Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally Responsive Early Intervening Services

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Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally
Responsive Early Intervening Services

• Elizabeth B. Kozleski
• Alfredo J. Artiles
• Amanda Sullivan
• Arizona State University

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Early Intervening and RtICreating New Hope and
Opportunities to Learn
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Agenda

• Introductions
• What is NCCRESt? www.nccrest.org
• Setting the context
• Disproportionate representation
• Responding to disproportionality
• Background on Early Intervening Services (IES)
• Our vision of EIS
• Implications for RTI

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Outcomes

• Understand features of disproportionality
• Understand culturally responsive systems and
  practice as a response to disproportionality
• Understand role of culturally responsive early
  intervening in addressing disproportionality
• Understand the implications of culturally
  responsive practices for RTI

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What is Disproportionality?

• Disproportionate representation is defined as
  the extent to which membership in a given group
  affects the probability of being placed in a
  specific special education disability category. (
  Oswald, et. al. 1999.)
• The disproportionate placement of students of a
  given ethnic group in special education programs,
  means that the percentage of students from that
  group in such programs is disproportionality
  greater than their percentage in the school
  population as a whole.

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Does It Exist?

• The disproportionate representation of ethnically
  and linguistically diverse students in special
  education programs has been a concern for over
  three decades. (Dunn, 1968 Johnson, 1969
  Donovan Cross, 2002)
• Currently, African-Americans tend to be
  significantly overrepresented in two special
  education categories of mild mental disabilities
  and emotional/ behavioral disabilities ( Oswald,
  Coutinho, Best and Singh, 1999)

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From Disproportionality to Early Intervening.

• What are the districts data?
• Risk Ratio
• Identification, LRE, and Discipline
• Is there a finding of significant
  disproportionality (under and over) based on a
  review of the districts policies, procedures,
  and practices?
• Triggering of 15 allocation of special education
  funding to early intervening in the general
  education environment

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How do Azs Data Compare?
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Agenda

• ? Introductions
• What is NCCRESt? www.nccrest.org
• ? Setting the context
• Disproportionate representation
• Responding to disproportionality
• Background on Early Intervening Services (IES)
• Our vision of EIS
• Implications for RTI

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Responding to Disproportionality

• What are Early Intervening Services?
• Coordinated, early intervening services,, for
  students who need additional academic and
  behavioral support to succeed in a general
  education environment

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EIS in IDEA Reauthorization (P.L. 108-446)
EIS Activities The funds are intended to build
school staff capacity for delivering
scientifically-based academic and behavioral
interventions including scientifically-based
literacy instruction and, providing educational
and behavioral evaluations, services, and
supports. Sec. 613(f)(2)
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Our Vision of EIS

• The cultural nature of learning.
• The crucial role of opportunity to learn.
• The personal and institutional dimensions of
  professional practices.

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Beyond Intrinsic or Family-based Deficits
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Our Vision of Early Intervening
Dis/ability
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Complicating Culture
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The Cultural Nature of LearningObserving Human
Activity on 3 Planes
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The Classroom Culture Curriculum

• Beyond isolated reading skills
• Other dimensions of the curriculum
• Students funds of knowledge
• Hidden curriculum (interaction rules, views of
  competence, assumptions about learning and
  knowledge)
• Social organization of learning Ways of
  participation.

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Classroom CultureS The social organization of
learning

• Teacher-student shared understandings of purpose
  of tasks activities.
• Participation frameworks in classroom discourse.
• Rights and responsibilities of participants.

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Classroom CultureS The social organization of
learning

• The engagement of students in learning
  activities results from a connection between
  social participation structure (form) and
  academic curriculum (content).
• If the social participation structure is
  familiar to students, then performing with new
  academic content is less alienating. On the other
  hand, if the academic content is familiar or
  engaging, then students may be willing to try out
  new ways of interacting and using language
  (Mehan et al., 1995, p. 132)

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Our Vision of Early Intervening Opportunities to
Learn

• Opportunity to learn includes
• access to key resources (qualified teachers,
  funding, relevant and rigorous curriculum)
• factors related to the nature and implementation
  of school activities.

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Professional Learning
General Education Classroom
Community Partnerships
SUPPORT LEVEL 1 Intensive Instruction for
Struggling Learners
Family Connections
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Opportunity to Learn

• Instructional materials
• Content and lesson delivery
• Grouping strategies
• Discourse patterns
• Evidence of student understanding
• Focus on equity in the classroom

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Our Vision of EIS

• ? The cultural nature of learning.
• ? The crucial role of opportunity to learn.
• The personal and institutional dimensions of
  professional practices.

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Personal Dimension of Professional Practice

• Value cultural diversity as well as cultural
  similarities.
• Learn about and value unfamiliar customs,
  traditions and beliefs in order to understand and
  appreciate cultural diversity better.
• See themselves as agents of change.
• Assume the role and responsibility of providing
  students with empowering instruction.
• Understand the political nature of their work.
• Are aware of how childrens cultural knowledge
  influences their thinking, behavior,
  self-concept, and learning.
• Learn about their students lives outside of
  school.

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Professional Practices

• Value individuals cultural and linguistic
  knowledge and skills, using them as resources for
  moving ahead, instead of focusing on differences
  or deficiencies.
• Hold high professional and personal expectations
  for others.
• Treat others as competent, assuming their
  success.
• Encourage others to develop a broader and
  critical consciousness about social inequalities
  and the status quo.
• Facilitate going beyond the constrained ways of
  knowing, and a single version of truth.

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More Professional Practices

• Build bridges between everyday experiences and
  new ideas.
• Encourages individuals to apply cultural
  knowledge in their work.
• Supports professional learning so that it becomes
  a contextualized and meaningful experience.
• Leads in multidimensional ways that surface
  beliefs, feelings and factual information in
  teaching practices.

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More Professional Practice

• Encourage and organize the use of staff resources
  to gather and develop knowledge about culturally
  responsive practices, inside and outside the
  organization.
• Make effective use of everyones time,
  responsibilities and materials to provide
  learning opportunities about culturally
  responsive practices in daily work.
• Embrace organizational values, beliefs and norms
  that support culturally responsive professional
  communities.
• Adopt leadership styles that allow collaborative
  work at the different administrative levels.

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Institutional Practices

• Provide organization members with opportunities
  to consume and create new knowledge, by embracing
  a culture of inquiry. Active work as scholars
  allows them to address problems or questions
  through the systematic study of teaching and
  learning.
• Promote a collaborative environment, by providing
  time for teams to share read and think together
  about what they are doing and how it improves
  cultural practice.

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Agenda

• ? Introductions
• What is NCCRESt? www.nccrest.org
• ? Setting the context
• Disproportionate representation
• ? Responding to disproportionality
• Background on Early Intervening Services (IES)
• Our vision of EIS
• Implications for RTI

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Effective, research-based, culturally
responsive instruction provided to ALL students
in the general education classroom.
Implications for RTI
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Implications for RTI
Student Learning
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Implications for RTI
Student Learning

• The IF and HOW of opportunities to learn
• Determining Student Needs

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Implications for RTI
How do you measure Teaching? Learning? What
students already know?
Student Learning
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Implications for RTI
Do I need to change the organizational structure
of my classroom in order to accommodate more
intensive instruction? What opportunities to
practice new skills can be built into the
day? Do I need to change the materials that
students read or talk about in order to make them
more meaningful to them?
Student Learning
Make Educational Decisions
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Summary

• Early Intervening
• RtI

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Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally
Responsive Early Intervening Services

• Elizabeth B. Kozleski
• Alfredo J. Artiles
• Amanda Sullivan
• Arizona State University