Episode 1: Foundational Session

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(subtle music)
- The National Center forSystemic Improvement or NCSI
is pleased to host a new
Thought Leader Conversation, TLC series,
Pursuing Equity at theIntersection of Language,
Culture and Disability.
In this work, NCSI commits

(00:21):
to supporting stateeducation agencies, SEAs
and their allies inexpanding understanding
about the intersection of language,
culture and disability in K-12 education,
and identifying next steps
to enact system improvements
that focus on elevating equity

(00:41):
in both opportunity and achievement
for students who are Englishlearners with disabilities.
For more information about NCSI,
please visit our website, ncsi.wested.org.
These conversations are organized
around NCSI's four systems elements,

(01:03):
data literacy, stakeholderand family engagement,
research informed practiceand systems coherence.
But first, we start withthe foundational session.
(gentle upbeat music)
- Welcome to the NCSI podcast series on
Pursuing Equity at theIntersection of Language,

(01:25):
Culture and Disability.
My name is Jamie Burrow,
and I'm a Senior Researcher at West Ed
as well as one of the thoughtleaders for the series.
My work focuses onstudents who are identified
as English learners with disabilities.
- And my name is Swati Guin.
I'm a Research Associate
at the American Institutes for Research

(01:46):
and a member of the NCSIplanning team for the series.
- In each episode of this podcast,
we'll be sharing key highlights
from the live recordingsof the five sessions
of the Thought Leader Conversation series.
Today we're revisiting thefirst session of the series,
the foundational session whichtook place on June 7th, 2022.

(02:10):
Stanford University Professor,Dr. Alfredo Artiles,
opened the conversation on pursuing equity
for English learners who have disabilities
with a focus on the need toadopt an asset-based approach.
Let's hear from him.
- So I was stressing the need
to bring forth this ideaof asset-based approaches

(02:30):
because it compels us togo beyond deficit thinking
to acknowledge the fact that communities,
students of color particularly,
no matter how many adversity
they might have faced in their lifetimes,
we have to realize that theybring a set of experiences,
resources, practices in their languages,

(02:51):
in the way they engage with others,
the way they approach learning,
and think and connect with others
that are resources for learning.
- While English learners with disabilities
have intersecting learning needs,
Dr. Artiles explains why it's important
not to oversimplify intersectionality
as just individual markers of identity.

(03:13):
Consistent with an asset-based mindset
we are called to focus onstudents individual strengths
as we identify potential challenges
and explore possible solutionswithin the fragmented
intersecting systems that serve them.
- But we have to also remember
that there are systems ofoppression in communities,

(03:34):
in institutions, in thespaces in which people live
that are connected to thosedimensions of difference.
Why is it that second language learners
might lose language supportswhen they are diagnosed
with a disability as theymove to special education?
- English learners with disabilities
are students who are eligible
for both English language development

(03:57):
often known as ELD or ESL,
and special education Services.
That's a very simplified definition
considering the complexitiesthat lie in every student.
So as we advance, please keep in mind
that although dually identified students
are part of both groups,

(04:17):
English learners andstudents with disabilities
they have needs that aredifferent from either group
due to their uniquestrengths and learning needs.
Portland State University professor,
Dr. Julie Esparza Brown,
talks about these complexities
and how our educational systems
can build spaces for collaboration

(04:39):
and partnering that ensure access
to appropriate servicesand supports for students.
- Instead of focusing on the many labels
that students receive,
so we need to shift the perspectives
to understand instead the spacesthat the students inhabit.
In other words, the systemic conditions

(05:00):
and constraints that areoften placed on them.
And so the intersectionsof multilingualism
and disability should not be seen
as challenges to overcome,
but instead, we mustframe them as problems
needing remediation through our policies.
The systems can thinkoutside the box in terms of

(05:23):
partnering in ways ofwhich we can help students
continue to build their multilingualism
even in special education programs.
- This need to createmeaningful partnerships
is supported by data thatconfirms systemic changes
can improve the lives and futures
of students with disabilities

(05:44):
designated as English learners.
Indiana University and Purdue University,
Associate Professor Dr.Cristina Santamaria Graff,
shares the following significant trends
within this population.
- So we're specifically lookingat Asia's 14 through 21,
and English learners were morelikely to drop out of school

(06:08):
and we've seen these trendsfor quite a long time
and they're less likely to graduate
with a regular high school diploma.
So we're seeing them morelikely to receive a certificate
as compared to allstudents served under IDEA.
In comparison to their peers,
They are scoring lower as a group,

(06:30):
at grade four and at grade eight
in comparison to studentswith disabilities
students only categorizedas English language learners
or English learners,
or students who have neither a category.
- These trends speak to obvious symptoms
of a failing system suchas inadequate services

(06:51):
and lack of coordinationamong general education,
special education and ELD.
These systemic problems can result
in a disproportionate representation
of English learners withindifferent disability categories.
So where do we go from here?
San Diego Unified SchoolDistrict's Speech Pathologist,

(07:12):
Timothy Tipton says, "Re-imagining begins
"with leading behind the clinical model
"focused on labels to adoptand embrace a social model
"that considers the student'sindividualized progress
"across multiple settings".
- And really the only way we can do that
is not feel that there'sgonna be one expert,

(07:34):
one discipline, one narrow viewpoint
that's going to understandthe whole student.
So looking at how they're functioning
in their environments,in their national arts
across their environments.
So when are these actualbehaviors happening?
Are they happening inacross their settings?
- Timothy Tipton also highlights

(07:56):
the importance of meaningful partnerships
at the local education agency level.
Through professional collaboration
educators can collaborativelyimplement a social model
that supports coordination of services
to holistically meet thelearning needs of students.
- So it's meeting regularly,
it's leveraging your resources,

(08:17):
it's sharing responsibilitiesand accountability.
It's the fact that wehave our different views
that we bring together is important.
It's sharing data regularly
with shared professionals,
building that expertiseacross different practices.
To me, this is buildingon the collaboration,

(08:38):
looking at children's fromdifferent perspectives,
different contexts using different tools.
- And perhaps most importantly
accurate special education evaluation,
identification and instruction
depend on meaningful engagementwith parents and families.
- But it's actual true participation,
giving true consent and making sure

(09:00):
that they feel connectedwith interpreters.
It's taking an ethnographicapproach to families.
- This model of authentic
and meaningful family engagement
is currently being delivered
by the New Mexico PublicEducation Department
through the revision oftheir guidance document
on eligibility evaluations.
Special Education DirectorDeborah Dominguez-Clark,

(09:22):
shares more with us on this process.
- And as we did that, weinvited all of the evaluators
in the state to come toseveral series of trainings
and talk to them aboutwhat does that look like
when we're looking at studentswho have a second language,
let's really incorporate the home life
and their backgrounds.

(09:43):
Make sure you have translators available
to spend some time with the families
to really explain what's happening.
It's not just a quickevaluation, and boom.
- New Mexico is a great exampleon how to make change happen
in a meaningful way that benefits students
and their families while building
a strong foundation for success.

(10:06):
But this is not everyone's reality.
Montclair State University Professor,
Dr. Maria Cioe-Pena,talks about compliance
versus commitment for students success.
- So what we've seen as of late
is that what's emerged from this is,
an interest to be compliant,
not necessarily an interest
to change the systemicexperiences of students.

(10:30):
- The explanation behind this tendency
lies in the history ofbilingual education.
Educational policies that normalize
a deficit perspective,
stigmatization towards language learning,
and the English only movement
are just some of the reasonsbehind a broken system.
Stanford University Associate Professor,

(10:50):
Dr. Jonathan Rosa, sharesthe implications of history
in the present realities ofstudents with disabilities
designated as English learners.
- Often we end up orientingto the English language
as though it were naturally occurring
and as though it were the only language
that could be used here.
And this suggests that wehave to think really carefully

(11:11):
about the relationship between
our contemporary language policies
and broader educational policies,
and histories of colonialism
and frankly of violencethat have been meted out
towards colonized populations,
populations with tiesto indigenous genocide,
to enslavement, to immigrantlabor exploitation.
However, in this post-civil rights era

(11:32):
you see ongoing stereotypesabout particular populations
that are framed as sufferingfrom language problems
or cultural problems that are said
to lack the ability to produce
legitimate language practices,
or are said to suffer from aso-called culture of poverty
or impoverished language use.
And so to trace this trajectory

(11:53):
I think part of what we can reflect on
is a history of the institutionalization
of monolingualism as anorm in the United States.
- Dr. Maria Cioe-Pena helps us
to keep reflecting onthe connection of history
to language, culture and disability.
- So informal bilingual practices
have been a part of the American landscape

(12:13):
since before this land
was really usurped andrenamed America, right?
However, once it was formalized
bilingual education was rooted
in serving European interests.
So this is a period in which bilingualism
is really associated withwhiteness and with power.
Similarly, in 1890 and 1926,
scholars start making connections

(12:34):
between multilingualismand mental retardation.
So it's at this point thatwe start seeing bilingualism
particularly in the black and brown body
being perceived as a signof savagery or inferiority,
which is very different tothe way we previously saw this
when it was in a white embodiment.
So next, we enter a periodof English monolingualism

(12:57):
for unification and national salvation.
And it's at this pointthat we start forming
the connection of Englishmonolingualism with whiteness,
but especially with American identity.
- By 1968, demands placedon the educational system
from the Civil Rights Movement
pushed for a shift in the narrative
around bilingual education.

(13:19):
However, bilingual education
began to be marketed as aresource for those in power
focused on supporting the global economy.
- We then created another resource
that could be usurped andreclaimed by whiteness.
And we see this through the gentrification
of bilingual education,
we also see it presented as agifted and talented programs.

(13:41):
- It is important toremember that legal action
albeit in very siloed ways,
led to many of theachievements and developments
in bilingual education.
This starts in 1964 with the passing
of the Bilingual Education Act,
which provides federalgrants to school districts
to establish programs for children

(14:01):
with limited English ability.
- And this is the first time
that the US governmentofficially acknowledged
that students who didn't use English
needed a different kind of support.
- In 1970, the Diana versusState Board of Education ruling,
found that students werebeing inaccurately labeled

(14:22):
as special education students
based on IQ tests administered in English.
- And as a result schools wereforced to be more diligent
in determining whether theeducational problems of children
who had limited English proficiency
were the results of a learning disability
or another condition,or if it was a result
of a child's limitedcapacity with English.

(14:44):
- Five years later in 1975,
the Individuals with Disabilities Act
first passed to be reauthorized in 2004.
IDEA marks a new beginningfor students with disabilities
and their families asDr. Cioe-Pena explains.
- Although this actcontinues to be amended
with further support forfamilies and students,

(15:06):
the core purpose of thelaw remains the same,
which is to provide a free andappropriate public education
to students with disabilities
by accurately assessingindividual students' needs
and implementing appropriate supports.
- Students with disabilities
who are also designatedas English learners
are protected not only by IDEA,
but also by Title III Funding.

(15:28):
Title III was createdto improve the education
of English learners byhelping them learn English
and meet challenging academic standards.
But these protectionsdon't seem to be enough
Dr. Rosa states.
- But we have to payvery careful attention
to how bilingual educationis institutionalized
and curricularized and organized.

(15:50):
- History serves as a great reminder
of the why and how we are here today.
Going back to the Civil Rights Movement.
- The vision for bilingual education
was societal transformation forracial and economic justice.
- We believe in bilingual education
as a tool for societal betterment,
and that's why we highlightthe need to transform systems

(16:14):
to make the most of theimmense assets and potential
of English learners with disabilities.
As Dr. Cristina Santamaría Graff states.
- I think we're going from
looking at systems as fragmented
to systems as integrative.
And to me that is this re-imagining

(16:36):
what does a school setting,
how can it be a re-imaginedas a place of gathering,
as a place of integratingour cultural strengths
and knowledge and all of itsvariants, human variants.
- So instead of looking for problems
within individual students,
our efforts can focus onremedying the problems
in our intersectingand fragmented systems.

(16:58):
In the special education referral process
educators can adopt a social model
for considering studentsprogress more holistically
and proactively engage families
in data collection and decision making.
Regarding instruction, special education,
general education andEnglish language development,

(17:19):
infrastructure supports are needed
to facilitate collaboration
so that we are serving students
in coherent and effective ways.
Finally, bilingual instruction
is an integrative approach
that honors students' linguistic skills
and cultural ways of knowingas resources for learning.
But we must coordinate our systems

(17:41):
to ensure Englishlearners with disabilities
receive these critical services.
Integrative systems can help educators
adopt more coherent asset-based approaches
to teaching students.
As a reminder, in the sessions that follow
the thought leaders will discuss
four key systems elements
critical to transformingour education systems

(18:04):
to improve services for Englishlearners with disabilities.
These elements include data literacy,
stakeholder and family engagement,
research informed practicesand systems coherence.
We hope you will join us forthese additional discussions.
(subtle music)
- Thanks for tuning in.

(18:24):
We wanna express our deepest gratitude
to our thought leaders
for their contributionand passion for this work.
- We're your hosts, Jamie Burrow
- And Swati Guin.
To learn more about theThought Leader Series
and the work of the NationalCenter for Systemic Improvement
funded by the Office ofSpecial Education Programs,

(18:45):
or to watch the recordingof the foundational session
visit our website at ncsi.wested.org.
(subtle music)

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

The Nikki Glaser Podcast

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 1: Foundational Session