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From: "Behroozi, Jaleh" <Jaleh_Behroozi@nifl.gov>
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Subject: [NIFL-ESL:3883] A Request for Help
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Learning Disabilities and Spanish Speaking Populations.
A Request for Help
One effort that the Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL), U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE),
will begin to undertake this year is to address the issues of LD and ESOL.
The effort would include creating a process to develop a "field -accepted"
testing protocol and a validated screening process for learning disabilities
(LD) for adult populations (primarily low-income adults) in the United
States that have Spanish as their primary language. Joyce Campbell (ESOL)
and Glenn Young (Disabilities) of the DAEL staff are working on this effort.
As States address a wide range of issues, Welfare Reform and the
implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), including issues of
adult education, it is becoming clear that programs are faced with an issue
of how to identify learning disabilities in bi- or multi-lingual
populations. There seems to be little understanding or agreement on how to
best identify LD in this population, especially for low-income adults.
While the issue of identification of LD is not limited to Spanish-speaking
populations, DAEL is approaching the broader problem of LD and ESOL by
address Spanish-speaking populations first. We are choosing to this
approach because Spanish-speakers are the largest group of non-English
speaking populations in the US, and there is also a basic foundation of work
in Spanish and LD of which to build upon.
DAEL is looking at a three-step process:
1) Convene a national working meeting on issues of diagnostics and
screening for LD adults who have Spanish as their primary language.
2) Field test various screens for LD in States, using the diagnostic
protocol as the basis for evaluation of the screens ability to predict LD.
3) Conduct a statistical evaluation of the field tests and issues
findings on predictability of the screening efforts.
This effort will require other Federal, State and local partners to complete
the work. One such partnership is with the City of San Antonio, Department
of Community Initiatives. The Department of Community Initiatives received
a Welfare-to-Work grant to work on issues of Learning Disabilities and
Spanish speaking populations. As part of its work in this area the
Department is partnering with DAEL in the first stage of the process. Other
partners will be needed to stage the meeting and conduct the field tests of
the screens.
However, to begin this process, DAEL and San Antonio's Department of
Community Initiatives are convening a meeting for sometime in late March or
early April 2000. The goals of the meeting are to:
1. Determine if there is consensus on a diagnostic protocol for LD in
Spanish speaking populations that works for low-income adults populations,
and
2. Evaluate and recommend for field testing a number of existing
screens for LD in Spanish. (The screen evaluation process will use the
model presented in "Bridges to Practice," a LD manual developed by the
National Adult Literacy and Learning Disabilities Center.)
DAEL is seeking the names of potential candidates to participate in this
meeting. Our plan is to have a diverse group of participants representing
adult education, High-school special education programs, post-secondary
programs, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, private schools and private
psychologist. We will also want to include LD experts from the points of
origin for Spanish speaking immigration (Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central
America.) The meeting will be limited to some 30 or so participants.
The nominees must one or more of the following:
* Learning Disabilities diagnosticians who work extensively with
Spanish speaking adult populations,
* Researchers or educators in the field of LD in non-English speaking
populations,
* Counselors in education or work settings involved in disability
issues (such as community colleges or Vocational Rehabilitation programs).or
* People in related fields who have a background in LD and ESOL
Please send either self- or other nominations to:
Glenn Young
DAEL/OVAE
glenn_young@ed.gov <mailto:glenn_young@ed.gov>
phone 202-205-3372
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