Menu:
District Links:
External Links:
|
Are English Learners Overrepresented in Special Education?
A Small Statistical Study
A Question about English Learners in Special Education
A question about English Learners has been raised recently: Have English Language Learners (ELLs) been disproportionately placed in Special Education?
It's a legitimate concern. Research shows that ELs are typically either over-represented or under-represented in district Special Education programs across the U.S. The ELL population percentages are disproportionate when compared to their English speaking peer populations' percentages.
A digest entitled "Before Assessing a Child for Special Education, First Assess the Instructional Program" contains the following paragraph:
"Research demonstrates that English language learners with the least amount of language support are most likely to be referred to special Education. ELs receiving all of their instruction in English were almost three times as likely to be in Special Education as those receiving some native language support. (Artiles 2002)"
No doubt this is an issue and should be a question that is asked periodically for quality monitoring. This paper will examine some of the statistics from the Roseville Joint Union High School District to attempt to answer the question.
What Are the Statistics?
When examined as an isolated group, it appears that ELLs are identified as Special Ed in a disproportionate fashion in the Roseville Joint Union High School District.
[Data collected 20 October 2009. Students with 504 plans were counted in the mainstream, and 30 students whose language designation had not yet been determined were excluded from the study.]
The percentage of English Learners in Special Education came in at slightly over 17%, which is more than two-and-a-half times the rate for whole school district. This statistic, however, is not an accurate representation of the English Learner population. Rather it is based on a population sampling that has been stratified twice.
The stratification occurs first in meeting the legal requirements for identifying English Learners and second in the legal requirements for exiting students from the English Language Development program.
Initial Identification and Classification of English Learners
All students enrolling in a California public school must complete the Home Language Survey (HLS). It is a document mandated by California Education code (Section 52164.1). The survey is designed to screen for significant exposure to languages other than English in order to assess the student for English language acquisition needs.
Testing the student is mandatory if any of these three questions are answered with a language other than English:
1. Which language did your son or daughter learn when he/she first began to talk?"
2. What language does your son or daughter use most frequently at home?"
3. What language do you use most frequently to speak to your son or daughter?" (CDE 2005, California Education Code §52164.1; California Code of Regulations 5CCR 4304))
Any student for whom the answers to the first three questions on the survey show an answer other than English must be administered the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) within 30 calendar days of enrolling in a California public school
Designating Students "Initial Fluent English Proficient"
Students who score high enough on the initial CELDT are classified as Initial Fluent English Proficient (IFEP). In the Aeries student database, they are recorded as "2" in the LangFlu (Language Fluency) field. Students must score at least "Early Advanced" on the CELDT in order to be classified as IFEP (CELDT 2009).
IFEP students need not be tested again with the CELDT unless a question is raised about the child's failure to make progress, and language acquisition issues are suspected. This is extremely rare.
Designating Students as English Learners
Students who score "Intermediate" or lower overall are classified as English Learners. In the Aeries student database, they are recorded as a "3" in the language fluency (LangFlu) field.
English Learners are retested with the CELDT annually. The CELDT is normed by age and grade, so in order to maintain the same level of fluency, a student must progress in his/her English language development. In order to test higher, a student's English language abilities must develop at a rate faster than normal development associated solely with grade level and age. Research has shown that it takes most students approximately 5-7 years to develop full language fluency (Collier 2005).
Redesignating English Learners
Students who attain age-level fluency in English shall be reclassified under state law (need reference). Law establishes minimum standards, and districts may adopt policy with stricter standards.
The policy adopted by the RJUHSD is slightly higher than the state minimum. Four conditions must be met in the RJUHSD for a student to be reclassified:
1. Score of "Early Advanced" or higher on the CELDT
2. Scale score of 325 or higher on the California Standards Test for English Language Arts
3. A grade of C or higher in an English language based course such as World History, Health, Biology, etc. Math, PE, Fine Arts and World Languages do not count).
4. Parental consent or agreement.
(Simplified. See district policy for exact requirements.)
When a student is reclassified (also called redesignation), his/her coding in the Aeries system is changed to "4" in the language fluency field.
Stratification of the Population Sample
In terms of population statistics, two rounds of stratification have occurred resulting in a population subgroup that no longer bears common characteristics with the larger population.
The first round of stratification was the initial CELDT testing and classifying students as Initial Fluent English Proficient (IFEP). These students speak another language besides English at home, yet they showed strong enough English skills when tested that they were determined to be fluent in English.
The second round of stratification occurs throughout the elementary, middle and high school years. English Learners are administered the CELDT annually. Students who score "Intermediate" or lower are ineligible for redesignation and remain classified as English Learners. Students who score high enough on the CELDT, become eligible for reclassification. The other redesignation criteria must be met.
Only students who are stronger in language skills are redesignated. Students less proficient in English are not redesignated, despite in many cases, having been schooled entirely in English. In the RJUHSD, approximately 30% of the English Learners were born, raised and schooled entirely in the United States. This statistic is similar both in California and throughout the United States. These students have simply not developed a level of fluency in English that allows them to be redesignated. These students are called "Long-Term English Learners." They tend to speak English easily and without a foreign accent. Indeed most of them are native-born Americans. They are not, however, strong enough in English language skills, especially in academic reading and writing, to be reclassified.
An Extreme Example in Statistics
To illustrate the point about a stratified population, consider an extreme case:
100 students enter a school and are given the CELDT. All 100 are found to be English Learners and in need of language services. During the school year, one of those students is found to need special Ed. Services.
At this point, 1 out 100 ELLs is identified Special Education (1%).
The next year, all ELLs are tested again, and 98 of them are redesignated as being fluent in English. They are subsequently redesignated to RFEP (Redesignated Fluent English Proficient.) The one Special Ed. Student, however, has a learning disability, which makes language learning difficult for him. He is one of two students who remain designated as an ELL.
At this point, is the percentage of ELLs in Special Ed. 50%? No. It is still 1%, but the calculation has been done incorrectly. The most successful ELL students have been "skimmed" off the top of the group and are not identified as ELLs; rather they are identified as RFEPs. However, in order to calculate the percentage of ELL's in special Ed., those successful students need to be added back into the group.
Stratification of the English Language Learner Population
In the English Learner world, high achieving students are skimmed out of the population. The skimming takes place in two ways: (1) A student can be identified as "Initial" Fluent English Proficient (IFEP), and then (2) an English Learner can be redesignated from ELL as a result of his/her success in learning English.
Putting all three classifications of ELLs together for the purpose of statistics, produces the following table:
[Data collected 20 October 2009. Students with 504 plans were counted in the mainstream, and 30 students whose language designation had not yet been determined were excluded from the study.] Note: Thirty students whose language fluency is coded as "5" (not yet determined) in Aeries were not included in the study.
The population examined in these statistics is a stratified population, where only more recent immigrants and students whose language skills are weaker are classified as English Learners. In some cases, the students have true learning disabilities. In other cases, the students are simply not strong learners, or have a social/cultural disconnect from schooling that results in low achievement.
The stratified statistics presented earlier in this paper make it appear that a disproportionately high number of English Learners are identified as Special Education. The flaw in this reasoning is that the students classified as English Learners at the high school level are either (a) more recent immigrants, or (b) lower-achieving students. It is not surprising that among lower achieving students there will be a relatively higher percentage of students with learning disabilities. Learning disabilities make academic success in comprehensive high schools more difficult to attain.
Are English Language Learners isproportionately identified as Special Education?
In order to examine the question of whether or not English Learners are being disproportionately identified for Special Education, one needs to use a normal, non-stratified population. The table above shows the entire multi-lingual population in comparison to the monolingual population.
In the table, it shows that multi-lingual students are under-represented in Special Education in the district. It is only when the lower achieving multi-lingual students are separated out, as in the first table, does it appear there is a disproportionately high percentage of students in Special Education.
The argument that explains why Special Education students have lower standardized test scores than other students is that they have a learning disability, and if they were achieving at levels commensurate with the general population, then it would bring into question why the student was placed in Special Education.
Similarly, the English Learners who are in Special Education are generally English Learners who have never achieved at a high enough level to be redesignated. The higher achieving students are skimmed out of the ELL population in two groups: (a) those who test high enough on the initial assessment, and (b) those who test high enough on subsequent assessments.
Cooperation between Services
As noted in the data, a number of students are dually identified as English Learners and as Special Education students. Both the Special Education departments and consolidated Programs department cooperate in providing appropriate services to these students and in communicating with their families.
Both programs need to look for more areas of cooperation in order to bring both areas of expertise together to improve student achievement.
Ted Herr
Coordinator of Intervention and Support
Roseville Joint Union High School District
November 5, 2009
References
Artiles, Alfredo, and Alba A. Ortiz. ""Before Assessing a Child for Special Education, First Assess the Instructional Program" ." Center for Applied Linguistics (2002): n. pag. Web. 4 Nov 2009. <www.geneseeisd.org/.../ELLs%20-%20Special%20Education.pdf >.
California Department of Education. " Title III FAQS". Accessed 5 November 2009. http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/t3/title3faq.asp
Collier, V.P. (1995). Acquiring a second language for school. Directions in Language and Education, Volume 1, Number 4, Fall 1995. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELLA). Accessed 4 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thomasandcollier.com/Research%20Links.htm>
Roseville Joint Union High School District (October 20, 2009). Data download from Aeries student information database.