Addressing the Disproportionate Representation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Special Education

This is the published version, also found here: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/143/269In this article, we present a conceptual framework for addressing the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education. The cornerstone of our approach to addressing disproportionate representation is through the creation of culturally responsive educational systems. Our goal is to assist practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in coalescing around culturally responsive, evidence-based interventions and strategic improvements in practice and policy to improve students’ educational opportunities in general education and reduce inappropriate referrals to and placement in special education. We envision this work as cutting across three interrelated domains: policies, practices, and people. Policies include those guidelines enacted at federal, state, district, and school levels that influence funding, resource allocation, accountability, and other key aspects of schooling. We use the notion of practice in two ways, in the instrumental sense of daily practices that all cultural beings engage in to navigate and survive their worlds, and also in a technical sense to describe the procedures and strategies devised for the purpose of maximizing students’ learning outcomes. People include all those in the broad educational system: administrators, teacher educators, teachers, community members, families, and the children whose opportunities we wish to improve. Keywords: special education; disproportionate representation; culturally responsive education; cultural diversity; linguistic diversity

Response to ibudilast treatment according to progressive multiple sclerosis disease phenotype

OBJECTIVE: Determine whether a treatment effect of ibudilast on brain atrophy rate differs between participants with primary (PPMS) and secondary (SPMS) progressive multiple sclerosis. BACKGROUND: Progressive forms of MS are both associated with continuous disability progression. Whether PPMS and SPMS differ in treatment response remains unknown. DESIGN/METHODS: SPRINT-MS was a randomized, placebo-controlled 96-week phase 2 trial in both PPMS (n = 134) and SPMS (n = 121) patients. The effect of PPMS and SPMS phenotype on the rate of change of brain atrophy measured by brain parenchymal fraction (BPF) was examined by fitting a three-way interaction linear-mixed model. Adjustment for differences in baseline demographics, disease measures, and brain size was explored. RESULTS: Analysis showed that there was a three-way interaction between the time, treatment effect, and disease phenotype (P \u3c 0.06). After further inspection, the overall treatment effect was primarily driven by patients with PPMS (P \u3c 0.01), and not by patients with SPMS (P = 0.97). This difference may have been due to faster brain atrophy progression seen in the PPMS placebo group compared to SPMS placebo (P \u3c 0.02). Although backward selection (P \u3c 0.05) retained age, T2 lesion volume, RNFL, and longitudinal diffusivity as significant baseline covariates in the linear-mixed model, the adjusted overall treatment effect was still driven by PPMS (P \u3c 0.01). INTERPRETATION: The previously reported overall treatment effect of ibudilast on worsening of brain atrophy in progressive MS appears to be driven by patients with PPMS that may be, in part, because of the faster atrophy progression rates seen in the placebo-treated group

Uveíte em felinos domésticos: uma revisão bibliográfica

Dentre as afecções oculares na espécie felina, a inflamação da úvea é a principal e tem grande importância na oftalmologia veterinária. Pois, inúmeras são as etiologias, incluindo causas idiopática, infecciosa e não infecciosa. O diagnóstico preciso é de suma importância para um adequado tratamento, visto que a uveíte comumente é secundária a alterações sistêmicas. Objetivou-se, neste trabalho, realizar uma revisão bibliográfica sobre uveíte em felinos, abordando sobre a etiologia, os sinais clínicos, o diagnóstico e o tratamento.Among the eye diseases in the feline species, inflammation of the uvea is the principal and has great importance in veterinary ophthalmology. For there are countless etiologies, including idiopathic causes, infectious and noninfectious. Accurate diagnosis is an important factor for adequate treatment, since uveitis is usually secondary to systemic diseases. The objective of this paper is to describe an extensive literature review on uveitis in cats, focusing on the etiology, clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment

Uveíte em felinos domésticos: uma revisão bibliográfica

Dentre as afecções oculares na espécie felina, a inflamação da úvea é a principal e tem grande importância na oftalmologia veterinária. Pois, inúmeras são as etiologias, incluindo causas idiopática, infecciosa e não infecciosa. O diagnóstico preciso é de suma importância para um adequado tratamento, visto que a uveíte comumente é secundária a alterações sistêmicas. Objetivou-se, neste trabalho, realizar uma revisão bibliográfica sobre uveíte em felinos, abordando sobre a etiologia, os sinais clínicos, o diagnóstico e o tratamento.Among the eye diseases in the feline species, inflammation of the uvea is the principal and has great importance in veterinary ophthalmology. For there are countless etiologies, including idiopathic causes, infectious and noninfectious. Accurate diagnosis is an important factor for adequate treatment, since uveitis is usually secondary to systemic diseases. The objective of this paper is to describe an extensive literature review on uveitis in cats, focusing on the etiology, clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment

The Continuum of “Troubling” to “Troubled” Behavior Exploratory Case Studies of African American Students in Programs for Emotional Disturbance

This article discusses the construction of the “emotional disturbance” (ED) category in the cases of four African American elementary students. These cases represent a sub-set of data from a three-year ethnographic study of the special education process in a large, culturally/linguistically diverse school district. Based on interviews, observations, and examination of students’ records, the data revealed three inappropriate, yet significant, contributors to the children’s classification as ED: inadequate instruction/behavior management prior to referral, exclusion of contextual classroom information from the decision-making process, and subjective/arbitrary evaluation processes. Presented is a cross-case thematic analysis of these complex and problematic processes and their outcomes. The authors call for a reconsideration of “ED” to reflect a behavioral continuum rather than the current categorical formulation, a more holistic view acknowledging the contribution of school contexts in the evaluation of children’s difficulties, and research focusing on effective, preventive practices for all children with troubling behavior

Addressing the Disproportionate Representation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Special Education through Culturally Responsive Educational Systems

In this article, we present a conceptual framework for addressing the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education. The cornerstone of our approach to addressing disproportionate representation is through the creation of culturally responsive educational systems. Our goal is to assist practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in coalescing around culturally responsive, evidence-based interventions and strategic improvements in practice and policy to improve students’ educational opportunities in general education and reduce inappropriate referrals to and placement in special education. We envision this work as cutting across three interrelated domains: policies, practices, and people. Policies include those guidelines enacted at federal, state, district, and school levels that influence funding, resource allocation, accountability, and other key aspects of schooling. We use the notion of practice in two ways, in the instrumental sense of daily practices that all cultural beings engage in to navigate and survive their worlds, and also in a technical sense to describe the procedures and strategies devised for the purpose of maximizing students’ learning outcomes. People include all those in the broad educational system: administrators, teacher educators, teachers, community members, families, and the children whose opportunities we wish to improve