Download or read book Reducing Disproportionate Representation of Culturally Diverse Students in Special and Gifted Education written by Alfredo J. Artiles and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the disproportionate representation of students from minority backgrounds in special education and gifted classes, and presents strategies that practitioners can use to better address the educational needs of all students. Chapter 1, "Disproportionate Representation: A Contentious and Unresolved Predicament" (Alfredo J. Artiles and Grace Zamora-Duran), provides an outline of the problem of student placement, disproportionate representation, and misclassification. Chapter 2, "Changing the Context of Assessment: The Move to Portfolios and Authentic Assessment" (Robert Rueda), criticizes traditional standardized assessment approaches that disregard students' prior knowledge and cultural differences and proposes the use of performance assessment approaches. In chapter 3, "When Behavior Differences Are Not Disorders" (Sharon R. Ishii-Jordan), the cultural influences on student behavior are discussed as well as the need for educators to be aware of the role of cultural meaning underlying human behavior. Chapter 4, "From Tests To Talking in the Classroom: Assessing Communicative Competence" (Grace Zamora-Duran and Elba I. Reyes), presents guidelines for educators to use to assess students' language proficiency in order to decide whether a more comprehensive assessment or a prereferral intervention is needed; (5) "Disproportionate Representation in Gifted Programs: Best Practices for Meeting This Challenge" (James M. Patton), discusses the under representation of children from minority backgrounds in gifted education and presents alternative assessment procedures. The final chapter, "Disproportionate Representation: Current Issues and Future Directions" (Grace Zamora-Duran and Alfredo J. Artiles), provides a summary of recommended practices to address the problem of disproportionate representation. (Each chapter includes references.) (CR)