ELLs with Disabilities: What the Literature Has to Say

1. ELLs with Disabilities: What the Literature Has to Say Adapted presentation by Soyoung Park Stanford Graduate School of Education ELL SCASS Meeting June 24, 2014

2. Think of 2 or 3 important policy and/or practice related questions about ELLs with disabilities that you would like to have answers to (if they exist). Please jot these questions down

3. Agenda Part One: • Who are English language learners with disabilities? • Assessment and Identification Concerns • Small Group Discussion Part Two: • Issues of Representation • Instruction and Interventions • Small Group Discussion Part Three: • Discussion: Lingering Questions

4. English Language Learners with Special Needs Overview of the Literature (77 articles) Overview and Background (6 articles) Miscellaneous (7 articles) Assessment and Identification (22 articles) Instruction and Intervention (28 articles) Representation (18 articles)

5. Who are ELLs with Disabilities? • Students who are eligible for both special education services and English language development/bilingual programs • 2009-2010 School Year: • 518,088 students with disabilities classified as LEP (8.5%) • CA highest percentage of all ELLs identified as having disabilities (2%) • More than half of all states report providing SpEd services to less than 0.5% of ELLs (Office of Special Education Programs Data Accountability Center, 2013)

6. Who are ELLs with Disabilities? • In 2009-2010, states reported the following languages most commonly spoken by ELLs with disabilities: Arabic (29 states) Chinese (32 states) Hmong (7 states) Russian (7 states) Somali (10 states) Spanish (32 states) Vietnamese (31 states) (2009-2010 Consolidated State Performance Reports)

7. Who are ELLs with Disabilities? • Most common disability categories for ELLs: • Specific learning disabilities (SLD) • Speech/language impairments (SLI) • Intellectual disabilities (ID; formerly MR) • Emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD; formerly ED) • 2006 OCR study: 88% of students with disabilities in need of ELD/bilingual instruction received it • Many children only get one or the other when need both • Many children get both when only need one or the other

8. Assessment and Identification • Challenge: disabilities v. language proficiency issues • What level of proficiency should ELLs acquire before referred for SpEd evaluation? • Educators tend to jump to LD diagnosis • Lack of information on what educators need to understand about second language acquisition • Importance of considering instruction and interventions students already received (usu. in RtI model)

9. Assessment and Identification Common characteristics in language development of ELLs and students with language related disabilities (Case & Taylor, 2005; Chu & Flores, 2011)

10. Assessment and Identification • Problems with assessments • Evaluations for SpEd eligibility all in English • No adequate measures to determine when ELLs ready to be assessed in English • Evaluations tend to be linguistically complex • Referral process is subjective and biased • RtI interventions rarely culturally relevant • One study finding: Psychological evaluation reports for ELLs tend to ignore state and professional guidelines on how to conduct nondiscriminatory assessments (Figueroa & Newsome, 2006)

11. Assessment and Identification • Recommended assessment techniques Approaches to Assessment Multiple step process (RtI) Collaborative teams Assess in dominant language Trained interpreters Assess cultural responsiveness of school Alternative and Supplementary Assessments Analytic teaching Curriculum-based assessment Language sampling Narrative analysis Portfolio assessments

12. Discussion Questions • What stood out to you in the information presented about who ELLs with disabilities are? • What stood out to you about issues related to assessment and identification of ELLs with disabilities? • Is there anything else you would like to know more about regarding demographics of ELLs with disabilities or issues of assessment/identification? • What are common problems educators in your district face with regards to assessment/identification? What initiatives, if any, have been taken to address these problems?

13. Representation • Long history of overrepresentation of students with “low status” backgrounds in SpEd • Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans tend to be overrepresented compared with whites and all students • Asians tend to be underrepresented, with the exception of some Southeast Asian groups • English language learners tend to be disproportionately labeled LD and SLI

14. Representation At national level, ELLs not overrepresented in SpEd (Zehler et al, 2003)

15. Representation Other studies focusing on single states with high ELL populations:

16. Representation • Consequences of disproportionate representation (Artiles et al, 2010): • Over 1/3 of students with LD drop out of school • Culturally and linguistically diverse students with LD less likely to go to college than white students with LD • Estimated range of youth with disabilities in detention, private & public correctional facilities: 30-70% • Disproportionate representation signals larger systemic issues and the need for more culturally responsive practice in schools

17. Instruction and Interventions • Recommendations for Classroom: • Culturally responsive pedagogy • Primary language support/instruction • Actively involve students’ parents in learning • Regular dialogue between teachers and students • Oral language development • Collaborative learning tasks • Focus on developing higher order cognitive skills

18. Instruction and Interventions Instructional practices and interventions shown to have positive outcomes for ELLs with disabilities • Classroom instruction: • Instructional conversations • Sheltered content instruction • Peer assisted learning strategies (PALS) • Differentiated instruction using Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences • Fostering self-monitoring skills • The Olé Project • Interventions: • Phonological awareness interventions • Embedded in writing and vocabulary lessons • Combined w/ token economy • Intensive, small group reading interventions

19. Instruction and Interventions • Teacher preparation • Lack of preparation to serve ELLs with special needs • Rodriguez (2005): What do bilingual special education practitioners think is most needed in teacher prep programs? • 100 practitioners • 85% proficiency in two languages • 82% knowledge of assessments • 79% planning and delivery of instruction • 71% cultural competence • 67% promoting and maintaining professionalism

20. Discussion Questions • What stood out to you in the information presented about the representation of ELLs in special education? • What stood out to you in the information presented about instruction and interventions for ELLs with disabilities? • Are there any other issues related to representation or instruction and interventions that you would like to know more about? • What are common problems educators in your state/district face with regards to these topic? What initiatives, if any, have been taken to address these problems?

21. Whole Group Share What are some additional questions that you have?

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