Every school has students who possess exceptional abilities; who can be considered gifted and talented. Students with special gifts and talents come from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Cohen, 1990). Yet as the number of Hispanic English language learners increases across the country, the number identified as gifted remains the same…

The overidentification and misidentification of English Language Learners in special education has been a systemic issue since the 1960s. When students are mis-identified for special education, they are denied access to Free Appropriate Public Education and the Least Restrictive Environment. Although there has been countless research depicting…

There is a dearth of research describing the small population of students who have significant cognitive disabilities and are also English learners (ELs). This study expands what is known about this population by describing EL students who participated in Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessments in 16 states during the 2016-2017 year. Data…

Measures of student disadvantage--or risk--are critical components of equity-focused education policies. However, the risk measures used in contemporary policies have significant limitations, and despite continued advances in data infrastructure and analytic capacity, there has been little innovation in these measures for decades. We develop a new…

As the demographics across the United States continues to change, specifically with increases in school age English Learners who speak a home language other than English, it is imperative that schools meet the diverse needs of these children. This article summarizes studies about English Learners with learning disabilities. It reports on the…

This article examines the validity of IQ-achievement discrepancy and low achievement as criteria for the identification of disabilities in Spanish-speaking English-language learners (ELs) and the factors that moderate the validity of these approaches as bases for identification. While there has been a long history of examining the validity of…

This article examines the validity of IQ-achievement discrepancy and low-achievement as criteria for the identification of disabilities in Spanish-speaking ELs and the factors that moderate the validity of these approaches as bases for identification. While there has been a long history of examining the validity of different approaches to…

Consideration of cultural and linguistic features is mandated by law and one of the most important contributors to the appropriate placement of diverse learners for special education services. This article describes the results of a pilot project designed to assist rural educators to deliver an equitable and unbiased assessment process for English…

English learners (ELs) are the fastest growing population of learners in the United States; however, despite the growing numbers of ELs, their representation in gifted identification and programming continues to lag behind not only traditional populations of learners from advantaged communities, but also other underserved populations of learners.…

English learners (ELs) require access to appropriate instructional services that match their strengths and needs to have an equal opportunity to achieve the same academic standards as other students. If ELs are not properly identified and classified, they may be excluded from services that would better help them meet high academic standards, and…

This paper addresses the serious and pervasive problem of the mis-identification of English Language Learners (ELLs) as Learning Disabled (LD). Recent increases in immigration make this problem all the more urgent. The paper outlines problems with current methods of differentiating between learning disabilities and language acquisition processes.…

Overrepresentation of Dual Language Learners (DLLs) in special education remains a problem even after 40 years of inquiry. One factor is that the U.S. federal government has neither clearly explained the definition of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) nor operationally defined it to identify children for special education services. This lack of…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires 95% participation in state achievement testing. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities participate in states' alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). A growing number of these students are also English learners (Christensen et al., 2018).…

This report summarizes and further develops ideas discussed at a national working session held on May 23, 2014, to examine issues and options associated with initially classifying English learners (ELs). It is the third in a series of guidance papers intended to support states in large-scale assessment consortia that are expected to move toward a…

Children who are Spanish-speaking English-language learners (ELLs) comprise a rapidly growing percentage of the population in U.S. schools. To determine which of these children have weaker emergent literacy skills and are in need of intervention, it is necessary to assess emergent literacy skills accurately and reliably. In this study, 1,318…