Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners

by Else Hamayan, Barbara Marler, Cristina Sanchez-Lopez

Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners Delivering a Continuum of Services by Hamayan, Else [Caslon Publishing,2007] [Paperback]

242 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2007

Reviews

[Miriam]

Disproportionality, the over- or under-representation of students from a subgroup compared to the ratio of all students, inhibits the academic growth of English Language Learner students across the United States. This book serves as a handbook for developing a systemic and proactive approach for meeting the needs of struggling English Learners and determining whether or not Special Education labeling and services are necessary. Significantly, the authors suggest a flexible framework that enables a multidisciplinary team of professionals to collect and analyze data about cohorts or individuals who are struggling in school. The structured and data-based responses provide interventions that are ideally triggered before the student to fails drastically.
The ECOS (Ensuring a Continuum of Services) Team includes both an English as a Second Language or Bilingual Teacher and a Special Education teacher as well as other stakeholders, and it can function within a Response to Intervention System already established in a school, but with the capability to move quickly to develop authentic assessment and interventions while increasing building capacity for ESL support through mentoring, coaching, and reflective observations. After detailing the formation and purpose of an ECOS team within a school or district, the authors of the book identify myths about best practices in teaching English Language Learners and follow the myths with research-based suggestions for interventions that correspond to seven key factors that likely affect English Language Learners.
While the book is intended for implementation at a school or district level, the thorough chapters on key factors that influence ELLs and the related interventions are helpful to individual teachers, whether or not the administration chose to follow the book's suggestions.