Decreasing Over-Referral of ELLs to Special Education

Abstract

This capstone aims to solve the problem of disproportionate referral of ELLs to special education. To attain this goal, I first conduct a literature review on the topic. The research shows a disproportional referral of ELLs to special education because non-ESOL educators do not have the resources and are not collaborating to meet the diverse needs of struggling ELLs. MTSS are not being used in ways that support ELLs. To address this problem, a professional development for World of Inquiry School is presented with tools to support educators in mitigating this problem. The way my research showed to solve this problem is to provide educators with specific resources for ELLs to use within a multi tiered system of support (MTSS) and to give educators opportunity to practice collaborating during the professional development. This capstone’s goal is to decrease the over-referral of struggling ELLs special education.