Case #2 Edith

The purpose of this assignment is for you to apply and contextualize your understanding of disability in school contexts from an intersectional perspective. 

The Case:

Born in the United States of Haitian parents, Edith has been exited form ESOL programming by the time we observed her in her third-grade class at Mable Oaks Elementary School. Located in the southern end of the county, this school had a student mobility rate of 66%, and 99% of the students received free/reduced-price lunch. The student population comprised African American, Haitian, and Hispanic Students, the last being mainly the children of migrant workers. Edith stood out in her class physically because she was very tall and overweight for her age, and was usually dressed in long skirts, which reflected the religious beliefs of her family. However, the data on her during that time are limited because, apart from her appearance she did not stand out appreciably in terms of behavioral or academic difficulties. In the 2^nd year of the study, the school counselor informed the researchers of Edith’s EBD [emotional and behavioral disorder] placement and expressed concern and surprise at this outcome.

First Year of the Study: Third Grade at Mable Oaks

A heavyset girl with large brown eyes and a broad, kind smile, Edith sat lethargically at the rear left of the classroom, adjacent to the wall. Most days, she actually faced the wall, with several objects in her vicinity to serve as distraction to any instruction that may have been occurring at the front of the room. These mild diversions included the window above her desk, the class artwork next to her desk, the class plant terrariums on the table nearby, and the computers at the back of the room. When these objects were no longer interesting, Edith found ways to distract herself, including playing quietly with her water bottle, pencils, pens, pieces of paper, and hair.

Edith Gets Noticed: Fourth Grade at Mabel Oaks

Although we did not observe Edith during her fourth-grade year, we gleaned much information about her referral and placement through interviews and informal conversations with her general education referring teacher, Mr. Peterson; her school counselor, Ms. Sanchez; and the school psychologist, Ms. Fernandez. Mr. Peterson reported, “I’ve got lots of Edith stories.”

            Mr. Peterson was a White Male with a master’s degree in ESOL education whose instructional and classroom management skills were rated by our research team to be adequate. He taught fourth grade for a number of years. He described Edith as “different”:

Well, you just could tell that she was different. It was Halloween. Edith really made an impression that day. We had a teacher dress up as the cowardly lion form the Wizard of OZ, and Edith just freaked. I don’t know what her situation was. The teacher’s costume was very realistic. Edith was crying and making a complete ass of herself in the office al day.

Mr. Peterson did not comment in whether this might be a response conditioned by Edith’s culture and religion. He did concede that “by fourth-grade, she did dress up for Halloween, like a fairy princess. She got into the culture some more.” While he mentioned Edith’s involvement in occasional conflicts with her classmates, he indicated that “the kids picked on her and she had to defend herself.” He also commented that “in my class she only stuck out because of her size. Otherwise, she wasn’t much different than anybody else. She was just lumped in with the dregs of society.”

The Referral: Teacher’s Perceptions 

When asked about the reasons for Edith’s referral for special education, Mr. Peterson stated:

She’s got no attention span, no focus. I don’t know that she was ever told “a school’s purpose is this” or if she understood what education is for. Edith didn’t seem to understand the reason for school. Kids come to school for a lot of different reasons---some come for meals or to get out of their parent’s hair. If I could teach her social skills so she could get a job and not get fired, that’s a goal….. Lots of kids at this school will become labor. We create blue collar here.

Expanding on his perceptions of the level of parental involvement and the family’s understanding of schooling, he added:

There was no support for Edith. Her mom had two jobs, one of which was down in [a town 30 miles away] as a maid. I suspect there were times when she did not even see her mom. She was practically raising herself and probably still is. I think she was more concerned with surviving. I did meet mom at the staffing, but I threw the referral to the reading teacher because that’s where her academic problems seem serious. She initiated it; Edith was referred for her academic problems. I think when they did the testing, all of the other issues came up.

The Assessment

 Analysis of Edith’s records and an interview with M. Fernandez, the psychologist, confirmed that Mr. Peterson had initially referred Edith “due to her poor academic performance and behavioral difficulties at school.” Intellectual functioning was determined to be in the low average range, with deficits in reading and writing, and a relative strength in mathematics. Personality assessment was conducted using the usual projective battery, on the basis of which the psychologist concluded that Edith had EBD. Ms. Fernandez never mentioned conducting actual observations of Edith in her classroom or any other environment and there is no record of such observation in the report.

            The psychologist’s report indicated that Edith’s response to a single item was of particular concern: To the statement “I feel like hurting myself, “ Edith responded, “All the time.” As a result of her assessment, the psychologist concluded that Edith “presented as an unhappy youngster with a negative self-image” who “is experiencing a significant amount of emotional difficulties.” During the interview, when asked about her impressions of Edith, Ms. Fernandez stated:

I can recall Edith somewhat. I remember because I had to do crisis intervention with her because she mentioned suicidal thoughts. She was a very needy child. She was somber, but at the same time eager to please. She’d interact regardless of knowing me. She seeked attention and affection, was rejected by her peers. I think she told me she wanted to killer herself with a knife? I took the case seriously.

 There was no record in the psychologist’s report of Edith Stating she wanted to kill herself with a knife.

Family Perspectives

The researchers paid several visits to the home and discovered a strong family unit, with Edith’s mother, stepfather, and a total of six siblings living in a well-kept home about five miles away from the school to which Edith had been moved for the EBD program. Her original school was a short walk her home. While the mother worked long hours, an elder sister was clearly in charge of daily housekeeping. Two of her siblings attended a local collage, and two were in high school. Edith attended a Haitian church on a weekly basis and participated in a Sunday school class and choir practice with a dozen other girls her age. One of the researchers went to church with Edith one Sunday and observed her in Sunday school class, where she participated with full compliance, showing no distinction between her behaviors form those of her peers.

            In a lengthy interview, Edith’s mother emphatically disagreed with the school’s assessment of Edith:

Edith is not handicap!... I tell them at school, Edith do lots for me at home. I send her to the store, she get everything I need, no problem. She listen at home and do what I tell her. She behave. She have no problem in the brain. She fine. I pray God and she fine. I have six children. Two in college, two in high school, doing fine. I have a 4-year old doing fine too…..There was these kids bothering Edith every day, that’s why. Edith come home, she cry every day. I go to the school , the principal don’t do anything about it. They tell me Edith have problem. So I take her to doctor. He say she fine. I take her to three doctor. They all say she fine! They [school personnel] say Edith say she want to die, so she have problem. I tell them, kids be bothering Edith every day and she cry, she upset. That why she say that she that….. she fine with me at home. She got to church every week. She walk with her cousins. She sing in the chorus at church. She going to be in a play at church on December 25. Edith, she OK. She fine. She need help with her reading and writing, she not handicap. I went to the school [placement conference]. I am not agree with them about Edith. They tell me Edith cannot read and write, and she have problem… They say she stay in program one year. She still there. If she need help to read, they should help her. 

Special Education Determination

Following the psychological assessment, placement for Edith in the EBD program was swift. In an interview regarding the mother’s role in the staffing, Mr. Peterson reported, “The mother was there. She went along with everything. She may not have understood everything going on, although there was an interpreter there, a Haitian kindergarten teacher we have.” When asked about her current school placement, Edith herself reported in an interview:

My mom want me to go to Sunny Acres Middle by my house, ‘cause I could walk, but I got o go to Lafayette [school with EBD program to which she was bused]. One day I came home from school. My mom said I have o go to Lafayette because they gave her a paper that I am supposed to go.

Ms. Sanchez, the school counselor from Edith’s referring school, stated:

We have a majority if students who are minorities and who are from the migrant community… One of the biggest problems is that the people from these communities with sign anything, and they don’t know the questions to ask. Some of the parents come in and they’re so confused, and they ask me, “What is this paper? What do I do?” I imagine Edith’s mom just signed whatever paperwork was given.

 Relaying further her feelings about the appropriateness of Edith’s EBD placement, Ms. Sanchez stated:

In my heart, I believe it was wrong, inappropriate. When Edith was here, she knew who she could come to. The counseling services she was referred for [counseling program] were not forthcoming. That wasn’t her fault. This is a full-service school. She could get services she needed right here. No she travels out of her community to another school, where she doesn’t have those connections. I think the worst part is that the was absolutely no closure for her. One day she was here, and the next day she was gone. The child will experience that as ‘There must be something wrong with me. They sent me away.’ She had a caring nest there at Mable Oakes. She doesn’t have that anymore.

The Placement: Behavior Management in a Restrictive Environment

Edith began her self-contained fifth-grade EBD placement the following  fall at Lafayette Elementary School, a school similar demographically to her home school. Lafayette us a relatively large building that has a center courtyard with well-kept grass and trees. Edith’s EBD class was located out in the portables at some distance from the main building and common areas such as the office , cafeteria, and library.

            The EBD teacher was Mr. Donovan, a handsome, heavyset Black man with a booming voice, shaved head , and wide smile. He commented on having several years of teaching experience, though it was unclear whether he was certified to teach students with EBD. He was the behavior management teacher for the EBD unit at the school, and he remarked that he likely would seek an administrative position in the near future.  He described the students in the program:

Well, we get a lot of students just out of control. We want to give them self-worth, and reinforce then to feel good about themselves. You’ve got to control them. You’ve got to allow them to learn according to their modalities. A big issue here is new staff. They’re not trained with safe physical management… They’re apprehensive. There’s steps to it. You’ve got to calm them down, use nonverbal, verbal, touch, gestures, speaking calm. You, the teacher need to back into the corner, not back the kid in the corner. You have to avoid confrontation.

Our observations of this classroom revealed daily instructional and organizational routines based totally on teacher control. Routines included supervised breakfast in the cafeteria at a later time than that of the general education population and supervised bathroom breaks at specified times. Students were required to line up daily and have their pencils sharpened by the teacher or aide; to line up by behavioral level for out-of-class activities; when transitioning, to keep specified distance between themselves and the next student.

            Our observations of Mr. Donovan’s management style contrasted sharply with his own description, as in the following excerpt:

As I approached Mr. Donovan’s class as they walked from the cafeteria, he yelled, “File the line!” Students are required to keep a distance of approximately three feet and to be silent, hands at their sides. One of the students was sent to the back of the line for failing to keep the distance rule. Edith reported that a student called her a name. This student was also to the back of the line. Mr. Donovan yelled to the student, “You are off level!” And the paraprofessional he instructed, “Add him another day! If this line is not in order, I’ll cancel PE!”

In addition to file the line, Mr. Donovan and is assistant frequently commands and threats such as heads down, bury your face, you’re off level, you just got three extra days, PE is canceled, stand in the corner, give him zeros, I’ll give you something to cry about and you and me will be on the floor. Staff would also use physical intimidation tactics such as the teacher assistant walking menacingly toward students, grabbing student’s faces, the teacher’s banging of a chair or desk en route to deal with an off task student, and the use if physical restraint with students for “becoming verbally disrespectful” (as reported by Mr. Donovan).

Schedule

The restrictive nature of the EBD program was manifested in several ways. Since separate scheduling resulted in students returning from breakfast no earlier than 9:05am, and as late as 9:15am, they received 35-45 fewer instructional minutes than their nondisabled peers. They attended only one class, PE, with general education students, and whenever Mr. Donovan did not “cancel PE,” he would accompany students to “show his face,” in order to “keep his students in line.” Instruction in music and art was delivered to these students in the self-contained setting.

            When asked about possible inclusion for students, Mr. Donovan replied, “I’m a big advocate for inclusion. We don’t want our kids isolated. We’ve had some students be very successful.” However, out of 14 students in Edith’s class none was included in any subject area. With regard to Edith, Mr. Donovan reported that she was “doing great” and “has really improved.” However, when asked about her possible return to general education, Mr. Donovan said, “Maybe she’ll be partially included by high school.”

Edith’s Educational Needs: The instructional Environment

Although Mr. Donovan occasionally provided instruction that resonated with his students, the majority of his instruction was of the worksheet variety. When whole-group instruction did occur, Edith was often silent, though attentive, appearing not to be able to understand or keep-up with the rest of the group. Our field notes illustrated that during reading activities, Edit was commonly “staring off,” “silent,” “flipping pages,” or “grimacing.” Her off-task behavior seemed to be related to lack of understanding of content or difficulty with written language rather than purposeful behavior.

            Although Edith’s work samples were extremely difficult to decipher, she received average grades and little corrective feedback. For example, she received “happy faces” on journal essays that were barley comprehensible. The class was using a fifth grade basal text, but both Mr. Donovan’s reports and our testing on the Woodcock Johnson Test in reading established Edith’s level at close to third grade. When she failed an accelerated reading test based on a book that was beyond her level, Mr. Donovan reported, “ I pass her with D’s because she tries.” When asked about addressing Edith’s academic needs, Mr. Donovan reported, “I taught kids context clues to help them,” explaining that he did this so that his students would be more successful in taking the state standardized assessment. Edith’s performance on the test was in the third percentile for reading and the fifth percentile for mathematics problem solving.

            Mr. Donovan, like the referring teacher, Mr. Peterson, reported that “Edith speaks the language well,” and “has made much improvement.” However, her work samples, class participation, grades, and conversations, evidenced both written and oral language proficiency problems. For example, in Edith’s interview, her language suggested an interplay of influences from her first language and African American Vernacular English such as “We play bowling,” “We set up the carpet,” “We put ten bowlers there, “When is nighttime I be scared,” “But I only fight one time,” “On Christmas I get gifts and go places, and “She don’t tell me why.” These difficulties with tense, subject verb agreement, and vocabulary were not addressed in her educational program.

Edith’s Response to Behavior Management

            The focus of the EBD program was on behavior, and our observations showed Edith as consistently and quietly compliant with staff directions or reprimands. The fact that she was usually quietly off task during instruction presented a contrast to many of the other students in the EBD program, who tended to react sarcastically to staff reprimands or who were repeatedly disciplined for verbal disrespect, disobedience, and aggression. Across 16 classroom observations of Edith during her fifth-grade year, the only indication of troubling behavior was a report from school personnel that Edith had had to be “taken down” (physically restrained) for foul language and “telling lies on the other kids.” Mr. Donovan added:

Immediately, she went home and told her family about it. Her brother came out to the school to ask why. Her mom didn’t know Edith could be restrained… At the staffing, parents are told what could happen. They don’t raise questions. It’s possible she didn’t understand the language, although we have a Haitian Creole person translate.

Edith described the restraint, stating:

I been restrained one time. A girl, Ayesha, want to fight me. Her and her auntie want to double team me. They told the teacher. I was already cool down and they restrain me and my momma got mad, because I didn’t do nothin’ to the girl. Plus I got surgery on my leg and my hand was hurting. I got pins on my legs. My mom told my brother to come and tell them don’t restrain anymore. I don’t like this school at all.

 During an interview with one of the researchers, it turned out that Mr. Donovan was unaware of Edith’s history of surgery, although this information was in her cumulative file.

Mr. Donovan’s views of Edith’s family were similar to those of Ms. Fernandez, the school psychologist. He stated that Edith’s parent was one of those “who don’t show up.” However, Mr. Donovan also related that the mother sent the child’s adult brother on the only occasion that there was a disciplinary issue to be addressed and consistently signed the daily home note and point sheet. When asked if he had attempted to schedule a conference for her IEP conference, Mr. Donovan stated, “I think I tried to schedule a conference for her IEP. I’m sure I did. Let’s check the cum.” Upon checking the cumulative file, Mr. Donovan found no record of that he had scheduled a conference.

Edith continued in the EBD program on into middle school at some distance from her home.

This Case is based on original ethnographic research and came from the work of

Harry, B., Kilinger, J., & Cramer E. (2007) Case studies of minority student placement in special education. New York, NY Teachers College Press.

Case-Method

Through your work, I would like you to focus not on “getting the answers” to the questions “correct”, but instead focus on how you arrive at possible solutions. What you should be working to do is to create reasoned responses that are supported by evidence. Here are some steps that your team may find useful in the problem-solving process (Knackendoffel, 1996):

• Define the issue/problem
• Identify a range of possible solutions using evidence from the case and/or effective teaching practices that promote inclusion.
• Select the best possible solution(s)
• Develop a plan for changing teaching practice(s)
• Identify criteria by which your team would know that your plan is working successfully.

Questions:

• According to Baines (2014), "The difficulty is that youth identities often are treated as a side effect of academic experiences or a hobby that students should set aside in order to finish their work, rather that self-perceptions and understandings that actively influence all learning. How students perceive themselves  and interpret who they are in relation to those around them is at the core of what drives their actions, choices, and participation (p.76)."  Given Edith's schooling , analyze how what she has experienced in relation to how she sees herself as a learner and as a member of her school community. Further, how do you think her schooling  will inform her long term perceptions  of her identity and potential life outcomes? Please be sure to use the Baines (2014) text and other course materials to support your arguments. 
• How do hierarchies of power that are depicted in the case relate to Baines (2014) discussions on positionally and marginalization of disability in schools?
• Using Baines (2014) depictions and analysis of disability in schools and Edith's case, explain how teacher perceptions of student ability shape their educational trajectories. Your agreements should address issues of race, class, and power and draw on a range of course materials (e.g., film, text, media). 

Paper Writing Equivalent: Using Metaphor, Art, and Mixed Media

There is a tendency in schooling to focus on traditional tools rather than contemporary ones. This tendency has several liabilities: 1) it does not prepare learners for their future; 2) it limits the range of content and teaching methods that can be implemented; 3) it restricts learners ability to express knowledge about content (assessment); and, most importantly, 4) it constricts the kinds of learners who can be successful. Current media tools provide a more flexible and accessible toolkit with which learners can more successfully take part in their learning and articulate what they know. Unless a lesson is focused on learning to use a specific tool (e.g., learning to draw with a compass), curricula should allow many alternatives. Like any craftsman, learners should learn to use tools that are an optimal match between their abilities and the demands of the task (CAST, UDL Guidelines, Expression & Communication, 2020).

In alignment with UDL, I am providing you with the following option(s) for written expression in all assignments for the quarter. The following guidelines are provided and are based on the scholarship of teaching and learning from Vanderbilt University (2020).

Construction and Composition of Assignments

• Reflect on the assigned concept, text, media, focusing on what you consider to be the most significant components and the prompts provided.
• Think of way to represent how you make sense of the concept, text, and or media. This may include any form of expression you choose. For example, create a metaphor, art piece, digital recording, photographic representation, poetry, etc.
• Clarity and depth are important.
• Provide an explication of your creative work that interprets it for others, clearly explaining your work and all of its details, with specific attention to how it captures the significant components of the concept, text, and media in the assignment.

 Criteria for Evaluating Creative Work

 Clarity

• Is it made clear to those interacting your creative piece, what the work is supposed to represent?

Accuracy

• Are details from the course materials used to construct your work accurately reflected?

Complexity

• Does your creative work and the accompanying explication reflect the complexity of the concept, text, and or media that the assignment is based on?

Comprehensiveness

• Does your creative work as articulated fully represent the concept, text, and or media that the assignment is based on?
• Knowing that our interpretations of concept, text, and or media in some way incomplete, is there anything that your work did not address that is essential to others understanding the vehicle that you have created to express the assignment.

Unity & Synthesis

• Does your creative work and its explication present a focused image that integrates as many ideas as possible from the course materials?
• Does your creative work and its explication present a set or sequence of discrete but related ideas, or does it document integrative synthesized thinking that brings multiple ideas into a singular focus?