Patricia Peterson

Rural Perspectives of Models, Services, and Resources for Students with Hearing Impairments

We surveyed educational service providers to determine what services are available to children with hearing impairments (HI) in two rural and two metropolitan areas of the United States. Teachers in rural areas employ a broader range of assistive technology but have less access to maintenance and repairs; they also have less access to highly trained specialists due to much longer travel distances. Also, parents are less informed about possible interventions than their metropolitan counterparts. Classroom teachers and service providers in all areas need more professional development relevant to working with children with HI and should collaborate more with special educators.

Creating Culturally Dynamic Materials for Rural Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Students

In order to provide culturally appropriate instructional materials for rural Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional (CLDE) students, a variety of culturally dynamic methods and materials have been developed for teachers of Mexican-American and Native American CLDE students in rural areas of Arizona. The instructional materials that are described can be easily adapted for use with other rural CLDE populations by changing the native language and native culture frame of reference to match those of the rural students in the local community.

Targeted Native Language Training with Preservice Special Education Teachers

Preservice special education teacher candidates in higher education training programs are given little or no specific training in the use of basic native language or cultural academic instructional techniques to support the learning needs of students who have not reached a level of English proficiency. Preservice special education students are also not assessed for their effective level of application of culturally responsive language techniques to classroom field placement settings when working with diverse children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of basic Spanish language culturally responsive academic math problem solving instruction strategies from the university classroom to field placements by three preservice student teachers in a special education training program in mild/moderate disabilities. This study employed an experimental single-subject multiple baseline design across subjects. Data were collected on the frequency of use of basic culturally responsive Spanish language behavior in the areas of (a) concept bridging, (b) task directional, and (c) praising language. After five sessions of explicit targeted Spanish language training all subjects significantly increased their levels of the use of the Spanish targeted language approach when teaching small groups of students in their classroom field placement settings. Key Terms: Preservice Teacher Training, Special Education, Native Language, Culturally Responsive, Mathematics, Problem-Solving. In the annual report to Congress, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that in 2005, 42% of all public school students were part of a racial or ethnic minority group (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). This minority group percentage represented an almost double-in-size increase from 22% of minority student enrollment in 1972. In the same reporting period White students decreased from 78% to 58%. The Hispanic student population represented the single largest growth in minority student enrollment in this 33 year time period. Hispanic representation increased from 6% in 1972 to 20% in 2005. Overall Hispanic student enrollment in the American classrooms surpassed Black enrollment for the first time in 2002. Between 1979 and 2005, the number of school age children reported who spoke a language other than English in the 5-17 age range increased from 9% to 20%. This growth resulted in an increase from 3.8 million in 1979 to 10.6 million children in 2005 who spoke a language other than English at home. The NCES report was careful to point out that the majority of school age children who spoke a language other than English at home spoke Spanish and that those students who spoke Spanish or an Asian/Pacific Islander language at home were more likely to speak English with difficulty. The number of students who spoke English with difficulty increased from 3% to 6% in the 5-17 age range from 1979-2000 (Schneider, 2007). In 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted with the mandate of providing a free and appropriate public education to all children eligible for special education services. Data collection to monitor compliance of IDEA began in 1976 (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). In the 2005-06 school year, 14% of the total public school student enrollment received special education services under IDEA. The Black student group was the largest minority group receiving special education services at a 20% level. Hispanic students were second largest with a 16% level. In the age group of 3-21 the area of Specific Learning Disabilities was the most prevalent of all disabilities and had the largest Multicultural Learning and Teaching (2009), 4(2), 80-97 81 increase in children being served in special education. From 1976-77 to 2005-06 the area of Specific Learning Disabilities increased threefold from 2% to 6%. Specific learning disabilities involve one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 2004). The area of special education teacher training in mathematical problem solving to culturally linguistically diverse (CLD) Spanish speaking students with disabilities was the focus of this single subject design research. Language Instructional Issues and Mathematics With the release of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics in 1989, teachers of Mathematics were among the first educational disciplines to articulate extensive goals for teachers and policymakers in schools to meet the rapidly changing instructional needs of diverse students (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2004). In 1991 the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics which established the elements of effective mathematics teaching. This document was followed with NCTM releasing Assessment Standards for School Mathematics in 1995 which included objectives against which assessment practices could be measured. These three scholarly documents have given focus, coherence, and new ideas to all professionals concerned with the improvement of mathematics education for students in classrooms in both the United States and Canada. Since this time, NCTM, which is highly committed to periodically examining, evaluating, and revising the relevancy of mathematic standards, has been actively involved in the creation of a Standards 2000 report. This resulted in a book with an electronically enhanced version called Principles and Standards for School Mathematics which is a single resource that can be utilized by educational professionals to improve mathematics curricula, teaching, and assessment for students. NCTM has clearly recognized in their standards that students have different abilities, needs, and interests resulting in the need to use mathematics in his or her personal life, workplace, and in further study. The call for higher standards of performance in content areas of instruction for all students allows for educational professionals to support an emphasis on using research based (a) instruction, (b) text and material selection, and (c) new forms of authentic assessment. Built directly upon six principles for school mathematics, the NCTM standards prioritized as the top item the need for all instructional decisions made by educational professionals as having important consequences for students and for society. The six NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2004) guiding principles include (a) equity described as the use of high expectations and strong support for all students, (b) curriculum, recognition of the need to provide coherent, focused mathematics training that is well articulated across the grades not simply a collection of isolated activities, (c) teaching with the understanding of what students know and need to learn while challenging them and supporting them to learn skills well, (d) learning, defined as helping students actively build new knowledge from experience and prior knowledge, (e) assessment, which should support the monitoring of important mathematical skills and provide useful information to both teachers and students, and (f) technology, a priority to influence the teaching and learning of mathematics which influences what is taught as well as enhances what students learn. In March of 2008, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, released its final report outlining a number of important issues supported by research on the preparation for success of students in Multicultural Learning and Teaching (2009), 4(2), 80-97 82 mathematics. The Panel was created in 2006 under federal executive order and was charged to review and summarize the scientific evidence related to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The Panel analyzed the prerequisites for algebra that must be developed in pre-kindergarten through grade 8 and identified specific critical foundations and accompanying benchmarks. In the main findings and recommendation area, among many other things they advocated for the importance of students with mathematical difficulties being given explicit instruction. It was reported that explicit instruction in scientific research has shown consistently positive effects on student performance with word problems and computation. The panel defined explicit instruction as: ...teachers provide clear models for solving a problem type using an array of examples, that students receive extensive practice in use of newly learned strategies and skills, that students are provided with opportunities to think aloud (i.e., talk through the decisions they make and the steps they take), and that students are provided with extensive feedback. (p. xxiii) Recent research according to the Panel also documents that social and intellectual support from peers and teachers is related to higher mathematics performance for all students especially those from African American and Hispanic groups. The Panel supported an urgent need for research to be conducted on the effectiveness of support-focused interventions on both small and large scale levels. It was hoped by the Panel that this kind of focused research could lead to promising instruction and service delivery methods to reduce the mathematics achievement gaps that are well documented as being related to race and income. This brief historical review of the ongoing educational standards reform in mathematics is important to provide understanding of the lack of available research on the development of tea