Practice Perspective on Referral Issues

Lisa AaroePeoria Unified School District and

Arizona State University

Reaction to Article #1

Appropriate Eligibility Determinations for ELL Suspected of Having Reading-related LD

Memories of Cautions

*ELL 1.42-2.43 times more likely to be placed in sped

*Educators struggle with accurately identifying

*State fluctuations in representation

Questions I Had/Nice to Knows

What is “pure” ld? What were the qualifications of the

bilingual special ed. teachers? The majority of students entered in

pre-k or k (52%) Rating form used by expert panel Reasons why students were deemed

as ineligible by the expert panel

Frightening Findings

The panel and MDT did not concur in 9 of 21 cases

MDT’s didn’t consider exclusionary factors

Prereferral interventions not documented in some cases

General ed. Abandoned and was successful!

Yes!

Centralized record keeping Early intervention with adapting

general ed. Curriculum Document, document, document

Implications and future work

Design a documentation system to track interventions for ELL

Flow chart with attached recommendations, forms, etc.

Pre-service and school in-services on language development, prereferral practices, special factors to consider for ELL, exclusionary factors

Reaction to Article #2

The Special Education Referral and Decision-Making Process for English Language Learners

Memories of Caution

Differentiating between normal language acquisition vs. ld is challenging

Low English=Low Intelligence Over-emphasis on IQ scores for ELL School personnel give little attention to

classroom ecology Decisions made ahead of time based on

factors other than test data

Questions I Had/Nice to Knows

Why don’t school psychologist have to take more courses on ELL if they are the most influential?

Why isn’t more training provided to pre-service and Master’s level students?

Frightening Findings

District confusion regarding policies and procedures

A lot of confusion about ld vs. ELA High reliance on parental input with

regard to language proficiency

YIKES

“It is easier to identify students with ld when they are in a bilingual program because you can tell if they are having difficulties in Spanish and English. You can determine if the child’s difficulty is due to confusion learning a new language or something broader in both languages.”

Double Yikes!

“At level 3, you start forgetting the native language…”

“I only observe kids with behavior problems before testing them”

Bilingual assessor never present at meetings

Parents’ questions ignored or rudeness was apparent

Implications and Future Work

Poll teachers’ knowledge about the prereferral process and special considerations for ELL

More recommendations for observation considerations for ELL

How can advocacy training best be provided to parents of ELL?