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Rutgers helped Newark Public Schools fix a special education problem affecting bilingual students
- Rutgers is helping Newark Public Schools address a surge in special education referrals by evaluating whether language barriers, not disabilities, are driving misidentifications.
- Researchers found that testing in a student's nonprimary language and time constraints contribute to inaccurate evaluation results.
- A train-the-trainer model trains district speech-language pathologists to serve as peer leaders across the city.
- Officials will compare future evaluations to prior ones to gauge whether bilingual students are identified for services more accurately over time.
- The collaboration comes as Newark Public Schools works to support a culturally and linguistically diverse student population.
- The effort targets misidentification by addressing language differences as a potential factor in assessments.
- Researchers note a shortage of bilingual speech-language pathologists nationwide, complicating accurate assessments.
- Rutgers aims to make evaluations more accurate for students who don’t speak English as a primary language.
- The study found that over 1,200 initial evaluations occurred in the 2022–23 school year amid a wave of new students.
- The initiative includes training for district employees and contractors to improve consistency in evaluations.
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