Evaluating ELL Students for the Possibility of Special Education Qualification - 2nd Edition

The evaluation of language learners for possible special education services is a difficult process at best, with a long history of errors represented in both disproportionate qualification and anecdotal stories. The goal of this book is to help practitioners correctly identify language learners who truly have disabilities, whose disabilities are impacting their ability to access their education and who need specially designed instruction. The errors can be reduced with the following five-step process: 1. Address belief system challenges that lead to disproportionality. 2. Analyze district data to better understand the problems. 3. Examine the challenges using our LE3AP process. 4. Use data from a systematic pre-referral process, the ELL Critical Data Process. 5. Examine the category with the most disproportionality, Specific Learning Disability, using the model we provide. This book provides practitioners with tools and background information to follow this process. It also provides examples of both data and report write-ups. It is supported by the authors’ first book, The ELL Critical Data Process.