completed. This "wait till the student fails" and "stall for time" approach, as seen in the case of Abad, can prevent the interventions that are needed from occurring (Fuchs, Mock, Morgan, & Young, 2003). The extent to which ELs are underidentified cannot be minimized. Some schools stall the process for such a long period of time that when the referral and identification process finally occurs, it is too late to provide the types of interventions that would have helped the student the most effectively, if at all (Esparza Brown & Doolittle, 2008).

Thus, the pendulum swings from one extreme to the other and rarely stops in a balanced, "just right" position. The process needed to create a more effective means for identifying ELs with disabilities and, more important, for providing an instructional program that is effective for all ELs requires leaders to address the disproportionate representation of ELs in special education by using a multistep scale of response commonly referred to as Response to Intervention (RTI). Before moving into a discussion about RTI, however, it is important to understand the main law pertaining to students with disabilities and the means by which schools gather data about the following:

effectiveness of school programming for the general population of ELs (i.e., the effectiveness of the English language education program as a whole)

ELs who struggle to learn and are subsequently referred for a special education evaluation

ELs who are diagnosed with disabilities

Citations

Transforming Schools for English Learners: A Framework for School Leaders. (2011). Zacarian, Debbie. Chapter 7: Identifying and Working With English Learners With Learning Differences and Learning Disabilities. Corwin: Thousand Oaks, CA. pp. 129-146.

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1985). Clinical management of communicatively handicapped minority language populations [Position Statement]. Retrieved December 23, 2010, from http://www.asha.org/docs/html/PS1985-00219.html

Artiles, A., & Ortiz. A. (Eds.). (2002). English language learners with special education needs: Assessment, identification, and instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Artiles, A. J., Trent, S. C., & Palmer, J. (2004). Culturally diverse students in special education: Legacies and prospects. In J. A. Banks & C. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (2nd ed., pp. 716-735). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Baca, L. (1990) Theory and practice in bilingual/cross cultural special education: Major issues and implications for research, practice, and policy. In Proceedings of the First Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues (pp. 247-280). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs. Retrieved May 17, 2010: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/rcd/BE018297/1st_Symposium_Theory.pdf

Donovan, S., & Cross, C. (2002). Minority students in special and gifted education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Esparza Brown, J., & Doolittle, J. (2008). A cultural, linguistic, and ecological framework for response to intervention with English language learners. Tempe, AZ: National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems.

Fuchs, D., Mock, D., Morgan, P. L., & Young, C. L. (2003). Responsiveness-to-intervention: Definitions, evidence, and implications for the learning disabilities construct. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 18(3), 157-171.

Haager, D., Klingner, J. K., & Vaughn, S. (Eds.). (2007). Validated reading practices for three tiers of intervention. Baltimore: Brookes.

Hamayan, E., Marler, B., Sanchez Lopez, C., & Damico, J. (2007). Special education considerations for English language learners: Delivering a continuum of services. Philadelphia: Caslon.

Haynes, J., & Zacarian, D. (2010). Teaching English language learners across the content areas. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Hoover, J., Klingner, J., Baca, L., & Patton, J. (2007). Methods for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional learners. New York: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Klingner, J. K., & Edwards, P. A. (2006). Cultural considerations with response to intervention models. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(1), 108-117.

National Center on Response to Intervention. (2010). Essential components of RTI: A closer look at response to intervention. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Response to Intervention. Retrieved December 23, 2010, from http://www.rti4success.org/images/stories/pdfs/rtiessentialcomponents_042710.pdf

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2009). Categories of disabilities under IDEA. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved December 23, 2010, from http://www.nichcy.org/disabilities/categories/pages

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More by this author

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The Over- and Under-Identification of ELLs in Special Education

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Administrators play an important role in shaping the policies and procedures for identifying the language and academic needs of English language learners (ELLs), particularly those that might have disabilities. In this excerpt from Chapter 7 of Transforming Schools for English Learners: A Comprehensive Framework for School Leaders , Debbie Zacarian explains the trends of over- and under-identification of ELLs with disabilities and provides two related case studies.

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Five myths about ELLs and Special education

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Five myths about ELLs and Special education

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The two that most resonated with my questions were:

1. ELLs will get the kinds of support they need in a special education classroom.

Researchers note that more traditional interventions that help students with language-based learning disabilities often do not help students acquire proficiency in a second language. In fact, it can sometimes present additional challenges by limiting access to core curriculum and focusing on discrete skills taught out of context. This constricts language usage and can make it more difficult for ELLs to understand and retain information.

2.  Schools should wait a certain amount of time before assessing an ELL for special education services.

This strategy attempts to slow the overidentification of ELL students as having special needs.  Those policies don't consider the needs of students who may be struggling all of that time. Researchers point out that students have a better opportunity to be successful in school when they're identified sooner rather than later, and supported in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.

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When English language learners (ELLs) experience challenges in school, it can be hard to figure out why. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about services and supports for students who are learning English. Knowing the facts behind these myths can help you not only debunk them, but also make changes that can result in better outcomes for your students.

Myth #1: The ability to speak English (or not) is a measure of intelligence.

Fact: It can be easy to focus on what students can't do instead of what they can do. But consider this: English language learners are not only on the path to learning English, they're also on their way to becoming multilingual. It's not as unusual as you may think. Research shows that 20 percent of school-age children in the United States are bilingual.

ELLs bring unique skills, gifts, and talents to the classroom. They often have rich background experiences, different perspectives, and the ability to navigate between multiple languages and cultures. They may also have sophisticated social-emotional skills (such as being tuned in to body language and tone of voice).

In fact, when some of these kids were asked what they wished their teachers knew about them, they said they wanted teachers to remember that they're intelligent. They also wanted to build meaningful relationships with their teachers.

Strategies for successfully addressing this myth in the classroom:

Myth #2: Students who rarely speak have a speech delay or auditory processing disorder.

Fact: Many students who are starting the process of learning a new language go through a nonverbal or "silent period." It's not unlike when toddlers and preschoolers first acquire language. They typically understand what they hear before they learn how to speak.

The length of the silent period when learning a new language depends on several factors. The richness of the student's language instruction and interaction in the classroom both matter. Students' confidence and whether they're being encouraged to take risks are key, too.

Even students who understand much of what they hear may still speak in short phrases or remain silent if they are not specifically engaged or don't feel welcome to participate in the classroom.

Strategies for successfully addressing this myth in the classroom:

Learn more about the stages of language acquisition and ways to support oral language development.

Look for ways to increase students' speaking time in class. Expert Claudia Rinaldi, PhD, suggests timing the amount of "teacher talk time" vs. "student talk time." She also suggests setting a goal for increasing the student talk time each week. For example, provide more "turn and talk" opportunities so students can interact with peers.

Give your English language learners questions they can answer ahead of time, and tell them they can try to answer during the classroom instruction. Also allow for ample time between when you ask questions and when you call on students.

Look at data from the student's most recent English language proficiency exams. Things to look for include: How do speaking and listening compare to reading and writing? Do the scores match what you've noticed in class?

Partner with your school's ESL teacher to learn strategies to increase student talk time, and to get support in interpreting student data.

Myth #3: Students who don't understand spoken directions have a learning disability.

Fact: In many situations, students are actually succeeding, even though it doesn't look like success to their teacher. Consider this scenario:
A kindergarten teacher is concerned that despite her engaging, rich use of literacy and language in the classroom, she has an English language learner who continues to struggle to tell the difference between initial consonant sounds. The teacher asks a bilingual colleague to observe a lesson. When she asks students for words that begin with the The student she's concerned about raises his hand and says confidently, "Maestra." The teacher gently tells him that this word begins with the /m/ sound. He looks down at the carpet, confused. /t/ sound, the native English-speaking students give examples like "tooth," "treat," and "tower."

Invite a bilingual colleague to observe your class or to review some student work.

Learn more about making your teaching more student-friendly and easier to understand. ELL-friendly strategies can help, including things like using visuals, graphic organizers, and concrete, everyday objects.

Use visuals to support written instructions or have students repeat the instructions to each other.

After class, the bilingual colleague explains to the kindergarten teacher that " maestra" is the Spanish word for "teacher."

This scenario is a clear example in which a student is succeeding, even though it doesn't look like success to the teacher. At first, it looked as though the student was struggling with phonemic awareness, which can be a sign of a learning disability.

With the support of her colleague, the teacher was able to recognize that the student understood what was being asked of him, but didn't know enough English yet to say all the words he understood.

Strategies for successfully addressing this myth in the classroom:

Myth #4: ELLs will get the kinds of support they need in special education classes.

Fact: A special education placement in and of itself is not an appropriate strategy to help English language learners succeed.

However, some schools may provide special education services to these students with the assumption that it will provide at least some help. This is often because special education services are designed to meet an individual student's needs and provide supports that may not be available in the general education classroom. It can also happen because there are certain strategies that support both students who need specially designed instruction and English language learners.

Learn more about the differences between the goals of special education services and ESL services to better understand what each is addressing and the support they are providing students.

Keep in mind that sometimes this kind of policy reflects a bigger, systemic issue at the school or district level. Nevertheless, small steps on behalf of individual students can add up to systemic change over time because you can use these small successes to advocate for bigger changes.

Know the services your school provides for ESL students. Talk with an ESL teacher about how the programming works and whether the response to intervention (RTI)/multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) takes the needs of these learners into account.

Start to identify some small areas you might like to focus on together in collaboration with the ESL teacher in order to improve outcomes for ELLs. You can also identify some bigger aspirational goals to work on over time.

ELLs have specific language, literacy, and academic needs. They need exposure to a rich language environment and scaffolded support that matches their level of language proficiency. Like all students, they also need access to the same rigorous curriculum as their peers. (Ideally, they will also have some level of academic support in their native language in order to tap into existing content knowledge and prior experiences.)

This is not to say that when an English language learner experiences academic challenges, it is always only a question of language. But special education placement without careful consideration is not likely to help.

Researchers note that more traditional interventions that help students with language-based learning disabilities often do not help students acquire proficiency in a second language. In fact, it can sometimes present additional challenges by limiting access to core curriculum and focusing on discrete skills taught out of context. This constricts language usage and can make it more difficult for ELLs to understand and retain information.

Strategies for successfully addressing this myth in the classroom:

Myth #5: Schools should wait a certain amount of time before assessing an ELL for special education services.

Fact: Providing special education services to English language learners when they don't need them focuses on overidentification. But the challenge of underidentification is also widespread. That's when schools don't identify students as needing special education services when they do need them.

Ask yourself if the policies and practices at your school serve the needs of the students in front of you. If you see some areas that might need to be revisited, talk with the ESL teacher, special education staff, and other colleagues. Making even small changes can build momentum for bigger change down the road.

Continue to closely monitor progress and determine the most appropriate course of action for students about whom you or a parent has ongoing concerns.

Advocate on behalf of the students about whom you have concerns by speaking with your school's teacher assistance team or by making a referral for special education evaluation.

Learn about the students' native language and educational background. And ask parents if their child is showing similar challenges in the native language. Share that information with the ESL teacher, and work closely together to corroborate that this is what is happening at school as well.

One of the most common reasons for underidentification is the use of subjective policies that determine when to test an ELL student for special education services. Many of these policies are put in place to avoid overidentification. But one expert notes that this can result in overcorrection, leading to students not getting the help they need in a timely manner.

For example, some schools decide to wait anywhere from one to seven years before assessing an English language learner for special education. That's because students generally take five to seven years to acquire an academic language.

Those policies don't consider the needs of students who may be struggling all of that time. Researchers point out that students have a better opportunity to be successful in school when they're identified sooner rather than later, and supported in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.

Strategies for success in the classroom:

What You Can Do Next

Becoming better informed about the needs of your English language learners is a great first step to helping them succeed. It also can help you begin to identify what's working (or not) in your setting. Don't be afraid to ask questions, try new things, develop new collaborative relationships, and share what works with your colleagues.

As you learn about your students' family background, learn more about the educational system they come from and cultural interactions as well. It allows you to interact with families in ways that respect their culture and cultural perspectives on education and learning challenges. You might just find the opportunity you've been looking for to make a difference for your students.

Additional Resources to Explore

Acknowledgements

This article originally appeared on Understood as part of a partnership between Colorín Colorado and Understood. ©2019 Understood For All, Inc.

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5 Myths About English Language Learners (ELLs) and Special Education

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When English language learners (ELLs) experience challenges in school, it can be hard to figure out why. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about services and supports for students who are learning English. Knowing the facts behind these myths can help you not only debunk them, but also make changes that can result in better outcomes for your students.

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Questions I still have: How can ESL teachers and school boards better address students who are ELLs and have special needs?  Specifically, identifying older learners who are not progressing through the ELL program in a timely manner.  How does one address the difficulty of separating language acquisition from underlying learning issues and past trauma?

# data[].attributes.subject
Questions I still have: How can ESL teachers and school boards better address students who are ELLs and have special needs?  Specifically, identifying older learners who are not progressing through the ELL program in a timely manner.  How does one address the difficulty of separating language acquisition from underlying learning issues and past trauma?