Professional development that focuses on supporting teachers' abilities to work with diverse families is keenly needed. This article outlines three instructional strategies and how they were used with undergraduate students in an inclusive early childhood teacher education program: (a) involving diverse family members as instructional supports;…

The disproportionate representation of poor, working class, and racial/ethnic minority students in special education is a wicked policy problem because its formulation involves choosing among alternative problem interpretations and associated consequences. Integrating the work of Patricia Hill Collins and Nancy Fraser, the authors propose…

In this article, I propose a model to re-frame disproportionality research, which addresses key limitations in this literature. I present a brief overview of the problem and situate it in the historical context in which race and ability became intertwined. I then argue that a cultural-historical understanding of disproportionality requires…

Despite ongoing concern about the underachievement of low-income and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, there has been little focus on the kinds of pedagogy required to reverse this underachievement. Pedagogical approaches have been increasingly transmission-oriented, focusing on preparing students for high-stakes testing. Such…

In this paper we argue that special educators have a critical role to play in supporting children from diverse communities at times of vulnerability, which are created by the distance between the demands of the school context and the child's cultural context, and that increase the likelihood for school failure and for referral for or placement in…

Rapid demographic changes in culture, race/ethnicity, and language in the United States have exerted a powerful influence on public schools, raising significant concerns or issues relative to the ability of the educational system to successfully educate all of its children as future citizens of a democratic society. Educational outcome data for…

This article presents a brief overview of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) requirement that schools use instructional strategies based on scientifically-based research (SBR) to improve the academic performance of students. Controversies resulting from the definition of SBR, complexities encountered in conducting research in schools, and the…

Response to Intervention (RTI) was encoded into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and is being adopted on a wide scale as an alternative approach to identification of students with learning disabilities. For RTI to be an effective mechanism for addressing disproportionate representation of culturally and…

The No Child Left Behind Act's emphasis on universal standards of academic performance, defined as proficiency in grade-level core curriculum and state academic assessments, challenges general education program personnel to higher standards of professional practice. Because schools must report student achievement by subgroups, including students…

It is critical for educators to understand the influence of religion or spirituality on students and their families. This article reviews the literature addressing religious, spiritual, and cultural beliefs with an emphasis on quality-of-life issues and provides suggestions educators can use to enhance the services that they provide.

Parents with children with cognitive disabilities may rely on organized religion and/or spiritual beliefs as coping strategies in their lives. Fifteen parents of adolescents with cognitive disabilities were administered the Support From Religious Organizational and Personal Beliefs Scale-Revised to test this hypothesis. The results indicated that…

"Good" schools are typically defined as environments in which good students attend, good teachers teach, good parents participate, and good communities exist. This definition suggests that students maintain high test scores with the focus on going to college. In other words, good schools are typically exclusive in maintaining high standards for…

In virtually every school district nationally, Black students are underrepresented in gifted education programs, including advanced placement (AP) classes. This underrepresentation exists regardless of grade level and school type. Building on a previous publication, this article addresses a central question in gifted education: Why does…

The Dawn Project is a system of care responsible for creating and implementing an interagency collaborative approach to service provision. Systems of care are spectrums of services organized to meet the needs facing youth with serious emotional and behavioral difficulties. This study examined the relationship between school involvement in the Dawn…

The changing demographic profile of the nation has led many schools to consider how to provide effective instruction in a way that is responsive to childrens' cultural needs. Providing culturally appropriate or culturally responsive instruction is commonly mentioned as a viable alternative. This article examines the issue of culturally responsive…