1. How do you know if English Language
Learners have a Special Need?
Is it language or is it more?
By Lauren Swenson

2. Learning Goals
 Content Objectives:
 I can define English Language Learners.
 I can define Special Needs.
 I can identify assessments given to ELL to see if they qualify for
Special Needs.
 Language Objectives:
 I can tell a partner who is an English Language Learner.
 I can name and describe Special Needs.
 I can write down some of the assessments given to ELLs to see if they
qualify for Special Needs on a note card.

3. Who are English Language Learners?
 English language learners are students who
don’t speak English as their primary language
and who are less than proficient in English.
(Muller and Markowitz, 2004)

4. What is Special Needs?
 “Special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and
functional development to describe individuals who
require assistance for disabilities such as medical, mental,
or psychological” (Wikipedia, 2006, p. 1).
 If someone is termed “special needs” that means they
have a disability or they need some sort of special
education. Also, it means they need more services than
someone who doesn’t have a disability (Wikipedia, 2006).

5. Individual With Disabilities Education Act
(1990)
 The IDEA act states: This act requires that student
evaluations must be conducted in the child’s
language, and that parents must be informed of
the evaluations and their language they can
understand. IEPs must state the modifications of
instruction methods, and materials needed for
both native language and English as a language
instruction (2005, p. 4).

6. Did You Know?
 Some schools districts have confused the
educational needs of English language learners
with the special education services required by
IDEA (Minow, 2001, p. 1).
 This can lead to an inappropriate referral to
special education, which could cause ELL
students from achieving their full academic
potential (Minow, 2001, p. 1).

7. Why is this happening?
 In general, English language learners are overrepresented in the
special education programs when they do not have any disabilities
(Artiles & Harry, 2004, p. 4).
 What are the reasons for this overrepresentation? Sometimes
learning or behavioral problems may be due to factors unrelated
to disabilities such as
 Poor instructional programs
 Language differences
 Temporary stressful situations at school, family, or community
 Another reason some English language learners are
overrepresented is due to stereotyping by peer or by teachers
(Artiles & Harry, 2004, p. 4).

8. How do we solve this problem?
 Without reform and proper assessment of ELL students in
regard to special education placement, the increasing
racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of students could
potentially overwhelm special education programs (p. 2).
 Accurate assessment for English language learners is a
constant worry for educators. School districts are more
conscious to accurately assess English language learners
and they are more informed on issues that impact the
assessments (Assessment of Limited-English Proficient
Students, 2005).

9. How do we assess a child who is and English
Language Learner?
 First, you need to know the cultural
background of your student.
 In addition, to guarantee academic growth,
programming needs of students are
determined by:
 Age at immigration
 Literacy skills
 Previous formal education

10. Alternative Assessments
 Alternative assessments are very helpful for English
language learners because it shows what they can do.
 Tannenbaum (1996), lists the criteria that alternative
assessments need to meet, they are:
 Focus is on documenting individual student growth over
time, rather than comparing students with one another.
 Emphasis is on students’ strengths (what they know), rather
than weaknesses (what they don’t know).
 Consideration is given to the learning styles, language
proficiencies, cultural and educational backgrounds, and
grades levels of students.

11. Dynamic Assessments
 “Dynamic assessment is based on the work of
Vygotsky and looks at cognitive development
within the context of social interactions with
others who are more capable. These experiences
are influenced by language and culture” (p.1).

12. Dynamic Assessments Continued
 To get a child’s best performance, the dynamic assessment goes by for
methods:
 Testing the limits- In dynamic assessment, the examiner would go
beyond simple feedback (saying “That is correct”) to elaborate
feedback (ask the student to provide the reasons why the answer
is correct).
 Clinical Interview- Allows for modifying the administration of a
test to generate questions to help children understand how they
are thinking about a test question to facilitate their awareness of
targeted skills.
 Graduated Prompting- The examiner focuses on the point where
the student is able to demonstrate knowledge/proficiency, and
judging the distance on a continuum.
 Test-Teach-Retest- The examiner provides an intervention
designed to modify the student’s level of functioning in the target
area (Dynamic Assessment, 2002).

13. Had Enough? Me too!
 All in all, the number of English language learners
is growing rapidly in our region, and making sure
they succeed has never been so urgent.

14. Did we meet our Learning Goals?
 Content Objectives:
 I can define English Language Learners.
 I can define Special Needs.
 I can identify assessments given to ELL to see if they qualify for
Special Needs.
 Language Objectives:
 I can tell a partner who is an English Language Learner.
 I can name and describe Special Needs.
 I can write down some of the assessments given to ELLs to see if they
qualify for Special Needs on a note card.

15. Annotated Bibliography
 1. Artiles, A. J., & Harry, B. (2004). Addressing culturally and linguistically
diverse student overrepresentation in special education: Guidelines for
parents. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from www.nccrest.org.
 2. Assessment of limited-English proficient students. (2005). Retrieved
July 7, 2012, from http://dpi.state.wi.us/ell/info2_3.html.
 3. Dynamic assessment. (2002). Retrieved July 7, 2012, from
www.cde.state.co.us.
 4. Legal and Ethical Provisions. (2005). Retrieved July 7, 2012, from
http://www.ldldproject.net/legal.html.
 5. Minow, M. L. (2001). Limited English proficient students and special
education. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General
Curriculum. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from
http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_limited.html.
 6. Muller, E. & Markowitz, J. (2004). English language learners with
disabilities. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from
http://www.nasdse.org/forum.htm.
 7. Special Education. Retrieved July 7, 2012 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_needs.
 8. Tannenbaum, J.E. (1996). Practical ideas on alternative assessment for
ESL students. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from
http://www.cal.org.resources/Digest/tannen01.html.