UPDATE

Featured Principal Shares Expertise with Distant Districts

Last month's EquiNews section on Featured Principal Work highlighted Teresa Faucette, principal of Graham Middle School, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Due to her feature in the EquiNews, Teresa was contacted by a middle school in Watertown, Minnesota requesting assistance in implementing inclusive practices. She had a long phone call with their principal, where she shared strategies that are working for students in her district and they are developing an ongoing collaborative relationship to help create more inclusive schools. Teresa is one more shining example of how we can all positively impact the lives of children everywhere, not just in our own small corners of the world!

SPOTLIGHT

American Anthropological Association Wins 2007 Summit Award

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) was awarded with the top national honor for excellence in community-based programs given by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Center for Association Leadership at their 8th Annual Summit Awards Dinner last month. AAA's project, RACE: Are We So Different?, can be viewed on their website at: http://www.understandingRACE.org

PEOPLE IN EDUCATION

Dr. Edward Lee Vargas, Superintendent in Residence, The Stupski Foundation

The Stupski Foundation's mission to improve teaching and learning in urban schools nationwide is a key focus of the work of Dr. Vargas, who is working to increase achievement and life options for children of color and those living in poverty. Formerly a classroom teacher, school psychologist, director of special education, and assistant superintendent of support services, curriculum, and instruction, Dr. Vargas has worked in large urban school districts in New Mexico, Texas and California.

Dr. Vargas demonstrates leadership in systemic reform, and excellence in programs and services in the areas of organizational and administrative development, bilingual and special education, curriculum/instruction standards implementation, accountability systems, and responsible leadership and policy, in diverse urban school systems.

Active in both ACSA's Superintendent's Symposium and the American Association of School Administrators, Dr. Vargas' professional affiliations also include memberships in the California Latino Superintendents Association, American Association of School Administrators, Association of California School Administrators, and Urban Systemic Superintendents Coalition in Math, Science, & Technology Education, National Urban Institute for School Reform, and National School Boards Association. He has served on numerous state and national boards and associations, including the National Academy of Sciences and advisor to the US Department of Education.

Dr. Vargas's efforts have been recognized with numerous awards including those from the states of New Mexico and California, the county of Los Angeles, the California State Assembly, received special congressional recognition from the US Congress, was named California Superintendent of the Year for 2006 by the California Association of School Administrators, and was California's nominee for AASA's National Superintendent of the Year. He was also awarded the 2004 President's Technology Award, The Administrators' Rosette for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Education from the American Association of School Administrators, and the Outstanding Administrator Award from the Los Angeles County Bilingual Directors' Association.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools, By: Gary R. Howard

In the book We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools, Gary R. Howard weaves together experiences drawn from over 20 years in the fields of social justice and multicultural education with research drawn from the literature on social dominance, racial identity development, and multicultural transformation. His work addresses two main themes: personal transformation and multicultural education as a process of social change and transformation

Personal Transformation

Without reflecting on what it means to be White, it is too easy to consider Whites as "normal" and others as "different". Howard calls for a critical and truthful acknowledgement of White privilege, power and abuses throughout history and recognition of complicity in creating and supporting the conditions within schools that lead to failure for so many culturally and linguistically diverse students. In order to help our students overcome these past and present conditions, educators must first address the personal and social dynamics of dominance that remains in our minds, hearts and habits.

Multicultural Education as a Process of Social Change and Transformation

Disproportionate academic outcomes for different racial groups, disproportionate overrepresentation of minority students in special education and inequities in educational funding are just a few examples offered that indicate our past and current responses to diversity and multicultural education have not been adequate. The second major theme of this book, therefore, is an examination of the role of white educators can and must play in understanding, decoding, and dismantling the dynamics of White dominance.

TOOLS YOU CAN USE

NCCRESt Practitioner Brief: Preventing Disproportionate Representation: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Prereferral Interventions

This practitioner's brief examines four key elements of culturally and linguistically responsive prereferral interventions including:

(1) Preventing School Underachievement and Failure

(2) Early Intervention for Struggling Learners

(3) Diagnostic/Prescriptive Teaching and

(4) Availability of General Education Problem-Solving Support Systems

These elements are critical in addressing the overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education as we seek to ensure that we are identifying and serving the "right" students.

RESEARCH BASED PRACTICE

Response to Intervention

"If children cannot learn the way we teach, then we must teach the way they learn." Carol Tomlinson

Response to Intervention shows great promise in improving the educational opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students and in addressing their overrepresentation in special education. In order to fulfill this promise, the way culture mediates learning must be a key consideration. As with earlier identification criteria, RTI models are based on students' opportunities to learn, which include access to key resources and well-prepared teachers. Evidence-based instruction and supports provided within RTI's three-tiered continuum of interventions generate data that are useful in making culturally responsive educational decisions, including special education eligibility determinations.

For more information, please see NCCRESt RTI Position Statements.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE UPDATE

Applications for Technical Assistance

In order to provide high quality technical assistance that contributes to state capacity and sustainability, NCCRESt will accept applications on an open-ended basis, beginning August 1, 2007 for specific and individualized technical assistance. The technical assistance requested can be short or long-term, and can focus on a variety of activities, including document review, strategic planning, improvement plan development, data analysis and review, professional development and training, curriculum review, evaluation and research activities, or other technical assistance that builds the capacity of the state to eliminate disproportionality and develop culturally responsive educational systems.

To download the application form, click here

FEATURED NCCRESt STATE WORK

Arizona State Department of Education

In September, NCCRESt presented at the state-wide Response to Intervention training for the Arizona Department of Education. The presentation, entitled Addressing Disproportionality through Culturally Responsive Early Intervening Services, addressed topics including defining disproportionality and describing its current context, and how to respond to the disproportionate representation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds through early intervening services. The implications for the implementation of current RTI models were also addressed. Over 300 attendees, including general and special education teachers, school and district administrators, school psychologists, classified staff, and parents participated in two back-to-back sessions.

FEATURED NIUSI DISTRICT WORK

NIUSI Partners with Madison Schools

Madison Public Schools continue to partner with NUISI to improve the educational outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students. During October, NUISI visited 4 of the 10 schools within this partnership to discuss the instructional designs these schools are using to support teams of general and special education teachers who work closely together to plan and implement universal curriculum in the general education classroom.

FEATURED NIUSI-Leadscape PRINCIPAL WORK

Chloé Sims, Geeter Middle School, Memphis, TN

Dr. Sims is building an inclusive middle school using a variety of early intervening strategies. In addition to the universal supports that all Memphis City Schools provide in classrooms (e.g. word walls, thinking maps, posted objectives), all Geeter teachers maintain a classroom data book containing a variety of information about the students, including:

• Multiple Intelligences survey preferences

• Most recent state test scores

• Student goals for next state test scores

• List of students in class who did not meet standard for state test

This data is collected for all students in the teacher's classes and does not differentiate between students with IEPs and those without. Teachers use this handy collection of data to ensure that they are giving appropriate support to students who need it, focusing on meeting students' goals, and using appropriate lesson delivery modes to give students opportunities to use their preferred learning methods.

Geeter Middle School also exemplifies cultural responsiveness in its school activities, featuring great African American authors in its library and sponsoring a 100 Black Men Club that includes over 100 students with and without disabilities who participate in service projects and community building activities.

Geeter also provides Honors Algebra and Physical Science classes that include students with disabilities, as well as the federally funded "Gear Up" college preparation program. Geeter teachers work with students to encourage creative ways of demonstrating knowledge. One student in Mrs. Robertson's math class created a multimedia representation of the light bulbs, windows, and doors in his house for his graphing homework.

Dr. Sims and her excellent teaching staff have created an inclusive, challenging environment for all students at Geeter Middle School. Visit their website at http://www.mcsk12.net/schools/geeter.ms/site/index.shtml for more information.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"We must merge our traditional sense of schooling with the real world. What we do in school must not insult the child's past but must build upon his [or her] past and encourage future learning." Sigmund Boloz [note- edited for gender inclusivity]

"If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

FEATURED WEBSITE

http://www.interventioncentral.com

Intervention Central provides research-based intervention strategies for academics and behavior management. Before exploring the possibility that a student might have a disability and qualify for special education services through referral for special education assessment, instructional teams should explore many options for ensuring that students who are struggling academically or behaviorally have:

(1) access to classrooms that flex to meet their affective, cultural, behavioral, motoric, and intellectual needs,

(2) teachers who create multiple opportunities to learn,

(3) curriculum that provides anchors for learning that connect student experience to the tools for academic learning;

(4) school-wide cultures that support pro-social peer networks for learning and success; and

(5) recognition for the cultural and linguistic histories that students bring to school.

Intervention Central offers an array of alternative teaching strategies that may support student learning. Many simple, preventative strategies exist to ensure that students can access the curriculum, demonstrate what they know, or expand students' behavioral repertoires. These strategies are important tools for school communities and instructional teams. As practitioners rethink the way classrooms are organized for success and transform their practices in response to student needs, all students will receive a more appropriate education, while simultaneously preventing misdiagnosis and inappropriate placement in special education.

DID YOU KNOW

Published research suggests:

• 90% of teachers are white, while 40% of students are minority (Ferri & Connor, 2005).

• Once referred, 90% of students will be placed in Special Education (Cartledge, 2005).

• Compared to Caucasian students, African American students are: 2.5 to 3 times as likely to receive a Mental Retardation label, 1.5 to 2 times as likely to receive an ED label, and 1.5 times as likely to receive an LD label as Caucasian students (Ferri & Connor, 2005).

• Districts with higher percentages of white teachers have greater overrepresentation of minority students in Special Education, especially for African American students (Artiles, Harry, Reschly, & Chinn, 2002; Ladner & Hammons, 2001).

• Special education students are 3.762 times as likely to dropout as non disabled peers (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996; Schargel & Smink, 2004).

UPCOMING EVENTS

American Anthropological Association's 106th Annual Meeting: Difference, (In)equality & Justice

November 28- December 2, 2007

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington DC

What are the implications of the current state of the world on future society? What can be done, and what is being done to counteract current trends, create equality, and bring about a more just world? The American Anthropological Association will explore all these topics and more at their upcoming meeting, entitled: Difference, (In)equality & Justice. Sessions will be centered on the four arenas of mapping difference and inequality, analyzing justice in society, linking past and present, and embracing dialogue. This is an event you will not want to miss!

For more information go to http://www.aaanet.org/annual_meeting/2007/or view the event brochure at http://www.aaanet.org/mtgs/2007/preliminary_all.pdf for detailed information on sessions offered.

FOR PARENTS

What is the Prereferral Process?

The purpose of the prereferral process is to ensure that all reasonable accommodations and modifications have been made within the general education classroom and curriculum before considering special education for struggling students. This process may go by different names at different schools such as "Student Study Team", "Teacher Support Team" or "Student Success Team". Regardless of the name, the prereferral process seeks to create classroom environments that are supportive of a variety of student needs and eliminate inappropriate placements in special education.

Although law does not require parent participation in the prereferral process, your contributions are extremely important. Often students have difficulty within the classroom due to a cultural mismatch between the student and the context of the classroom. Their inability to perform under these circumstances may be viewed as a disability. Parents can often contribute information about their child's health and development, family environment and culture, academic history, strengths and their learning and behavior needs which may help differentiate between a mismatch and actually disability.

FOR STUDENTS

Learning Strategies

Are you struggling to understand in school? Does the lesson make sense but you can't remember it when you have to take a test or answer a question in class? Try to put the teacher's statements into your own words, think about what is being said and how it relates to things you already know.

Some strategies for improving your own learning are:

1. Take good notes with charts, pictures, or diagrams to help organize the information. Notes should include facts to remember as well as information about items marked incorrect on assignments so you know what to do next time.

2. Go to school every day and go to every class, the more instruction you miss, the harder it is to learn. The more time you are in the classroom, the more help the teacher can give you.

3. Talk to your teacher every time you have a problem. Ask questions and participate in discussions, don't wait until you are too far behind to get caught up. If you get help early you may prevent further difficulties.

4. Use your very best handwriting. If your notes and assignments are neat and easy to read you are more likely to be able to study the notes and the teacher will know what you meant to write and grade more accurately.

5. Have a regular study space at home that is only used for studying. Have a time set aside every day to study in a place that is well lit, quiet and free from distractions. Make it a routine.

6. Make an attempt at all the homework you are given. Even if an assignment is really difficult and you are not certain you are doing it correctly, try anyway, the teacher will then be able to see what you need help with and you can always learn from your mistakes.

7. Do homework even when you don't have any. On nights when there is nothing assigned, use your scheduled study time to go over your notes from class, rewrite or reorganize them and quiz yourself about the material.

8. Study with others. You learn more when you try to explain something to someone who may not know or understand it. The more you look at, read, hear and talk about something, the more you will understand it.

9. Know what you need to be able to learn, and let your teacher know. If you have an IEP the information in there or from the special education teacher should be shared with all your other teachers so they know how to help you learn. This includes knowing how you learn best. Once you know how you learn you can be sure the teacher is doing everything possible to help you succeed, after all that is what the teacher is there for!

NOTICE

Nominations for "People in Education" Needed!

Do you know an amazing person who is a champion for inclusive education? We would love to recognize him/ her in an upcoming monthly EquiNews publication. We will be accepting nominations from our readers describing a person whose work they feel should be acknowledged, including what this person is doing, or has done, related to equity and excellence in education.

Nominations should be approximately 500 words in length and include a picture for publishing. Please submit your nominations by the fifth of each month for consideration in that month's publication. You will be notified by email if your candidate was chosen. Those not published will be kept in our database with the possibility of being used in later editions. Please include your name and contact information to receive credit as the author of the article. Send your nominations to niusi@asu.edu or nccrest@asu.edu.

REFERENCES

Artiles, A.J., Harry, B., Reschly, D.J., & Chinn, P.C. (2002). Over-identification of students of color in special education: A critical overview. Multicultural Perspectives, 4(1), 3-10.

Blackorby, J., & Wagner, M. (1996). Longitudinal post-school outcomes of youth with disabilities: Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study. Exceptional Children, 62(5), 399-413.

Cartledge, G. (2005). Restrictiveness and race in special education: The failure to prevent or return. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 3(1), 27-32.

Ferri, B.A. & Connor, D.J. (2005). In the shadow of brown: Special education and overrepresentation of students of color. Remedial and Special Education, 26(2), 93-100.

Ladner, M. & Hammons, C. (2001). Special but unequal: Race and special education. In C.E. Finn, A.J. Rotherman, & C.R. Hokanson (Eds.). Rethinking special education for a new century (pp. 85-110). Washington, D.C.: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Schargel, F.P., Smink, J. (2004). Helping Students Graduate: A Strategic Approach to Dropout Prevention. Eye On Education Inc p 45.

Newsletter Editors: Wendy Duran and Crystal Rueb, ASU