The purpose of this article is to present an argument for the need for culturally responsive Response to Intervention (RTI) as an approach for reducing disproportionate minority representation in Special Education Programs for Students with Emotional Disturbances. We present an overview of the RTI model as initially intended for use in determining…

Although there has been long concern about underidentification or misidentification of children with emotional or behavioral disorders in special education, recent attention has also been focused on disproportionate racial and ethnic representation of children in the school category of emotional disturbance (ED). There is evidence that African…

This guide is designed to help principals provide better services to English language learners whom they suspect might have a disability. It provides recommendations from the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) for ensuring appropriate referral and services to these students. The first part contains self-assessment information that…

The integrated Aimhigher programme was established in 2004 to widen participation in higher education by raising the aspirations and developing the abilities of young people from underrepresented groups. In order to explore the extent to which young people subsequently made a successful transition at 16 and intended, or had decided, to continue…

Underrepresentation of African American students in gifted programs has alarmed the Office of Civil Rights. Achievement gaps between children from minority and low income homes and Caucasian students from middle-high income homes is a pressing concern in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of…

The purpose of this research is to gain some understandings of how university professionals who work with marginalized student populations perceive their professional work as situated within a university context. The professionals in this study work in federal TRIO programs that serve first-generation, low-income students who have been…

In this article, the author encourages the use of prevention and early intervention methods to prevent and reduce overrepresentation of African American students in the special education categories of mental retardation, emotional disturbance, and specific learning disability. The author discusses ways to adapt A. A. Ortiz's (2002) "Prevention of…

State exit exams, also known as graduation tests, are tests that student must pass to graduate from high school. These tests are more influential than ever. Accordingly, in 2004, 20 states required students to pass an exit exam to graduate from high school, and six additional states will implement an exit exam by 2009. This affects more than half…

While on the surface baseball cards may appear to be a mundane object of child's play, they are precious tools for examining U.S. society. Baseball cards not only hold a wealth of information regarding the players they feature they also reveal much about the state of society at the time of their production and the individuals who collect them. In…

Following the 1998 Green Paper on teachers' work, the UK government introduced Threshold Assessment of teachers in England and Wales in 2000. Teachers who met the Threshold standards were rewarded with a pay rise and access to an upper pay spine. At the time ministers gave assurances that equal opportunities would be taken very seriously in the…

This document reports on the purpose, implementation, and outcomes of a policy forum on strategies used to address the disproportionate number of students from minority ethnic/racial groups receiving special education. Participants included representatives of state education agencies, local education agencies, the university/research community,…

Despite the overall economic gains in the 1990s, many young black men continue to have the poorest life chances of anyone in our society. Joblessness and low earnings among these less-educated young adults are contributing to reductions in marriage, increases in nonmarital childbearing, and a host of other social problems. In "Black Males…

While significant progress has occurred over the past several years regarding the expansion of the quantity and quality of after-school opportunities, the ambitious idea of "after-school for all" remains a distant goal. In this commentary, we push beyond some of the numbers to take a close look at questions related to access and equity,…

This guidebook has been written to provide direction, guidance and resources for classroom teachers, gifted facilitators, related services staff and administrators so that educators might better serve the gifts of all students. This user-friendly manual is a complement to "Policy 2419: Regulations for the Education of Exceptional…

Substantial growth continues in both the number and percentage of students of color obtaining master's, doctoral and first professional degrees, but there is still notable under-representation among African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians at the doctoral and first professional ranks. The overall numbers also mask important…