The Misrepresentation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Special Education

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick A. Grant ◽  
Richael Barger-Anderson
2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 244-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda L. Sullivan

The debate surrounding disproportionality in the identification of culturally and linguistically diverse students for special education, and in the category of emotional disturbance in particular, remains highly contentious, particularly as scholars grapple with the meaning and causes of disproportionality. In this article, I discuss assumptions underpinning this line of scholarship and implications for the meaning we make of research findings related to disparities in special education and students’ needs. Efforts to understand and address inequity must be juxtaposed with the imprecise, and at times inscrutable, conceptual, psychometric, procedural, and causal issues surrounding identification and potential disproportionality, even while maintaining a fundamental desire to benefit students.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Peterson ◽  
Stephen Showalter

This paper describes why special education teachers are needed to meet the needs of the increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities in the United States.  The paper presents innovative approaches to recruiting and training culturally responsive special education teachers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette K. Klingner ◽  
Alfredo J. Artiles ◽  
Elizabeth Kozleski ◽  
Beth Harry ◽  
Shelley Zion ◽  
...  

In this article, we present a conceptual framework for addressing the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education. The cornerstone of our approach to addressing disproportionate representation is through the creation of culturally responsive educational systems. Our goal is to assist practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in coalescing around culturally responsive, evidence-based interventions and strategic improvements in practice and policy to improve students’ educational opportunities in general education and reduce inappropriate referrals to and placement in special education. We envision this work as cutting across three interrelated domains: policies, practices, and people. Policies include those guidelines enacted at federal, state, district, and school levels that influence funding, resource allocation, accountability, and other key aspects of schooling. We use the notion of practice in two ways, in the instrumental sense of daily practices that all cultural beings engage in to navigate and survive their worlds, and also in a technical sense to describe the procedures and strategies devised for the purpose of maximizing students’ learning outcomes. People include all those in the broad educational system: administrators, teacher educators, teachers, community members, families, and the children whose opportunities we wish to improve.


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