The selected article by Becker and Deris (2019) undertakes a qualitative study on identification of Hispanic ELLs in special education. The study intends to identify the role played by staff members’ efficacy in accurate determination of an ELL learner with an exceptionality. According to the text, children who are not proficient in English may feel defeated when placed together with proficient learners in mainstream classes where there is limited first language support. In the recent past there has been overrepresentation of ELL students in special education programs. Failure to design programs standards by states at the pre-school level for early intervention make students be dubbed as learning disabled due to limited opportunities. The process followed by school professionals in referring ELLs to special education department to evaluate the learner as disabled or not is erroneous. Lack of proper testing tools make the school professionals unprepared to appropriately evaluate and assess the ELLs which misinforms proper placement. According to Becker and Deris (2019), overrepresentation of students from linguistically diverse origins in special education create the need for instructors to be culturally competent. Lack of skills to differentiate between learning disability and language difference by school professionals’ further compound the placement of ELLs in special education programs.
According to Bandura social cognitive paradigm, personal efficacy of school professionals’ perception has a direct relationship with their practices. A belief that one is competently performing a task translate to high levels of motivation which predicts subsequent practices. The Bandura’s theory is applicable to the way teachers and child study teams function in a school environment where collective decision making is crucial ( Becker & Deris, 2019) . The qualitative study seeks to unearth how personal and general efficacy beliefs among school professionals when evaluating ELL students or absence of proper program standards may impact Hispanic ELLs overrepresentation in special education. The research study is imperative to school professionals as it instils insights necessary to make staff members empowered, confident and knowledgeable when enacting decisions such as evaluating ELLs for proper placement.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The information presented by the article can be incorporated to address the problem of underidentification or overidentification of ELLs, which leds to disproportionality of learners in special education placement. The research plays a critical role in identifying the ideal number of teachers with ESL certifications which would be necessary to increase the accuracy of ELLs special education placement. The data presented by the article can be adopted by instructors in assessment of English Language Learners to identify students requiring special educations, their specific disabilities and placement categories. The article makes a meaningful contribution in identifying factors that predict disproportionality and patterns of representations with states. The reading has determined causes that contribute to disproportionality of ELLs such as eligibility criteria in different states applied in special education categories, degree of assessment and inconsistent identification. The information can be adopted by instructors in determining the number of student’s classification in restrictive programming.
The article emphasizes that it is crucial for professionals and staff members in schools to have necessary training and experience when effecting decisions for ELLs such as placement. Schools can adopt the recommendations made by the article to retrain the teachers and hire experienced instructors who would are empowered, confident and knowledgeable in assessing ELLs. The article recommends that instructors ought to be trained on a bilingual assessment course and a second language acquisition to make them competent in enacting decisions pertaining language difference versus language disability. The states can rely on suggestions made by the article to draft a policy requirement for teachers to have a mandatory training on both bilingual assessment and second language acquisition which would make school professionals culturally competent and prepared in appropriately evaluating and assessing ELLs for proper placement. The respondents who took part in the interviews identified the barriers ELLs face such as language, failure to attend school in the previous country, the curriculum used by districts and the child’s parent’s educational level. The information presented in the qualitative study can be adopted by states to design program standards that enact prompt measures for early bilingual program intervention at the pre-school level. The impediments identified can be used by instructors in future classrooms to address the root cause of challenges faced by ELLs thereby improving their education outcomes. The information is vital in identifying the ELLs strengths and weaknesses which would enable determination of potential disabilities in the child’s native language. The article can be incorporated to implement student home language survey programs to learners with exceptionalities. The exercise would be critical in appropriately placing children with special needs in education programs that are congruent with state and federal guidelines ( Piazza, Rao & Protacio, 2015) .
Incorporation of the article data would necessitate increased access to early intervention services to children with disabilities for example by being enrolled in private pre-school with high quality programs. The recommendations in the article if implemented would make different states prepared to offer substantive early intervention programs that match the needs of ELLs learners with exceptionalities. The information can be incorporated in future classroom instructions to design culturally responsive interventions tailored to foster active learning engagement of ELLs leading to improved education outcomes ( Barrio, 2017) . English proficiency can be improved through tracking and monitoring of ELL students success rates further fostering language improvement among ELLs with exceptionalities.
References
Barrio, B. L. (2017). Special education policy change: Addressing the disproportionality of English language learners in special education programs in rural communities. Rural Special Education Quarterly , 36 (2), 64-72.
Becker, G. I., & Deris, A. R. (2019). Identification of Hispanic English language learners in special education. Education Research International , 2019 .
Piazza, S. V., Rao, S., & Protacio, M. S. (2015). Converging recommendations for culturally responsive literacy practices: Students with learning disabilities, English language learners, and socioculturally diverse learners. International Journal of Multicultural Education , 17 (3), 1-20.
