1. CHAPTER 3: Today’s Multicultural, Bilingual, and Diverse School
Exceptional Lives
8th Edition
Turnbull, Turnbull, Wehmeyer, and Shogren
Developed by Theresa Garfield Dorel
Texas A&M University-San Antonio

2. Culture
Culture is the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; a shared way of life
Microculture is a smaller group within a culture that share similar common identities such as race/ethnicity, religion, language, and geographic origin

3. Cultural Identity

4. Social Context of Special Education: Historical Foundation
Theories of Diversity
Genetic Deficit Theory - white people were genetically superior to nonwhite people
Cultural Deficit Theory - blames academic failure of students from diverse backgrounds on the inherent disadvantages that exists within the students’ culture
Theory of Cultural Difference - academic failures of students from diverse backgrounds cannot be attributed to perceived disadvantages existing within the culture

5. School System Responses
Treatment of second- and third-generation European Americans, immigrant students, and African Americans
Tracking practices
School segregation
Civil rights movement/Brown v. Board of Education
Desegregation resulted in high numbers of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds being increasingly tracked into programs for students with intellectual disabilities

6. Court Cases Related to Nondiscriminatory Evaluation
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Larry P. v. Riles (1972, 1974)
Diana v. State Board of Education, (1970)

7. Disproportionate Representation
Risk ratios
1.0 = expected representation
>1.0 = overrepresentation
<1.0 = underrepresentation

8. Percentage of Students in Special Education in Different Environments by Race/Ethnicity

9. Gifted Education Placement
American Indian/Alaska Native: 5.2 percent
Asian/Pacific Islander: 13.1 percent
African American: 3.6 percent
Latino: 4.2 percent
European American: 8.0 percent
Average total: 6.7 percent

10. Trends in Disproportionality
American Indian/Alaska Native and Black students more likely to receive services for special education
American Indian/Alaska Native students more likely to receive services for learning disabilities
Black students more likely to receive services for intellectual disabilities.
Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic and White students are underrepresented in special education

11. Factors Associated With Disproportionate Representation
Racial/Ethnic Considerations
Percentage of students suspended or expelled

12. Language Considerations
5 Stages of English Proficiency
Stage 1: Silence/receptive or preproduction stage
Stage 2: Early production stage
Stage 3: Speech emergence stage
Stage 4: Intermediate language proficiency stage
Stage 5: Advanced language proficiency stage

13. Income Considerations
34 percent of all people living in poverty in the United States are children
63 percent live with a single parent.
30 percent have a parent with less than a high school degree
39 percent have a parent with some college
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Improvements Act of 2001
Poverty impacts educational achievement

14. Intersection among Race/Ethnicity, Language, and Poverty

15. Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher and Advocate
Enhance your self-awareness
Increase your knowledge and experiences of other cultures
Advocate for systems change
Implement culturally responsive instruction
Use the adapted posture of cultural reciprocity
Incorporate five components for delivering culturally responsive instruction