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Systems Analysis Tool for
Disproportionate Representation in Special Education
This document is a tool for conducting an examination of systemic school factors that influence disproportionate representation of students from racial and ethnic groups in special education. The review of the components below can be used to develop, review, and revise policies, procedures, and practices for systems of support to students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Culturally Responsive Curriculum (CRC) and InstructionGuiding Principle:
“Culture is central to learning” (The Education Alliance at Brown University, The Education Alliance, 2006, para 1). Full equitable access to education and opportunities to learn for all students from all cultures stem from pedagogy that acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures (The Education Alliance; Texas Education Agency, TEA, 2009b; 2009c). “Schools need culturally responsive instructional curricula and instructional strategies and materials to support the learning of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and to decrease the likelihood that these students will be referred for special education services” (Salend, Garrick Duhaney, & Montgomery, 2002, p. 293).
Definition:
“Culturally responsive instruction makes connections with students’ backgrounds, interests, and experiences to teach standards-based curriculum” (Schmidt, 2005, p. 1). Culturally responsive curriculum and instruction includes the following:
· Positive perspectives on parents and families
· Communication of high expectations
· Learning within the context of culture
· Student-centered instruction
· Culturally mediated instruction
· Reshaping the curriculum
· Teacher as facilitator (The Education Alliance, 2006, para 3).
Standards/Systems:
1. The district’s curriculum is aligned with state content standards and student expectations. / Evidence of District System:
2. Student learning data indicates that all ethnic subgroups are meeting the state standards in the core curriculum.
3. Curriculum development and/or selection include stakeholders from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
4. The cultural and ethnic content is embedded in the curriculum.
5. The curriculum allows for supports to and values students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
6. Instruction is aligned to the state curriculum.
7. Teachers use instructional materials that reflect the student’s culture and other background characteristics.
8. Teachers use instructional materials that are culturally sensitive to students’ diversity.
9. Instructional materials reflect persons or characters that are culturally and linguistically diverse in a positive light.
10. Instruction provides opportunities for students to make relevant connections between themselves and the task.
11. The district provides effective culturally responsive intervention options to be used in the event of student learning difficulties.
12. The district ensures that evidence based strategies used by staff for supporting students from diverse backgrounds meet state standards and mandated requirements.
13. The district ensures that all school personnel understand the different ways in which communication patterns influence engagement in learning and achievement of culturally and linguistically diverse students.
14. Teachers have thorough knowledge of language acquisition and dialect issues and how those impact new learning.
Summary of Findings for CRC and Instruction:
Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports / Classroom and Behavior Management
Guiding Principle:
“School districts can engage in a variety of actions to address the disproportionate use of exclusionary disciplinary practices with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. (Townsend, 2000). School districts and educators need to examine their behavioral expectations in terms of cultural biases and their usefulness in contributing to a safe, positive and, supportive learning environment that respects and affirms student diversity” (Salend, et.al, 2002, p. 294). Behavioral expectations need to be communicated and taught in a manner that supports student success while affirming cultural identity.
Definition:
Positive behavior support is an application of a behaviorally-based systems approach to enhance the capacity of schools, families, and communities to design effective environments that improve the fit or link between research-validated practices and the environments in which teaching and learning occurs. (OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)
Standards/System:
1. The district analyzes data by ethnic groups of student disciplinary reasons and actions taken. / Evidence of system:
2. The district reviews disciplinary reasons and possible disparities between expectations and cultural understanding.
3. Data collected from the disciplinary referrals is used for continuous improvement planning.
4. The district develops the Student Code of Conduct with stakeholders from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
5. The campus implements a school-wide positive behavioral intervention support system.
6. School behavioral expectations are clearly communicated to students, families and the community.
7. Teachers understand the ways in which race, ethnicity, culture, language, and social class interact to influence student behavior.
8. Teachers redirect inappropriate behavior in a way that values the cultural differences of the students.
9. The district ensures that educational and behavioral interventions are planned and implemented in a culturally appropriate manner.
Summary of Findings for Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports/Classroom and Behavior Management:
Services and Access to Programs
Guiding Principle:
“Because prereferral systems allow schools to intervene prior to the placement of students in special education (Kovaleski, Gickling, Morrow, & Swank, 1999), providing equal access to high quality prereferral and ancillary services can decrease the disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Colon, 1998; Ochoa, Robles-Peña, García, & Breuning)” (Salend, et.al, 2002, p, 291).
Definition:
Interventions [and support systems] delivered in the student's regular classroom that attempt to improve learning prior to a referral for formal special education evaluation (McCook, 2006; National Center for Culturally Responsive Education Systems, NCCRESt, 2008; National Center on Response to Intervention, NCRtI, 2010; Texas Education Agency, TEA, 2009).
Standards/Systems:
1. The district uses appropriate assessment practices to plan for and monitor interventions for struggling students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. / Evidence of System:
2. Effective research-based instructional alternatives are available for students who are struggling either academically and/or behaviorally that are at the universal tier 1 level (such as, but not limited to, tutorial programs, peer or expert consultation, remedial programs, co-teaching environments, general accommodations, guidance counseling, social skills training, anger management skills, peer mediation)
3. The majority of the students (75-90%) experience success academically and behaviorally.
4. Staff members identify and check to see if students have the prerequisite skills needed for new learning.
5. Student progress is monitored on the skills being taught.
6. Data is used to group students for the purpose of instruction. Are these student groups flexible?
7. Pre and post measures are compared to benchmarks and adjustments made as needed.
8. Teachers are trained on the use of progress monitoring tools, scoring and interpreting assessment results, and using those results to adjust instruction.
9. Campus problem-solving teams have a thorough understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
10. The campus problem-solving teams use data to focus on the effectiveness of instruction and the student’s progress with an intervention rather than eligibility.
11. Teachers understand the importance of fidelity and integrity of an intervention.
12. The district and campus administrators have a system for monitoring the fidelity and integrity of an intervention.
13. The district has a system in place to track special education and disciplinary referrals.
14. Data collected from the special education and disciplinary referrals is used for continuous improvement planning.
15. The campus implements a school-wide positive behavioral intervention support system.
Summary of Findings for Services and Access to Programs:
Assessment Practices of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Guiding Principle:
Language and cultural background influence student behavior and test performance. “Mere possession of the capacity to communicate in an individual’s native language does not ensure appropriate, nondiscriminatory assessment of individuals” (McGrew, Flanagan, & Ortiz, 1991, p. 291). Assessment of students from linguistic and cultural diverse populations involve a comprehensive nondiscriminatory collection of multiple sources of data to accurately draw conclusions of the determination of a disability.
Assessment personnel need to be aware of and consider the following key points in assessing students who are culturally and linguistically diverse using standardized, norm referenced instruments:
· All tests are culturally loaded and reflect the values, beliefs, and knowledge within the culture in which they were developed.
· All tests require some form of language affecting administration, comprehension and performance.
· Tests vary in the degree to which they are culturally loaded and the degree to which the require language.
· Interpretation of results from standardized tests using exisiting norms may be invalid for diverse individuals. (Flanagan & Ortiz, 2001, p. 231.)
Definition:
“Assessment in special education involves an instruction/assessment cycle that determines student strengths and needs, provides for interventions. . . . The term ‘assessment’ refers to the process of ascertaining, in a systematic way, the child’s learning status (Popham, 2007). Thus assessment is explicitly and completely linked to instructional strategies and interventions” (Grassi & Bulmahn Barker, 2010, p. 111).
Culturally responsive evaluation is implemented by evaluation personnel who possess the competencies necessary to assess students who are culturally and linguistically diverse using an approach that is fair and nonbiased. Culturally responsive evaluation personnel effectively consider the exclusionary clauses for eligibility and defend the results obtained in the assessment so that all students referred for the special education program receive fair and nonbiased assessment, placement, and services.
Standards/Systems:
1. The evaluation personnel consider the cultural and linguistic implications of the background experiences of each child referred for an assessment in special education
The evaluation personnel maintain the following competencies and skills:
· Cultural Knowledge Base
· Culturally Appropriate Processes
· Knowledge of Parent and Child Involvement
· Cultural Advocacy / Evidence of System:
2. The evaluation personnel view the referred child’s behavior or performance within the context of the learning environment or the ecology.
The evaluation personnel maintain the following competencies and skills:
· Ecosystems Assessment
· Culture-based Hypotheses
· Ecological Assessment
· Adaptive Behavior Evaluation
3. The evaluation personnel measure both performance and achievement using both informal and direct methods.
The evaluation personnel maintain the following competencies and skills:
· Authentic, skill focused assessment:
Ø Curriculum Based Assessment/Monitoring and Work Samples
Ø Crieterion-referenced tests and procedures
Ø Contextual participant observations
· Process, cognition focused:
Ø Dynamic Assessment
Ø Clinical Observations
Ø Assessment Based on Ordinal Scales
4. The evaluation personnel reduce potential bias and discrimination in the use of standardized tests.
The evaluation personnel maintain the following competencies and skills:
· Underlying Theory
· Cultural and Linguistic Bias
· Test Adaptations
· Test Selection
· Test Interpretation
5. The evaluation personnel collaborate across disciplines in evaluation and decision-making.
The evaluation personnel maintain the following competencies and skills:
· Establishing a Professional Assessment Team
· Inclusion of Parents in the Assessment Process
Summary of Findings for Assessment Practices of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students:
Resources/Staff Development
Guiding Principle:
“[S]chool districts need to train all staff members regarding effective practices for meeting the needs of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their families (Artiles et al., 2000; Kea & Utley, 1998)” (Salend, et. al, 2002, p. 296). Therefore school districts should offer staff development activities related to topics such as
· employing alternative student-centered assessment strategies;
· understanding the educational needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students;
· designing culturally sensitive programs that promote family involvement and empowerment; and
· employ culturally relevant instructional strategies and materials, curriculum modifications, and classroom management techniques. (Salend, et.al, p. 296.)
Definition:
Campus staff development may include activities that enable the campus staff to:
· plan together to enhance existing skills,
· share effective strategies,
· analyze student achievement results,
· reflect on curricular and instructional issues,
· analyze student achievement results,
· reflect on means of increasing student achievement,
· study research,
· practice new methods,
· identify students’ strengths and needs,
· develop meaningful programs for students,
· appropriately implement site-based decision-making, and
· conduct action research.
The campus staff development activities may be conducted using study teams, individual research, peer coaching, workshops, seminars, conferences, or other reasonable methods that have the potential to improve student achievement (Texas Education Code).
Standards/Systems:
2. The school or district offers staff development in areas that are aligned with the goals identified in program continuous improvement plans and incorporated into the district or campus improvement plans. / Evidence of System:
3. School or district administrators receive side by side training with their staff members.
4. The school or district offers staff development in the area of employing alternative student-centered assessment strategies.
5. The school or district offers staff development in the area of understanding the educational needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students.
6. The school or district offers staff development in the area of designing culturally sensitive programs that promote family involvement and empowerment.
7. The school or district offers staff development in the area of employing culturally relevant instructional strategies and materials, curriculum modifications, and classroom management techniques?
8. The school or district offers regular updates or follow up trainings on previous professional development training sessions?
9. The school or district offers training in research based methodologies and promising practices?
10. Which of these types of professional development does the school or district actively plan for? Check all that apply / Workshops and inservices
Coaching/ Peer Mentoring
College Coursework
Focused/ Study Groups
Conferences
Independent Study and Research
Teacher to Teacher Observations
Summary of Findings for Resources and Staff Development:
Family/Community Involvement and Empowerment
Guiding Principle:
“An important factor in students’ success in school is the involvement of families in a wide range of school activities (Voltz, 1998). Family members can be valuable resources in helping educators understand students’ strengths; needs; and cultural, linguistic, and experiential backgrounds and in helping develop and implement meaningful and effective educational programs” (Salend, et.al, 2002, p. 295).
Definition:
“Family involvement in education refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and activities of parents and other family members to support children’s learning and development” (Weiss, Kreider, López, & Chatman, 2005, p. xvii).
Standards/Systems:
1. What strategies does the school use for engaging families from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds? / Evidence of System:
2. Campus and district staff have the positive attitudes, effective communication skills, and cultural competence needed to achieve collaborative partnerships with families.
3. The campus uses parent input and data regarding school climate for improvement planning.
4. The campus communicates educational standards, achievement and intervention processes for struggling students in multiple methods.
5. Family members are greeted and welcomed immediately upon arrival to your campus.
6. Family members from cultural and ethnic diverse backgrounds are involved in the day to day parental involvement and volunteer activities of the campus.
7. Which of the following *types of family involvement are recognized and honored at the campus/district: / Caretaker-provides for students’ basic needs, assures regular attendance
Supporter of Student Learning-reinforces improvements in achievement or behavior
Attendee-attends parent/teacher conferences or other school functions
Informant-shares information about their child with school personnel
Consent giver-gives permission for field trips, testing, changes in placement, etc.
Member-parent/teacher organizations, room parent, etc.
Volunteer-works without being paid in a variety of activities
Advocate-acts or speaks to protect children’s rights
Decision-maker-participates in school governance
(TEA, 2009a).
Summary of Findings for Family/Community Involvement and Empowerment:
Resources:
Flanagan, D. & Ortiz, S. O. (2001). Essential of cross-battery assessment (1st ed). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, Incorporated.
Grassi, E.A., & Bulmahn Barker, H. (2010). Culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional students: Strategies for teaching and assessment. London: Sage Publications.
McCook, J.E. (2006). The rti guide: Developing and implementing a model in your schools. Danvers, MA: LRP Publications.
McGrew, K.S., Flanagan, D. & Ortiz, S.O. (1999). The Wechsler Intelligence Scales and cf-cg theory: A contemporary approach to interpretation. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.
National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (2008). Module 6: Culturally responsive response to intervention. Retrieved from http://www.NCCREST.org
National Center on Response to Intervention (2010, April). Essential components of rti: A closer look at response to intervention. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.rti4success.org
Office of Special Education Programs Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (2010). What are positive behavior interventions and supports. Retrieved from http://www.pbis.org/default.aspx.
Salend, S.J., Garrick Duhaney, L.M. & Montgomery, W. (2002). A comprehensive approach to identifying and addressing issues of disproportionate representation. Remedial and Special Education, 23 (5), 289-299. Retrieved from the EBSCO Database.
Schmidt, P.R. (2005, December). Culturally responsive instruction: Promoting literacy in secondary content areas. A White Paper published by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved from http://www.learningpt.org/literacy/adolescent/cri.pdf
Texas Education Agency Statewide Multicultural and Diverse Learners Decentralized Network (2009a). Responding educationally to learners: REAL Module: Family School Partnerships Edinburg, TX: Region One Education Service.
Texas Education Agency Statewide Multicultural and Diverse Learners Decentralized Network (2009b). Responding educationally to learners: REAL module: Systems of support. Edinburg, TX: Region One Education Service.
Texas Education Agency Statewide Multicultural and Diverse Learners Decentralized Network (2009c). Responding educationally to learners: REAL module: Designing instruction for diverse learners. Edinburg, TX: Region One Education Service.
Texas Education Code, Title 2: Public education: Chapter 21: Educators: Section 21.451: Staff development: Subchapter J: Staff development requirements. Retrieved from http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.21.htm#21.451
The Education Alliance at Brown University (2006). Teaching diverse learners: Principles for culturally responsive teaching. Providence, RI: Author. Retrieved from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml
Weiss, H.B., Kreider, H., López, M.E., & Chatman, C.M. (2005). Preparing educators to involve families: From theory to practice. London: Sage Publications.
© 2011 Texas Disproportionate Representation in Special Education Project,