Education Commons^™

Policy Brief: Exploring Response To Intervention’S Effectiveness With Students Of Color, Camille S. Talbert

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This policy analysis explores the effectiveness of Response to Intervention (RTI) at diminishing racial disproportionalities in special education. It includes a brief review of the legislative context of RTI. It also examines one contributing factor to the effectiveness of RTI—educator ideologies. The analysis concludes with implications and future policy directions.

Black Mother Scholars Matter: Navigating Anti-Black Educational Spaces For Our Black Boys, Pricella Morris, Monique Matute-Chavarria

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This article draws from Black Critical Theory to explain how two mother scholars advocated for their Black sons in an anti-black education system. Additionally, the article focuses on antiblackness to describe the social suffering and resistance through ideologies and educational practices our children experienced at the hands of teachers and teaching staff in private and public schools. The first story details the experience of racism and teacher bias of a typically developing Black child. The second story details the inequitable and racist experiences of a Black boy with autism. Each of these experiences highlight the importance of advocating for Black …

Understanding Equitable Assessment: How Preservice Teachers Make Meaning Of Disability, Melissa K. Driver

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Disproportionality of historically marginalized populations in special education continues to be a critical concern. The identification of students with disabilities is reliant on valid and reliable assessment that is free of bias. The extent to which this is possible given measurement constraints and an increasingly diverse student population is unclear. How teachers are trained to design, select, administer, score, and interpret assessment data related to the identification of students with disabilities is vastly under-researched considering the significant implications of assessment practices. In this study, six special education preservice teachers engaged in an assessment methods course during their second semester of …

Representation Of English Language Learners In Special Education: A Campus-Level Study, Ruby López, Diana Linn

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This study utilized relative risk ratios to examine the representation of English language learners in special education programs in elementary, middle, and high school campuses in a school district in South Texas. Results indicated that English language learners were both underrepresented and overrepresented in the school district. Furthermore, underrepresentation was greater at the elementary campuses and overrepresentation was greater at the secondary campuses. The use of disaggregated data on the campus level continues to be of importance in understanding the representation of English language learners in special education programs as it provides critical information that cannot be gleaned from data …

One Child's Story Of School-Experienced Isolation And Rejection, Gloria J. Gresham Dr.

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Abstract

For twelve years of school, a tiny girl endured isolation and rejection from her peers most likely due to a physical abnormality. As the girl remembers, the educators in a small, rural school district did little to support her as she was ostracized by her classmates and encourage other children to practice compassion. At times, the educators even participated in the rejection of the child. This is the story of a tiny, brown-eyed little girl who experienced isolation and rejection time and time again.

Keywords: isolation, rejection, bullying, abuse