Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally Responsive Early Intervening Services

1. Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally Responsive Early Intervening Services Elizabeth B. Kozleski Alfredo J. Artiles Amanda Sullivan Arizona State University www.nccrest.org

2. Early Intervening and RtI:Creating New Hope and Opportunities to Learn www.nccrest.org

3. Agenda • Introductions • What is NCCRESt? www.nccrest.org • Setting the context • Disproportionate representation • Responding to disproportionality • Background on Early Intervening Services (IES) • Our vision of EIS • Implications for RTI www.nccrest.org

4. Outcomes • Understand features of disproportionality • Understand culturally responsive systems and practice as a response to disproportionality • Understand role of culturally responsive early intervening in addressing disproportionality • Understand the implications of culturally responsive practices for RTI www.nccrest.org

5. www.nccrest.org

6. What is Disproportionality? • Disproportionate representation is defined as “the extent to which membership in a given group affects the probability of being placed in a specific special education disability category. ( Oswald, et. al. 1999.) • The disproportionate placement of students of a given ethnic group in special education programs, means that the percentage of students from that group in such programs is disproportionality greater than their percentage in the school population as a whole. www.nccrest.org

7. Does It Exist? • The disproportionate representation of ethnically and linguistically diverse students in special education programs has been a concern for over three decades. (Dunn, 1968; Johnson, 1969; Donovan & Cross, 2002) • Currently, African-Americans tend to be significantly overrepresented in two special education categories of mild mental disabilities and emotional/ behavioral disabilities ( Oswald, Coutinho, Best and Singh, 1999) www.nccrest.org

8. From Disproportionality to Early Intervening…. • What are the district’s data? • Risk Ratio • Identification, LRE, and Discipline • Is there a finding of significant disproportionality (under and over) based on a review of the district’s policies, procedures, and practices? • Triggering of 15% allocation of special education funding to early intervening in the general education environment www.nccrest.org

9. How do Az’s Data Compare? www.nccrest.org

10. Agenda  Introductions • What is NCCRESt? www.nccrest.org  Setting the context • Disproportionate representation • Responding to disproportionality • Background on Early Intervening Services (IES) • Our vision of EIS • Implications for RTI www.nccrest.org

11. Responding to Disproportionality What are Early Intervening Services? Coordinated, early intervening services,…, for students who need additional academic and behavioral support to succeed in a general education environment www.nccrest.org

12. EIS in IDEA Reauthorization (P.L. 108-446) EIS Activities: The funds are intended to build school staff capacity for delivering scientifically-based academic and behavioral interventions including scientifically-based literacy instruction and, … providing educational and behavioral evaluations, services, and supports. Sec. 613(f)(2) www.nccrest.org

13. Our Vision of EIS • The cultural nature of learning. • The crucial role of opportunity to learn. • The personal and institutional dimensions of professional practices. www.nccrest.org

14. Beyond Intrinsic or Family-based Deficits www.nccrest.org

15. Culture Learning Our Vision of Early Intervening Dis/ability www.nccrest.org

16. Complicating Culture www.nccrest.org

17. The Cultural Nature of Learning:Observing Human Activity on 3 Planes www.nccrest.org

18. The Classroom Culture: Curriculum • Beyond isolated reading skills • Other dimensions of the curriculum • Students’ funds of knowledge • Hidden curriculum (interaction rules, views of competence, assumptions about learning and knowledge) • Social organization of learning: Ways of participation. www.nccrest.org

19. Classroom CultureSThe social organization of learning • Teacher-student shared understandings of purpose of tasks & activities. • Participation frameworks in classroom discourse. • Rights and responsibilities of participants. www.nccrest.org

20. Classroom CultureSThe social organization of learning “The engagement of students in learning activities results from a connection between social participation structure (form) and academic curriculum (content). If the social participation structure is familiar to students, then performing with new academic content is less alienating. On the other hand, if the academic content is familiar or engaging, then students may be willing to try out new ways of interacting and using language” (Mehan et al., 1995, p. 132) www.nccrest.org

21. Our Vision of Early InterveningOpportunities to Learn Opportunity to learn includes… • access to key resources (qualified teachers, funding, relevant and rigorous curriculum); • factors related to the nature and implementation of school activities. www.nccrest.org

22. SUPPORT LEVEL 3 Special Education Services Eligibility • Support Level 2 • Prereferral • Referral • Assessment Professional Learning General Education Classroom Community Partnerships SUPPORT LEVEL 1 Intensive Instruction for Struggling Learners Family Connections www.nccrest.org

23. Opportunity to Learn • Instructional materials • Content and lesson delivery • Grouping strategies • Discourse patterns • Evidence of student understanding • Focus on equity in the classroom www.nccrest.org

24. Our Vision of EIS The cultural nature of learning.  The crucial role of opportunity to learn. • The personal and institutional dimensions of professional practices. www.nccrest.org

25. Personal Dimension of Professional Practice • Value cultural diversity as well as cultural similarities. • Learn about and value unfamiliar customs, traditions and beliefs in order to understand and appreciate cultural diversity better. • See themselves as agents of change. • Assume the role and responsibility of providing students with empowering instruction. • Understand the political nature of their work. • Are aware of how children’s cultural knowledge influences their thinking, behavior, self-concept, and learning. • Learn about their students’ lives outside of school. www.nccrest.org

26. Professional Practices • Value individual’s cultural and linguistic knowledge and skills, using them as resources for moving ahead, instead of focusing on differences or deficiencies. • Hold high professional and personal expectations for others. • Treat others as competent, assuming their success. • Encourage others to develop a broader and critical consciousness about social inequalities and the status quo. • Facilitate going beyond the constrained ways of knowing, and a single version of truth. www.nccrest.org

27. More Professional Practices • Build bridges between everyday experiences and new ideas. • Encourages individuals to apply cultural knowledge in their work. • Supports professional learning so that it becomes a contextualized and meaningful experience. • Leads in multidimensional ways that surface beliefs, feelings and factual information in teaching practices. www.nccrest.org

28. More Professional Practice • Encourage and organize the use of staff resources to gather and develop knowledge about culturally responsive practices, inside and outside the organization. • Make effective use of everyone’s time, responsibilities and materials to provide learning opportunities about culturally responsive practices in daily work. • Embrace organizational values, beliefs and norms that support culturally responsive professional communities. • Adopt leadership styles that allow collaborative work at the different administrative levels. www.nccrest.org

29. Institutional Practices • Provide organization members with opportunities to consume and create new knowledge, by embracing a “culture of inquiry.” Active work as scholars allows them to address problems or questions through the systematic study of teaching and learning. • Promote a collaborative environment, by providing time for teams to share read and think together about what they are doing and how it improves cultural practice. www.nccrest.org

30. Agenda Introductions • What is NCCRESt? www.nccrest.org  Setting the context • Disproportionate representation  Responding to disproportionality • Background on Early Intervening Services (IES) • Our vision of EIS • Implications for RTI www.nccrest.org

31. Implications for RTI Effective, research-based,culturally responsiveinstruction provided to ALL students in the general education classroom. www.nccrest.org

32. Implications for RTI Student Learning www.nccrest.org

33. Implications for RTI Student Learning • The IF and HOW of opportunities to learn • Determining Student Needs www.nccrest.org

34. Implications for RTI How do you measure: Teaching? Learning? What students already know? Student Learning www.nccrest.org

35. Implications for RTI Do I need to change the organizational structure of my classroom in order to accommodate more intensive instruction? What opportunities to practice new skills can be built into the day? Do I need to change the materials that students read or talk about in order to make them more meaningful to them? Student Learning Make Educational Decisions www.nccrest.org

36. Summary • Early Intervening • RtI www.nccrest.org

37. Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally Responsive Early Intervening Services Elizabeth B. Kozleski Alfredo J. Artiles Amanda Sullivan Arizona State University www.nccrest.org