Running Head: M6 and 7 Reflection Assignment

Module 6 and 7 Reflection Assignment

Or

Students with Exceptionalities, Multicultural Curriculum, and Common Core State

Standards: Can They Really Intersect to Create Equitable Educational Opportunities?

David J. Szumlanski
University of Kansas, Fall 2016
Professor: Nicholas Natchoo, PhD

Introduction: This paper focuses on three current forces in American education today
(Special Education, Multicultural Education, and Common Core State Standards), and
attempts to analyze whether the three can be tied together successfully to promote
equitable education opportunities for all. In the process, I examine if one is more
important, and why, and if one (or more) must, sometimes, be relinquished (and why).

M6 and 7 Reflection Assignment

Students with exceptionalities require a team of professionals in order to secure

and ensure appropriate services. Some of the critical issues discussed in recent weeks
are the effects of labels, the importance of preventative measures like MTSS and
culturally responsive methods for communicating with families, and the inequitable
number of minority students in special education (both gifted and otherwise) (Banks,
(2013), Delpit, (2006), and Villegas & Lucas (2002). Though all of these are important,
preventative measures stand out as most important because they require knowledge of
each of these areas. By ensuring that MTSS methods are utilized, as well as culturally
sensitive methods, we can better focus SPED resources on the students who actually
need them.
Sylvias dilemma helped me better understand my work with diverse learners; I
wrote that the student needed to take the standardized test for many reasons, including
the assurance of equitable opportunities in school. I discussed how to better prepare
her for that moment with preventative medicine via research-based teaching strategies,
dialog with the student, and teacher focus on effort and improvement. Then the media
presentation helped me think about ensuring that the material being taught was relevant
to the needs of my students, and representative of school demographics. Furthermore,
the readings and VoiceThread presentations reinforced the need for culturally
responsive methods for working with students and their families. By focusing on
prevention in these ways, we can help to overrepresentation of minority students in
SPED, except for gifted programs (where we need more diversity). One of the
obstacles to this goal is deficit thinking, which means that teachers think that students of
diverse backgrounds are disadvantaged when it comes to accessing the curriculum.

M6 and 7 Reflection Assignment

This means teachers cannot see (and thereby utilize) the strengths of the student, and
students cannot share their strengths with the class and school. In the same way that
white male privilege allows a group of students an advantage in school, educators must
insist on more equitable teaching, presentation, and assessment models like UDL, and
by ensuring that both the content and context are relevant to each student
(UDLCenter.org).
I was intrigued to see the CCSS and MTSS compatibility article, which advocates
the use of UDL principles in order to promote high expectations and attainment for
students (Gamm, et al, 2012). CCSS is an attempt to scale back the number of
standards in order to make room for the educational depth required for authentic
learning to occur. In a perfect world, educators would have enough time to really dive in
to the most important areas, and room to include the diverse perspectives in our
schools with dialog and respect for cultural differences. In my experience, however, that
there are still far too many standards to achieve this worthy goal. In a 2013 article, Jo
Boaler echoed my own concerns by writing, Sadly it does not go far enough in this
regard, and the high-school grades in particular are still packed with obsolete content.
(Boaler, 2013). It is still too close to the warning against the over-packed curriculum,
about which Nel Noddings discussed the difference between covering the material vs.
meaningful teaching (Noddings, 2007).
So where does that leave us? Can we implement multicultural education
opportunities and bolster/focus equitable practices for our students with exceptionalities
even as we fully embrace CCSS. The work of Delpit reminds me of my response to
Sylvias dilemma. We need to use the best research-based strategies for our students.

M6 and 7 Reflection Assignment

We need to be focusing our efforts on practices that ensure equitable representation in

gifted programs, and reducing the number of black students in special education as
high-risk learners. While NCSS gets us CLOSER to the intended goal, educators must
still choose, at times, between preparing students for high-stakes testing or the real-life
demands the may one day face. Thus, as in Sylvias dilemma, we will still need to
ensure equitable teaching practices even as we remember why we came into the field
of education. It wasnt to help students pass tests, but to prepare them as best we can
for life in and out of school, and to arm them with academic and civic knowledge so that
they may succeed and lead in life long after their formal schooling has come to an end.

M6 and 7 Reflection Assignment

5
References

Banks, J., & Banks, C. (2013). Multicultural education issues and perspectives (8th ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Delpit, L. (2006). Lessons from Teacher. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(3), 220-231).
Vellegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers:
Rethinking the Curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(1), 21-32.
National Center for Universal Design for Learning website. (updated 2015, June 18)
Retreived from http://www.udlcenter.org/ on 2016, December 9.
Gamm, S., Elliott, J., Wright halbert, J., Price-Baugh, R., Hall, R., Walston, D., Uro, G.,
& Casserly, M. (2012). Common Core State Standards and Diverse Urban
Students: Using Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. Council of the Great City
Schools, Washington, D.C.
Boaler, J. (2013, November 12). The Stereotypes That Distort How Americans Teach
and Learn Math. The Atlantic, online.
Noddings, N. (2007). Curriculum for the 21st Century. Educational Studies in Japan:
International Yearbook, n2, 75-81.