It is critical for educators to understand the influence of religion or spirituality on students and their families. This article reviews the literature addressing religious, spiritual, and cultural beliefs with an emphasis on quality-of-life issues and provides suggestions educators can use to enhance the services that they provide.

Parents with children with cognitive disabilities may rely on organized religion and/or spiritual beliefs as coping strategies in their lives. Fifteen parents of adolescents with cognitive disabilities were administered the Support From Religious Organizational and Personal Beliefs Scale—Revised to test this hypothesis. The results indicated that 50% of the participants did not (a) become more active in organized religion activities when their child with cognitive disabilities was born, (b) seek out assistance from the church when they experienced problems, or (c) perceive the church as being more supportive of them when compared with other agencies. In addition, 56% of the participants perceived that (a) they were satisfied with their personal beliefs, (b) they sought comfort through prayer, and (c) their personal beliefs continued to be a source of comfort in nurturing their child.

"Good" schools are typically defined as environments in which good students attend, good teachers teach, good parents participate, and good communities exist. This definition suggests that students maintain high test scores with the focus on going to college. In other words, good schools are typically exclusive in maintaining high standards for students, teachers, and service providers. The problem, however, is that such good schools pride themselves on maintaining and pushing homogeneous standards at all educational levels. Ironically, such actions, by standardizing the educational process, preclude responding to students with special needs and those who are culturally, linguistically, behaviorally, academically, and socioeconomically different. This article challenges the good school myth and presents equitable ways to work with multicultural exceptional learners.

In virtually every school district nationally, Black students are underrepresented in gifted education programs, including advanced placement (AP) classes. This underrepresentation exists regardless of grade level and school type. Building on a previous publication, this article addresses a central question in gifted education: Why does underrepresentation among Black students persist in gifted education despite efforts to rectify the problem? The authors review factors affecting this stubborn and pervasive educational, social, and moral issue and outline recommendations for both the recruitment and retention of African American students in gifted education. The authors' major premise is that educators' deficit orientation about African American students has a direct and profound impact on these students' being able to gain admission to gifted programs. The authors contend that educators must move beyond a deficit orientation to that of dynamic thinking if underrepresentation is to be reduced; dynamic thinking recognizes the cultural assets—the strengths and promise—of African American students. Essentially, changing our thinking about differences among children from cultural backgrounds that are different from our own is one promising strategy for recruiting and retaining Black and other culturally diverse students in gifted education.

The Dawn Project is a system of care responsible for creating and implementing an interagency collaborative approach to service provision. Systems of care are spectrums of services organized to meet the needs facing youth with serious emotional and behavioral difficulties. This study examined the relationship between school involvement in the Dawn Project and outcomes for participating youth. This was done by determining whether school contact with the service coordinator and school involvement with the child and family team had an impact on educational placement restrictiveness. Findings indicate that age, ethnicity, and gender are significant predictors of educational placement restrictiveness. There is also evidence to suggest that school involvement may be associated with more restrictive educational placements.

The changing demographic profile of the nation has led many schools to consider how to provide effective instruction in a way that is responsive to childrens' cultural needs. Providing culturally appropriate or culturally responsive instruction is commonly mentioned as a viable alternative. This article examines the issue of culturally responsive instruction in the classroom and considers both the promise as well as potential pitfalls of this approach. First, background on the issue of cultural accommodations is provided, and then an introduction to the issue of culture is discussed, including problematic ways that this notion has been treated with respect to teaching and learning. Next, a brief overview of research in this area is highlighted, and issues with the research base are pointed out. Finally, implications for practice and research are discussed, including suggestions for how work in this area might be advanced.

For English Language Learners (ELLs), the process of becoming literate in English is daunting. Not only are these students faced with the same literacy challenges faced by native English-speaking students, but they are also challenged with extensive diversity issues relating to substantial differences in linguistic, cultural, and academic background experiences. This paper reviews the challenges faced by ELLs in learning to read in English. Subsequently the paper discusses the major instructional approaches designed to improve the literacy skill levels of these individuals.

As the Hispanic population of the United States continues to increase dramatically, school professionals may misinterpret and may perceive culturally different classroom discourse skills as indicative of language learning disabilities. A possible misunderstanding of pragmatic behaviors of culturally and linguistically diverse Hispanic students may result in inappropriate referrals for special education evaluations. This article will discuss factors related to describing classroom pragmatics or discourse in the context of ethnographic observations in two fourth-grade classrooms in a rural district, with particular attention paid to pragmatic language skills. From the initial comparisons of classroom discourse categories, it appeared that both the general education classroom and the English as a second language classrooms used the discourse categories comparably. However, differences were noted. Knowledge gained from this study should assist teachers become more knowledgeable about classroom language demands placed upon their secondlanguage learners. This information should assist school professionals in recognizing what kind of language is used in classrooms and what language expectations exist for bilingual students. As a consequence, teachers should be able to make more appropriate referrals for special education assessments.

In this article the authors review the reading status of urban learners and examine the role of phonemic awareness in reading acquisition. Their review indicates that phonemic awareness alone is not sufficient for reading acquisition, and that phonemic awareness in combination with alphabetic principle is needed to promote reading competence. The article reports existing findings on phonemic awareness and alphabetic principle as they relate to outcomes for urban learners. Because one of the greatest challenges in today's schools is putting research-based reading instruction into practice, a challenge greatly multiplied in urban settings, this article provides a focused discussion of practical implications for teachers, educators, and administrators.

This article reports findings from a longitudinal investigation of predictors of reading achievement for English-language learners receiving reading instruction in an Englishlanguage curriculum. Using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessments, the study examined the predictive relationships of various measures of reading and vocabulary from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of first grade. Regression and path analysis models demonstrated that rapid letter naming was a salient predictor, whereas phonemic awareness, typically a strong predictor of reading achievement, played a diminished role. By first grade, the ability to decode simple words was a strong predictor, and by mid-first grade, reading fluency was a strong predictor. Oral vocabulary was not predictive of reading outcomes in kindergarten or first grade.

A diverse, Midwestern, high-poverty urban school district, under the guidance of a university reading professor with expertise in research-based instruction and reading intervention, began a professional-development initiative that resulted in improved reading achievement for its students. This article presents the background, rationale, and components of the model of effective reading instruction used in this initiative, Building Beginning Readers, and focuses on the reading achievement at one school over the course of 8 years. The gap between the achievement of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their White peers narrowed considerably, and the percentage of children identified for special education decreased from 18% to 8%.

The study conducted included four school districts that were addressing New York State Chapter 405 citations related to disproportionality. The purpose of this study was to identify the districts' common characteristics related to disproportionality, as well as common approaches and processes used to address the issue. An action research, multi-case study method was used, with the researchers assuming the dual role of consultants and researchers. Data were collected from questionnaires and facilitated focus group discussions. This paper will address both the methods and findings of the study. Implications of the results and recommendations for practice in interdistrict support will be discussed.

The authors interviewed 27 teachers (16 African American and 11 European American) on instructional factors contributing to overidentification of behavior problems in African American boys. Interviews focused on teachers' perspectives of effective teachers, teacherstudent relationships, and communication styles. Analysis of the interviews showed that both African American and European American teachers believed in the importance and positive impact of having caring relationships with students. However, African American teachers placed a higher value on being personally involved with students, providing protective guidance, and knowing the students' family and community. European American teachers valued teachers who provide good academic instruction, have consistent expectations and consequences, and are involved in students' school activities. Both groups believed there were important differences in communication styles between some African American women teachers and European American teachers in managing classrooms and disciplining students.

This pilot study examines the effects of the implementation of the Cool Tool, a social skills strategy, on the disruptive and problem behaviors of third-grade (n=4) and fourth-grade (n =6) African American students in an urban elementary school. Following the completion of the social skills intervention in both classrooms, the findings of pre- and post-classroom observations revealed that (a) the on-task performance and socially appropriate behaviors of African American students increased and (b) teachers increased their level of praises of students' behaviors. Future research efforts should be directed toward implementing a social skills intervention to minimize problem behaviors in African American students and facilitate positive teacher-student interactions.

This article is dedicated to the late Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard, III, Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, where he held joint appointments in the Departments of Educational Policy Studies, Educational Psychology, and Special Education.

A pre-postassessment, single-subject, pilot study was implemented, testing the hypothesis that positive behavior support (PBS) would improve family quality-of-life outcomes by reducing parental stress and challenging behaviors of preschool children who are culturally and linguistically diverse and reside in urban, disadvantaged communities. Six participants attended parent-training workshops designed to empower them to use PBS child behavior management strategies and enhance their own mental health outcomes via a functional parent-child relationship. Parental stress levels were measured and anecdotal reports of child outcomes obtained. Findings corroborate outcomes from preceding research supporting PBS as a socially valid, culturally responsive intervention effective at producing results acceptable to participants. Future research and suggestions are provided for closing the gap between research and practice.