Cheryl A. Utley

Classwide Peer Tutoring: Teaching Students with Mild Mental Retardation in Inclusive Classrooms:

This study investigated the academic effects of classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) for students with mild mental retardation (MMR) and their typical peers in inclusive classroom settings. Four students with MMR were integrated in two, general education elementary classrooms during spelling instruction. Dependent measures included performance on weekly tests and direct observations of academic engagement. The results demonstrated increased spelling accuracy and increased levels of engagement for students with MMR and their typical peers during CWPT when compared to traditional teacher-led instruction, suggesting that CWPT is an effective instructional strategy for improving their spelling performance.

Mt. Olivet After-School Program: Peer-Mediated Interventions for At-Risk Students

This article reports the results of peer-mediated instruction and Interventions on the academic performances of urban at-risk students in an after-school program. The students in this project were African-American males who attended an urban elementary school. The after-school program was a partnership between a large predominately African-American church, a public school, and The Ohio State Universitys (OSUs) College of Education. Students from the OSUs elementary education and special education programs worked along with the men of Mt. Olivet Church to provide educational opportunities for urban at-risk students. The improvement in academic performance of urban at-risk students in this study is consistent with the findings of other researchers (Poser & Vandell, 1994).

The Efficacy of ClassWide Peer Tutoring in Middle Schools

The majority of research on the efficacy of ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is based on research with urban elementary students (), with much less research in middle schools. This study investigated CWPT with 975 middle school students in 52 classrooms, grades 6 through 8, over a three-year period. A mixed design combining features of both group (interrupted time-series) and single-subject reversal designs was used to evaluate the effects of traditional teacher-led instruction vs. CWPT. Results favored CWPT with effect sizes, based on weekly quizzes, indicating moderate to large effects overall (M = 1.11) but with some range across classrooms and content. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Educating Culturally Diverse Learners with Exceptionalities: A Critical Analysis of the Brown Case

The Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954 set the stage for addressing problems of educational and social inequities. It challenged prejudicial exclusion and supported nondiscriminatory exclusionary policies in general and special education programs. However, about 50 years later, culturally diverse learners are still excluded in educational programs through misidentification, misassessment, miscategorization, misplacement, and misinstruction-misintervention. It appears that 1 step forward and 2 steps backward have been taken. In this article, the authors examine the Brown case and its impact on the historical contexts of special education as they affect culturally diverse learners with exceptionalities.

Ecobehavioral Assessment of Instructional Contexts in Bilingual Special Education Programs for English Language Learners at Risk for Developmental Disabilities

This article presents empirical data using The Ecobehavioral System for the Contextual Recording of Interactional Bilingual Environments to examine the instructional context, teacher behavior, and academic engaged behavior for English language learners at risk for developmental disabilities in general education and bilingual special education programs. Thirty-six English language learners at risk for developmental disabilities were observed for 6 full school days each, for a total of 213 days and 1,491 hours, within 4 elementary-level school settings and 26 different classrooms. The results revealed that (a) the most frequently taught subjects were math (20%), reading (18%), and language arts (16%); (b) English was the most frequently used language of instruction (58%); and (c) students were actively engaged in academic behaviors for slightly less than half of a typical school day (44%).

An Intervention Strategy to Enhance Spelling Performance and Social Interaction and to Decrease Inappropriate Behaviours of Students with Mild Disabilities and Typical Peers in an Inclusive Instructional Setting

An intervention strategy to enhance spelling performance, social interactions and decrease inappropriate behaviours of students with mild disabilities and typical peers in an inclusive instructional setting This study investigated the ability of Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) to enhance the social interactions and improve the spelling of three students with mild disabilities and three of their typical peers. Social interactions were assessed using the Multiple Option Observation System for Experimental Studies. Spelling performance was measured by weekly pre-post-tests. Using a single-subject design, the results indicated that the duration of positive social interactions emitted by the students with mild disabilities and their typical peers during the CWPT intervention were dramatically increased. In addition, CWPT produced large gains in academic achievement for both groups of students. The implications of the findings for the use of direct observation and CWPT to enhance the social interactions and spelling performance of students with mild disabilities in the regular education classroom are discussed.

The Comprehensive Support Model for Culturally Diverse Exceptional Learners Intervention in an Age of Change

Culturally diverse exceptional learners have consistently encountered multidimensional problems that range from misidentification to misinstruction. Rather than focus on innovative intervention techniques that could help them maximize their fullest potential, the focus has been on unidimensional techniques that highlight teachers blaming parents and parents blaming teachers. The critical question is, How can the self (i.e., learner), families, schools, communities, and governments work together for the common good? This article responds to this question by discussing the Comprehensive Support Model (CSM) as an intervention technique for culturally diverse learners with exceptionalities. Embedded in this discussion are cases that buttress the dynamic functions of the CSM.

MULTICULTURAL LEARNERS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES: BEYOND EUROCENTRIC PERSPECTIVES

Based on the aforementioned data, the risk index (RI) identifies the percentage of all students of a given racial/ethnic group in a given disability category. The RI is calculated by dividing the number of students in a given racial/ethnic group served in a given disability category (e.g. LD) by the total enrollment for that racial/ethnic group in the school population. The 1998 OCR data revealed risk indices for all racial/ethnic groups that were higher for LD than those found for MR. The NRC (2002) report stated that, “Asian/Pacific Islander have placement rates of 2.23%. Rates for all other racial/ethnic groups exceed 6%, and for American Indian/Alaskan Natives, the rate reached 7.45%” (p. 47). The second index, odds ratio, provides a comparative index of risk and is calculated by dividing the risk index on one racial/ethnic group by the risk index of another racial/ethnic group. In the OCR and OSEP databases, the odds ratios are reported relative to White students. If the risk index is identical for a particular minority group and White students, the odds ratio will equal 1.0. Odds ratios greater than 1.0 indicate that minority group students are at a greater risk of identification, while odds ratios of less than 1.0 indicate that they are less at risk. Using the 1998 OCR placement rates, the LD odds ratio for American Indian/Alaskan Natives is 1.24, showing that they have a 24% greater likelihood of being assigned to the LD category than White students. Odds ratios for Asian/Pacific Islander are low (0.37). For both Black and Hispanic students, the odds ratios are close to 1.0. The third index, composition index (CI), shows the proportion of all children served under a given disability category who are members of a given racial/ethnic group and is calculated by dividing the number of students of a given racial or ethnic group enrolled in a particular disability category. Two underlying assumptions of the CI are that the sum of composition indices for the five racial/ethnic groups will total 100%, and baseline enrollment of a given racial/ethnic group is not controlled. More specifically, the CI may be calculated using the percent of 6- through 21-year old population with the racial/ethnic composition of IDEA and U.S. census population statistics. For example, if 64% of the U.S. population is White, 15% is Black, 16% is Hispanic, 4% is Asian, and 1% is American Indian these data not interpretable without knowing the percentage of the racial/ethnic composition with IDEA. Hypothetically, IDEA data may show that of the 6–21 year olds served under IDEA, 63% are White, 20% are Black, 14% are Hispanic, 2% are Asian, and 1% is American Indian. To calculate disproportionality, a benchmark (e.g. 10%) against which to measure the difference between these percentages must be used. If the difference between the two percentages and the difference represented as a proportion of the group’s percent of population exceeds +10, then the racial/ethnic group is overrepresented. Conversely, if the difference between the two percentages and the difference represented as a proportion of the group’s percent of the population is larger than −10, then, the racial/ethnic group is underrepresented.