Eric.ed.gov – Math Strategy Instruction for Students with Disabilities Who Are Learning English. ELLs with Disabilities Report 16

English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities are two groups specifically targeted in NCLB for which schools must demonstrate “adequate yearly progress.” However, ELLs with disabilities, a category where these two groups overlap, are not specifically mentioned in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Students with “high-incidence” learning-related disabilities (e.g., speech and language impairments, learning disabilities, and emotional/behavioral disabilities) in particular exhibit unique educational needs likely to place them at risk as schools strive to improve academic outcomes across the range of students specifically targeted in NCLB. With the rapid growth of the population of ELLs in the U.S., schools have an urgent need for research-based information on how to instruct ELLs with disabilities in grade-level content. This report describes a series of single-subject studies conducted to examine the effect of a mathematics instructional strategy, teacher-directed “think-aloud,” on the standards-based academic achievement of Latino and Hmong ELLs with disabilities attending middle or junior high school. The study targeted students with disabilities participating in mainstream content classes using standards-based curriculum. Protocol strategies are appended. (Contains 4 figures and 2 tables.)