Critical Counternarratives: Material Impacts of Re/classification With Special Education on Students

• In Event: Raciolinguistic Perspectives on English Learner Classification and Reclassification

Abstract

During the 2018-19 academic year, the California Department of Education (CDE) and State Board of Education (SBE) made significant language policy changes to bring California into compliance with The Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The SBE altered the cut scores for the English language test, raising the scale score criteria for the proficiency level required by students to be considered for reclassification (fluent English proficient). The CDE and SBE also advanced an amended regulation that allowed local educational agencies to afford students a disability exemption on certain domains on the annual English language development test. I enter the conversation of classification and reclassification with special education by focusing in on the students at the district I serve at in San Jose, California. Across the 25 schools in the district and amongst the 9,598 students enrolled PK-8, 1,213 are diagnosed as having a disability. I am particularly concerned with the students who are among the 1,213 that are also considered language minoritized (566 students).

Using practice as an entry point, this paper uses classroom-based and district-wide data to provide a critical counternarrative (Solorzano &Yosso, 2002) of students’ experiences to highlight the material impact language policy (i.e., testing and reclassification) has on students identified as English learners with diagnosed disabilities. In doing so, I seek to answer the following question: How do reclassification policies impact students identified as an English learner with a diagnosed disability? To contextualize this study, I use qualitative research methods within a broader practitioner research framework to surface student experiences and better understand the complexities of their reality (Ravitch & Carl, 2016). Over the last few years I have administered the language assessment to hundreds of students. I can’t help but think of the thousands of students who sat through classrooms year-after-year labeled “at risk” and “low” that were kept in remedial language classes because of policy requirements. There have been multiple instances throughout my time as an educator in the public school system, where I have felt as the inflictor of harm and stuck implementing problematic policies on students. An inquiry into the actualization of reclassification policies on students will assist us in conceptualizing alternatives to better serve language racialized students diagnosed with a disability.

Author

• Ivan Rosales Montes, Alder Graduate School of Education