This study explored the extent of disproportionality in the identification and placement of culturally and linguistically diverse students identified as English language learners in special education. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses examined patterns and predictors of identification and placement in special education among English…

The overrepresentation of students from minority ethnic groups in separate special education settings has been extensively documented in North America, yet little research exists for Australian school systems. The authors of this study systematically analyzed 13 years of enrollment data from the state of New South Wales and found stark, increasing…

As the "land of opportunity" and arguably the greatest country in the world, the United States continues to change--culturally, racially, and linguistically. Reports abound regarding the changing demographics of the country and its schools. Over a 2-decade span (1989-2009), the percentage of "minority" students in public…

This study determined the effectiveness of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS) for English Learners (ELs). We compared 20 K-PALS ELs to 20 Control ELs and to 20 K-PALS non-ELs on early reading skill acquisition, using a pretest-posttest control group design with matched samples. We also compared proportions of ELs unresponsive…

We examined the technical adequacy of writing progress measures as indicators of success on state standards tests. Tenth-grade students wrote for 10 min, marking their samples at 3, 5, and 7 min. Samples were scored for words written, words spelled correctly, and correct and correct minus incorrect word sequences. The number of correct minus…

This study assessed the effects of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), a reciprocal classwide peer-tutoring strategy, on the reading performance of native Spanish-speaking students with learning disabilities (LD) and their low-, average-, and high-achieving classroom peers. Participants were 132 native Spanish-speaking English language…

A theoretical matrix for conceptualizing issues within bilingual special education is outlined. Issues addressed include the difficulty of distinguishing learning disabilities from second-language-learning problems, nondiscriminatory assessment of language and intellectual skills, effects of bilingual interactions at home and school, and…

A weakness of research on minority placement in special education is the tendency to overestimate the homogeneity of populations by failing to disaggregate factors such as language proficiency or to consider other relevant variables, for example, social class or program type. Similarly, certain groups have been understudied, such as English…

This article presents the case study of a child who was classified as communication disabled but seemed to have suffered from language loss or arrested development of the primary language (Spanish) before attaining full competence in English. The child experienced a temporary delay of development in both languages but eventually mastered English.…

A description of the audiolingual nature of second languages as they are learned by all children introduces this discussion of the suitability of teaching foreign languages to the visually handicapped and the added dimension it would give to life. The role of the language laboratory in learning a foreign language is stressed. An annotated…