Author(s): Fiedler, Craig R., Bert Chiang, Barbara Van Haren, Jack Jorgensen, Sara Halberg, Lynn Boreson
Published: May 2008 in Teaching Exceptional Children
URL to article
Research Focus Area: Asset-based best practices for serving students with disabilities/students in special ed
Abstract:
This article presents information on culturally responsive practices in schools and provides a checklist to address the issue of disproportionality in special education. The authors examine the overrepresentation of students with racial, cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity (RCELD) in special education. They explore how this has been handled from a legal perspective and discuss the passage of the Individuals With Disabilities Act of 2004 and the updated requirements that address this issue. The authors investigate the Checklist to Address Disproportionality in Special Education, discuss its purpose and examine how it has been used to promote improving the academic experience of RCELD students with disabilities.
Research Question(s):
How are students, especially RCELD students, identified for special education programming? How can schools address the issue of disproportionality in special education?
Methods:
Literature Review
Setting:
elementary, middle, and high school records of students evaluated for specific learning disabilities (SLD) and/or emotional behavioral disabilities (EBD). The records included students who were White, African American, and Native American.
Key Findings:
- Disproportionality is generally defined as “the representation of a particular group of students at a rate different than that found in the general population”. This article is concerned with the overrepresentation of students with racial, cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity (RCELD) in special education
- The most recent reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 requires states and local education agencies (LEAs) develop policies and procedures to prevent the overidentification of students with RCELD
- the issue of a disproportionality of RCELD students in special education should be regarded as harmful only when special education placement results from
- inadequate general education programs
- inappropriate assessment practices, or
- ineffective special education programs.
- Checklist to Prevent Disproportionality in Special Education (CADSE)
- In an effort to address the disproportionality issue, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction funded a collaborative 2-year project to develop the Checklist to Address Disproportionality in Special Education (CADSE)
- The checklist is designed to help school staff think more deeply about issues and practices that may contribute to the overrepresentation of students with RCELD in special education. Its aim is to ensure that the limited resources of special education are reserved for students with RCELD who are truly disabled.
- The CADSE to eliminate the assumption or prediction that a student with RCELD will most likely be placed into special education
- The CADSE was designed to help school staff identify and discuss both internal and external factors to the issue of disproportionality. Internal factors include School wide ecology and supports General education teacher beliefs and practices Early intervening services IEP processes
- External factors include The impact of high stakes assessment and accountability demands School district priorities and policies
- the CADSE has demonstrated its potential to increase educators’ awareness of the disproportionality issue and factors that contribute to the problem. It offers guidance in leading crucial discussions on the culture and climate of schools, classrooms, and IEP teams.
- Sections of the CADSE Checklist
- Section I: Culturally Responsive Beliefs and Practices of Schools and General Education Classrooms This section is designed to review the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the schoolwide and general education classroom practices, services, and programs. It contains a school and general classroom profile that establishes necessary context in assessing any student’s academic and behavioral performance, and can be reviewed or completed annually for each school.
- Section II: Culturally Responsive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (EIS) and Referral to Special Education This section focuses on coordinated early interventions, including classroom-specific supports, schoolwide supports, and time-limited specialized support. Use of the checklist encourages development of appropriate supplementary services and accommodations to address the needs of a student with RCELD who evidences academic and behavioral deficiencies within the general education classrooms.
- Section III: Culturally Responsive IEP Team Decision Making-Evaluation and Determination of Eligibility This sections addresses students at the stage at which they been referred for special education evaluation, during which specific issues, beliefs, and practices pertaining to special education referral, assessment, and determination of eligibility are reviewed and assessed.
Implications:
The authors offer the following recommendations for future iterations of the CADSE
- Educators should continue to use and improve upon the CADSE, as it has proved effective in increasing the diligence of educators in documenting the basis for their decisions at all stages of the special education process
- Any comprehensive systems-change efforts to address disproportionality must involve both general and special education systems and personnel.
- The use of the CADSE needs to be accompanied with ongoing professional development programs involving all teachers and pupil services staff. If proper training is lacking, the CADSE may not be applied consistently across students and schools.
- Two organizations in particular are on the leading edge in developing professional development materials related to culturally responsive educational practices. the National Institute for Urban School Improvement [MUSI] at http://urbanschools.org the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt) at http://www.nccrest, org.
- to avoid the perception of excessive paperwork, the CADSE should be aligned with existing school initiatives and other school forms (e.g., student academic and behavioral monitoring systems, IEPs) to whatever extent possible
Limitations:
Though the CADSE has variation to support early-childhood-age students, k-12 students, and transfer students, this article addresses only the sections relevant to k-12 students.