An analysis of the representational pattterns of English language learners receiving special education services in school districts in South Texas

This study examined the representational patterns of English language learners\nreceiving special education services in school districts in South Texas. Additionally, this\nstudy identified school district characteristics that were related to the probability that an\nEnglish language learner might be placed in special education programs. Data were\ncollected from the Texas Education Agency'€™s Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis\nSystem 2004-2005 and Academic Excellence Indicator System for the 2003-2004 school\nyear. Composition indices, risk indices, and relative risk ratios were calculated and\nreported for each of the school districts in Education Service Centers I (Edinburg), II\n(Corpus Christi), and XX (San Antonio) in the State of Texas (N=110). Pearson product-moment\ncorrelation coefficients were calculated to determine the direction and strength\nof the relationship among odds ratios and school district characteristics. These\ncharacteristics included total student enrollment, percentage of poor/underserved\nstudents, percentage of Latino students, percentage of English language learners, percentage of Latino teachers, and percentage of students in bilingual/English as a\nsecond language programs.\nResults indicated that English language learners in school districts in South\nTexas were more than twice as likely as their non-English language learner counterparts\nto receive special education services. Additionally, inverse relationships were\ndocumented for odds ratios equal to or greater than 2.00 and the school district\ncharacteristics of percentage of poor/underserved students, percentage of Latino students,\npercentage of English language learners, percentage of Latino teachers, and percentage\nof students in bilingual/English as a second language programs. It was concluded that\nthere was an overrepresentation of English language learners receiving special education\nservices in 77% (N=85) of the school districts in South Texas.