Training Sources

English Language Learners With Special Education Needs. Identification, Assessment, and Instruction

Artiles, Alfredo J., Ed.; Ortiz, Alba A., Ed.

Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC.

2002

English

English

European

Online Publication

Students with learning difficulties

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED482995
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED482995.pdf

The book describes the complex challenges involved in serving English language learners with special education needs. The authors belong to a small group of educators who have focused their research and teaching on this population of learners.
The Book Contents:
The Professional Practice Series. Acknowledgments.
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: English Language Learners With Special Education Needs. Contexts and Possibilities.
Prevention and Early Intervention
CHAPTER 2: Prevention of School Failure and Early Intervention for English Language Learners
Assessment and Identification
CHAPTER 3: Toward a New Model of Assessment
CHAPTER 4: Considerations in the Assessment of English Language Learners Referred to Special Education
CHAPTER 5: Parent-Professional Collaboration in Culturally Sensitive Assessment
CHAPTER 6: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Instructional Planning Nancy Cloud
CHAPTER 7: Effective Pedagogy for English Language Learners in Inclusive Classrooms
CHAPTER 8: Walking the Talk: The Joys and Challenges of Critical Pedagogy
Conclusion
CHAPTER 9: Educating English Language Learners With Special Education
Needs: Trends and Future Directions
References
About the Contributors
The book argues that English language learners with special needs require an array of educational services that take into account their linguistic and cultural background. This dual emphasis on language and culture and on a comprehensive system of service- from pre-referral to instruction – will force professionals to transcend what ntil now has been the field’s almost exclusive focus on student deficits.
Throughout the book, the authors use two terms to refer to culturally diverse student groups. Culturally and linguistically diverse is the broadest term and encompasses students, from African Americans to recently arrived immigrants, whose language and cultural backgrounds vary from that of the mainstream. English language learners are students whose first or home language is other than English and whose English skills are so limited that they cannot profit from instruction provided entirely in English without support.
The book explores this topic in fur sections. The first three sections – Prevention and Early Intervention, Assessment and Identification, and Instruction – discuss the continuum of service that students with special needs require. The final section – Trends and Future Directions – summarize the most important issues raised in the previous three sections.
Summary of each section of the book:
CHAPTER 1
In this chapter, is outline the context in which the education of English language learners with special needs is taking place. The authors begin with an overall of demographic changes at the national level, then discuss the educational performance of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and summarize disability prevalence data by race and language status.
CHAPTER 2
Describes a 3-phase model designed to prevent school failure and provide early intervention programs for struggling learners.
CHAPTER 3
Argues for shifting the paradigm from the traditional assessment model to a situated observational model. The situated model focuses on the classroom context and on identifying the conditions that result in improved teaching and learning.
CHAPTER 4
The authors discuss what educators need to consider when they assess English language learners for special education services.
CHAPTER 5
Shernaz Garcia first reviews the legal requirements for family participation in the assessment process. She then suggests strategies to involve families in eligibility assessments.
CHAPTER 6
Nancy Cloud discusses the critical components of instructional planning for English language learners with disabilities.
CHAPTER 7
The authors describe an alternative methods of language arts instruction that includes scaffolding strategies, effective pedagogy, and dual language instruction.
CHAPTER 8
The author presents a thoughtful discussion of Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed in relation to English language learners with disabilities.
In the concluding chapter, Leonard Baca, one of the founders of the bilingual special education field, reflects on major issues and charts future for the field.

The book is very well structured and describe the challenges involved in identifying, placing, teaching, and assessing English language learners with special education needs. It describes model programs and approaches, including early intervention programs, assessment methods, parent/school collaboration, and native and dual language instruction. All students deserve an education that meets their individual needs and capitalize on their strengths.
The goal of this book is practical: to provide professionals who work with these students useful and effective strategies to address their complex cultural, linguistic and learning needs.
The book provide the field with expert guidance in designing effective early intervention, assessment, and instructional programs and services for these students. The information in this book will be useful to practitioners working with all culturally and linguistically diverse students groups, the primary concern is with the education of English language learners with disabilities.
Overrepresentation of English language learners in special education is problematic because students without disabilities who have been referred to special education suffer negative consequences. Underrepresentation is equally troublesome because some students with disabilities are not receiving the special services that they are legally entitled to and that could help them reach their potential. It is the responsibility of general education programs to address the underachievement of English language learners and, at least initially, their disproportionate representation in special education programs.