Including Students With Disabilities and English Learners in Measures of Educator Effectiveness

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 234-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan D. Jones ◽  
Heather M. Buzick ◽  
Sultan Turkan
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Educator Effectiveness

Learning to Attend to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners through Teacher Inquiry in Teacher Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Steven Z. Athanases ◽  
Juliet Michelsen Wahleithner ◽  
Lisa H. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Diverse Learners ◽  
Teacher Inquiry ◽  
Classroom Culture ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Individual Student

Background/Context Learning to meet students’ needs challenges new teachers often focused on procedures, management, materials, and curriculum. To avoid this development pattern, student teachers (STs) need opportunities to concentrate especially on needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Teacher inquiry (TI) holds promise as one such opportunity. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We sought to understand how STs in a teacher credential program with a history of attention to diverse learners were learning about their CLD students through TI. Research Design We examined data collected from 80 STs over a 6-year period, including 80 TIs; STs’ data analysis field memos; questionnaires with reflections on TI processes and products; and taped ST peer discussions and conferences with instructor. Data also documented TI instruction, classroom culture, and opportunities to develop learning related to conducting TI. Drawing on research and theory, we developed, tested, and used a rubric of 17 indicators of attention to CLD learners as a means to examine the range of ways and the extent to which STs attended to CLD students through TI. Findings/Results STs took actions of various kinds to learn about diverse students: researching contexts and histories; examining student work and performance at full-class, subgroup, and individual levels; and asking and listening beneath the surface to students’ reasoning, attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about school learning and other issues. Various assessment and inquiry tools supported the process, helping STs develop data literacy to attend to CLD learners. However, TI elements were used to varying degrees, in various ways, and with varying levels of success. Two cases illustrate the range of TI tools that STs used to learn about their CLD learners, to generate data and evidence about learning, and to act in ways responsive to what they learned about students. Conclusions/Recommendations Those interested in studying multiple STs’ inquiries for attention to CLD learners may need to develop frames and analytic methods to examine a corpus of cases. This study was grounded in an assumption that such crosscutting analyses accumulate knowledge to disseminate to larger audiences, challenging conceptions that values of TI are purely local, serving only those directly involved. Teacher inquiry can help focus attention on individual student learners by allowing a teacher to compare data among individual students, giving a clearer, organized format in which they can observe growth and improvement or a decline in performance. In my own project, I observed lower performance among specific students concurrent with assignments in which instructions may have been difficult to decode for English learners or students with disabilities. (Tracey, preservice English language arts teacher)

Remote Schooling Supports for Linguistically Diverse Parents of Students With Disabilities

2021 ◽  
pp. 105345122110510
Author(s):  
María Cioè-Peña
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Speech And Language Impairment ◽  
Marginalized Learners ◽  
High Incidence Disabilities

Remote schooling has increased in prevalence. Although remote schooling may feel novel, remote and online educational requirements have been consistent parts of the educational landscape for years. Remote schooling increases learning opportunities within the home, magnifying the need for home-school collaborations to support the academic and socio-emotional development of marginalized learners in urban settings, particularly multiply marginalized learners such as students classified as English learners who also have a high incidence disabilities (e.g., learning disability, speech and language impairment, autism spectrum disorder). Much policy and practice around remote schooling centers on ensuring students have access to devices and technology; little consideration is given to what happens after devices are distributed, especially within culturally and linguistically diverse households. This paper explores considerations to be made before, during, and after engaging in remote schooling, whether it’s for short- or long-term use, to ensure that students who are dually classified are not digitally excluded during remote schooling.

Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn

2022 ◽  
pp. 207-223
Author(s):  
Kimy Liu ◽  
Debra Bukko
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Teaching Approaches

Preservice teachers are developing their professional identity while honing their teaching skills. Without transformative learning experience, preservice teachers will teach students the ways they were taught. They can have exclusive and deficit mindsets about students with disabilities (SWDs), many of whom are also English learners. Exclusive and deficit mindsets can lead to two teaching approaches: One is to treat SWDs as inferior to their typical peers. The other is to insist on standardized instruction for the sake of equality. In this chapter, the authors, as the teacher preparation faculty, confronted this challenge by engineering a transformative learning experience to liberate preservice teachers from the deficit mindsets about teaching students with disabilities.

scholarly journals “Boots on the ground”: The authority-power dynamic of regional service centers in standards-based reform

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Katie Pak ◽  
Jillian McLaughlin ◽  
Erica Saldivar Garcia ◽  
Laura M. Desimone
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Content Standards ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Standards Based Reform ◽  
Regional Service ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
Using Data ◽  
State Content

The current context of standards-based reform has positioned regional service centers (RSCs), intermediary governmental agencies that support state policy implementation in local districts, as a critical source of professional development (PD). In this article, we ask how a governing body that districts often interact with during challenging reform processes manages maintain strong relationships with district and school staff, and thus maintain their image as trustworthy experts on standards implementation. We explore these questions using data from 108 interviews of state, district, and regional administrators in education agencies in Ohio, Texas, and California over a three-year period. We illustrate that by providing districts with (a) differentiated support specific to their unique needs, (b) materials and tools consistent with state content standards, and (c) expertise in supporting students with disabilities and English learners in standards-based environments, RSC staff become, in the words of one state leader, the state’s trusted “boots on the ground.”

scholarly journals Factors that Optimize Engagement for Diverse Learners at Arts Performances for Young Audiences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Glass ◽  
Annie K. Schulz Begle ◽  
Jenelle M. Hallaert
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Diverse Learners ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Young Audiences ◽  
Cultural Organizations ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Positive Engagement

Field trips to museums and performing arts centers are not a frequent activity for most students, so how do cultural organizations learn how to make the most of these limited but potentially valuable “gateway experiences” towards increased arts participation? This paper examines the development of a short engagement survey instrument that was administered during three seasons of performances across art forms, grade levels, and student populations. The findings feature three statistically significant factors that may optimize positive engagement in the arts experience for students: prior experience of performances, lessons in the art from, and preparation for the performance. However, when the data is disaggregated by students who attend Title I schools, English learners, and students with disabilities, not all the factors predict higher positive engagement. The factor that may work across all populations and exclusively for students with disabilities is preparation. Practical implications for audience recruitment, accessibility supports, and learning design for diverse learners are then discussed.

scholarly journals Postsecondary Education-Focused Transition Planning Experiences of English Learners With Disabilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey A. Trainor ◽  
Lynn Newman ◽  
Elisa Garcia ◽  
Heather H. Woodley ◽  
Rachel Elizabeth Traxler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Transition Planning ◽  
Individualized Education Program ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
School Personnel ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Transition Study ◽  
National Longitudinal Transition Study

Transition planning is particularly important for dually identified English learners with disabilities, who frequently face additional challenges to postsecondary education success. This study examined postschool expectations, transition planning experiences, and supports of a nationally representative sample of English learners with disabilities, based on secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) 2012. Results demonstrated that these students’ experiences were similar to other students with disabilities except that, according to parents, the transition component of the individualized education program (IEP) was likely to be developed by school personnel, with little input from students and family members, and necessary information about careers and financial aid was lacking. These findings underscore the intersectional identities and related experiences of this population and the implications for policy, transition education, and school services.

Using an Ever–English Learner Framework to Examine Disproportionality in Special Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilana M. Umansky ◽  
Karen D. Thompson ◽  
Guadalupe Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Discrete Time ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
English Learner ◽  
Disability Categories ◽  
Overrepresentation In Special Education

Whereas most existing research has examined the prevalence of current English learners (ELs) in special education, we propose and test the use of the ever-EL framework, which holds the subgroup of EL students stable by following all students who enter school classified as ELs. Drawing on two administrative data sets, discrete-time hazard analyses show that whereas current EL students are overrepresented in special education at the secondary level, students who enter school as ELs are significantly underrepresented in special education overall and within most disability categories. Reclassification patterns, in part, explain these findings: EL students with disabilities are far less likely than those without disabilities to exit EL services, resulting in large proportions of dually identified students at the secondary level. These findings shed new light on EL under- and overrepresentation in special education and offer insights into policies and practices that can decrease EL special education disproportionality.

Students With Disabilities From Migrant Farmworker Families: Parent Perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
Georgina Rivera-Singletary ◽  
Ann Cranston-Gingras
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
School Personnel ◽  
Semistructured Interview ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Special Education Process ◽  
Education Process

Children of migrant farmworkers change schools frequently and must navigate through a maze of confusing and often inconsistent academic policies. Migrant students are often identified as English learners and some have disabilities, which results in additional academic and federal policies that families must contend with as they seek to support their children’s educational endeavors. Further affecting the school experience is the difficulty parents often have in working with school personnel who are unable to support the cultural and linguistic needs of migrant families. This study sought to explore the parents’ understanding of their children’s disability and the special education process and to learn about how migrancy affects those experiences specifically when they attempt to obtain special education services. Through an interpretive perspective, four migrant parents of children with disabilities were interviewed using a semistructured interview to collect data related to their perception of the special education process. The findings of the study are discussed, and recommendations for policy and practice are provided.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing Change: A proposed Shift in Global Discourse Surrounding Disability in Language Teaching

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-25
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Universal Design For Learning ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Individuals With Disabilities ◽  
The World ◽  
Design For Learning ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Global Discourse

This editorial proposes a conceptual and instructional shift surrounding educating English learners with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world, yet in many classrooms across the world, they often lack the opportunities and support needed to be successful. This is especially apparent in English as a second or foreign language classrooms, where students with disabilities need first to be included and then provided with structured and systematic supports to be successful. We suggest that an initial shift in the way that we think about disability is a necessary first step. This can then be supported by using Universal Design for Learning as a framework to reduce barriers in instruction and increase access and success for English learners. This editorial also introduces five articles, which aim to further the discourse and understanding of how to support individuals with disabilities learning English across countries and contexts.

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