| The purpose of this study was to determine if the special education program in an elementary school in the Coastal Bend area met the needs of bilingual learning disabled students. Five subjects were selected from a group of students served in a special education program for the study. Data was collected from the students' individual file from the years 1994 through 2002. All the subjects are from Hispanic descend and were all identified as LEPs. Three of the subjects were served in a pull out program (content mastery and resource program), consisting of assistance in the subject areas of reading, writing and math, with tutoring type sessions in the content areas. The other two subjects identified as mentally retarded were placed in an adaptive education program where they were required to accomplish simple tasks with low expectations.;Analysis of the data showed that all students, regardless of their level of proficiency in the English language were assessed using standardized English instruments. Other findings included that no instruction was offered in the students' native language, in this case Spanish. The Individual Education Plan (IEP) for each of the subjects was based on the results of the initial screening and the subsequent IEPs followed the same recommendations consistently rather than focusing on the student's intellectual potential thus broadening the achievement gap, lessening the opportunity to return to regular education classrooms. Even though most of the students made measurable progress by mastering with their own goals and IEP's objectives, the resource classroom did not present the same type of instruction and the children did not receive the current grade's curriculum as their peers. A final important finding was that there is a very limited parental involvement within the program of special education.;Recommendations that emerged from the study include: (a) LEP students referred to special education should be assessed using their native language to obtain more reliable results; (b) Teachers should be encouraged to make the general education classroom conducive to success for all children; (c) The IEPs for each student should focus on providing opportunities to exit special education in a timely manner; (d) Teachers in special education should be allowed to use the students' native language for instruction; and (e) Parents of LEP students should be provided training by schools and districts to assist their children in their education.;Recommendations for further research included developing: (1) reliable assessment tools in languages other than English and to be used with LEP students; (2) methods to better prepare IEPs that are correlated with the achievement standards set by the regular classroom teachers; and (3) and additional ways of preparing parents to become effective supporters of their children's learning process. |
