The Relevance of Race and Culture in Implementing RTI · Response to Intervention Model… Part of...
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The Relevance of Race and Culture in Implementing RTI Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz Richard D’Auria Dr. Eddie Fergus Metropolitan Center for Urban Education
Transcript of The Relevance of Race and Culture in Implementing RTI · Response to Intervention Model… Part of...
The Relevance of Raceand Culture in
Implementing RTI
Dr. Yolanda Sealey-RuizRichard D’Auria
Dr. Eddie Fergus
Metropolitan Center for Urban Education
Potential of RTI…
Prevent the disproportionate academicfailure of racial/ethnic minority students
Prevent the disproportionate referral,classification and placement ofracial/ethnic minority students
However…..Prior to implementing RTI, we must address the
socio-cultural context of districts and schools inorder for RTI to be effective.
School Context(instruction, teachers,
Social interactions, leadership,Resources, home-school connection, etc.
Referral Process
Special Education Outcomes
DisproportionalityOverview
Defining Disproportionality?
Disproportionality Is:
The over-representation of specific groupsin special education programs in relationto their representation in the overallenrollment, and/or the under-representation of specific groups inaccessing intervention services,resources, programs, rigorous curriculumand instruction.
www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html
How Do We Measure It?
Relative Risk Ratio
Calculates the risk of students beingidentified into particular disabilities incomparison to other groups of students.
For instance, Black students are 2.40more likely that White students to beidentified with MR.
National and NewYork State Trends
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Risk Compared to White Students
AmericanIndian
Asian Black Hispanic
United StatesLikelihood of Minority Students Being identified with certain
cognitive Disabilites Compared to White Students
EmotionalDisturbance
MentalRetardation
SpecificLearningDisability
Source: Disparities in Education, Funding and Provision of Sp. Ed. in Racial
Inequity in Special Education by Harvard Press (2002)
Risk Ratio of High Incidence Disabilities (ED,LD, MR) in New York
1.57
0.82
1.06
1.74
0.3
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
Black White Hispanic NativeAmerican
Asian
HighIncidenceDisabilities
Black, Hispanic, and White under representation andoverrepresentation by gifted, mental retardation, and suspensions
USDOE – Office for Civil Rights: 1998 Elementary and Secondary SchoolCivil Rights Compliance Reports: National Projections 2000
0
20
40
60
80
% Enrolled % Gifted % MR % Suspended
Black
Hispanic
White
Likelihood of Placement in a Correctional Institution for Blacks andHispanics with disabilities compared to Whites
4.13
1.88
0
1
2
3
4
5
Black Hispanic
Black Hispanic
USDOE: Office of Special Education Programs 2001
What has contributed to theseoutcomes?
More importantly, what is therelevance of race and culture?
Referral Process
Discipline practices
Tracking
Teacher Expectations
Cultural Dissonance
Instruction
Disproportionality
Instruction
Situating of “poverty-induced traits” asexpressions of learning or emotionaldisability.
Marginalization of the developmentalexpressions and competencies of low-income and minority students (O’Connor &Fernandez, 2006)For example, African American Vernacular
English (AAVE)
Cultural dissonance between schooland home cultures
Teacher beliefs and behaviors regardingschooling are at times incompatible withracial/ethnic minority students beliefs andbehaviors regarding schooling (Cooper, 2003;Ferguson, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 1999)“urban behavior”
“anti-intellectual behavior”
Ghosts in the classroom (Lawrence-Lightfoot,2004)“lack of education priorities”
Discipline
Inconsistent practices
Lack of alternative to suspensions
Zero tolerance practices (Skiba, 2002)
What are cultural considerationswith RTI models?
Response to Intervention Model…
Part of the special education identificationprocess that includes instructional practices andinterventions based on research that works withstudents.
“Holds promise for preventing academic failureby providing support for culturally andlinguistically diverse students who areunderachieving” (Klingner & Edwards, 2006)
Cultural Considerations in an RTI Model
Culturally and linguistically diverse students areparticipants in the research on what works bestfor them.
There is an ongoing assessment of what’shappening in the classrooms.What does instruction look like?What is the strength of teacher-student
relationships?How are students supported?
Cultural Considerations in an RTI Model
School Contexts are examined for support ofdiverse learners. Which includes the presence ofculturally responsive and diverse stakeholders inthe referral process:General education teachers
School psychologists
Reading and math specialists
Speech pathologists
Parents
Various health professionals
Cultural Considerations in an RTI Model
Teachers have access to appropriate, evidence-based instructional approaches to help themdetermine if their intervention is working.
Preservice and Inservice teachers learn what itmeans to be culturally responsive, and areprepared to teacher diverse learners.
Administrators consult resources for creatingculturally responsive schooling and an RTImodel for culturally and linguistically diverselearners:
Research on Culturally Responsive Teaching(Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995)
Research on Culturally Responsive theculturally responsive RTI model (Klingner,Artiles, Kozleski Harry, et al, 2005)
Cultural Considerations in an RTI Model
Administrators consult resources for creatingculturally responsive schooling and an RTImodel for culturally and linguistically diverselearners:
National Alliance of Black School Educators (NASBE)& ILIAD Project, 2002: Prereferral InterventionProcess Guide for Addressing disproportionality ofAfrican American students
Garcia & Ortiz (1988) Flowchart and questions toguide practitioners through the referral decision-making process.
A Case Study of a New YorkCity School District Engaging
Disproportionality:The prep-work forimplementing RTI
Re-conceptualizing thought regardingRTI…
RTI provides the opportunity for schools tosystematically evidence the inputs ofschooling, however within this evidentiaryprocess, how should schools alsosystemically address the socio-culturalmeaning of race and culture in the schoolprocess?
Metropolitan Center forUrban Education
New York Universitywww.nyu.edu/education/metrocenter
212-998-5100
