Bilingual Special Ed

Come to the National Council for Exceptional Children 2013 Conference in San Antonio, TX on April 2, 2013.

Come and hear Julie and I speak about this critical issue. For registration please visiti www.cec.sped.org.

Leader: Julie Esparza Brown, Portland State University, and Claudia Rinaldi, Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative, EDC, Inc.

MTSS and ELLs– Bridging the research to practice divide with examples from Dual language programs, Sheltered ENglish programs, and transitional bilingual programs.

Since the passage of NCLB schools are charged with educating all groups of students to high levels. Given the varying backgrounds and diversity of English learners (ELs), schools are challenged to provide appropriate and effective instruction that leads to grade-level achievement. Through interactive presentations and case studies from different states, this workshop will review the critical student characteristics that must guide instruction and interventions in all bilingual program models AND English-only programs. Progress monitoring tools with demonstrated effectiveness with ELs will be reviewed and a unique framework for enhancing interventions (in English or another language) will be presented. Finally, a framework for least biased Tier 3 assessment will be analyzed and discussed. Do not miss this opportunity to become familiar with examples of work is working to increase the success of your English Learners!

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

Consider the unique factors in EL students’ background and make appropriate adjustments to instruction and interventions.
Choose progress monitoring tools with demonstrated reliability and validity for ELs.
Make decisions on appropriate growth for each EL student in consideration of their unique context.
Determine appropriate language of intervention in all bilingual program models (early-exit to dual language).
Apply a framework for least biased assessment in Tier 3 that systematically considers the cultural loading and linguistic demand of assessments.
Who Should Attend? K-12 General and Special Educators, Higher Education Educators

Do you have this question–
We have a student who is a formerly Limited English Proficient (FLEP) and is now failing. He has already been retained. Looking at his data, we are concerned that there may be issues that are beyond language with which he is struggling. In the mean time, as we transition to the WIDA MODEL and have no assessment program here at the school, what do I use and where do I get it?
I understand the challenge you are having and it seems as though you are going down a checklist of what would be an appropriate referral to special education. I am assuming this student is not a student receiving special education services right now.

Here are a few questions that can help guiden your problem solving process

If you can help me answer a few questions:

What grade is the student?
What is his/her background?
How long has he been in the US?
What is the family composition? Which language is spoken at home?
Has the child received interventions with fidelity (as intended for two cycles of 4-6 weeks?)
Does the student, as a FLEP, have average and age appropriate vocabulary in social situations? In academic situations?
Has there been a traumatic experience recently (i.e. Death in the family, shooting, family violence, divorce, loss of shelter, etc)?
What is the students reading level? Is there a history of DIBELS scores and what are they?
Was the child showing growth academically as he gained English and now he is not or has he/she been brought up for special education evaluation before and been denied?
Are there records of the assessments from previous years?
Is the SEI classroom, if in one, using category strategies consistently?