Doable Disruptions to the Monolingual Bias

This post is about the tricky intersection of bilingual learners and the special education referral process. No doubt, there are students for whom English is a new language who are born with/develop cognitive delays and deserve additional supports outside of the mainstream classroom and curriculum. And yet, our MLLs are disproportionately referred to SPED services (Matthews, Edwards & Nelson. 2014) and this must stop. This post is about how to look at the problem through a Monolingual Bias framework, followed by "doable disruptions" to ensure our MLLs are given the just-right kind of supports.

An all-too familiar story

Massiel is an MLL (Multilingual Learner) provider in the Pacific Northwest and it’s her first year in the role.  Early on in our coaching cycle she shared a staggering statistic about her district: they have the highest rate of SPED referrals for the Hispanic population. She hates this fact about her district and felt helpless to enact substantive changes to stop it. Taking this in, I asked Massiel to focus on what she loves most about her work. She described seeing herself as an advocate and liaison for her caseload of mostly newcomers.  While she can't service the more intermediate and advanced proficiency MLLs regularly, she knows of them and just prays the mainstream teachers can adjust their teaching with language-supports in mind.

Sounds familiar, right? Pray, check in with colleagues, fret that you aren't doing enough to help all the kids on your roster. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Spill the tea!

At the top of our last session, Massiel looked despondent, pissed even.  I knew something had gone down last week, so she spilled the tea.

A colleague approached her to initiate the referral process for one of her 1st grade MLLs, which surprised Massiel.  Something felt off- there isn't enough data in on this child to initiate the referral, but she remained professional and began the observations, filled out her assessment matrix and so on.  Sure enough, according to the metrics and her own observations of the child, she believes this to be a language acquisition issue, not a cognitive one.  She is uncomfortable advancing the child through the referral process.

I inquired whom else in the building is involved in this referral process.  "The Resource Teacher", she said with a scowl.  "Oh, like the resource room person, a reading specialist?"  Massiel explained this lady was *convinced* this child should have an IEP "both of his older siblings do"... and then she challenged Massiel's authority as an expert, asserting, "How dare you question his 1st grade teacher? She holds 2 degrees and a reading endorsement and when she sees there's a problem, she's often right."

Massiel felt stunned, angered, and frustrated that her insistence on more observation and support was met with deep skepticism and downright hostility by the Resource Teacher. 

But see, I wasn’t surprised. This is one more obvious example of the Monolingual Bias run amok in this district.

Let me explain…

To clarify, the Monolingual Bias promotes a troubling narrative that bilinguals must acquire English proficiency at all costs, while assimilating to US culture. In the absence of knowledge about language acquisition processes (most non-MLL specialists lack this knowledge base) then they'll interpret a struggling bilingual reader as possessing cognitive deficits. 

The Monolingual Bias contaminates the SPED referral process in the following ways:

1. It emboldens *monolingual* teachers and reading specialists to mistrust an MLL provider's insights

2. It reveals the differential understandings for what each provider thinks 'support' looks like for this student (Massiel wants more comprehension-based language supports whereas the Resource Teacher wants phonics-first interventions. The Literacy Squared team writes about this phenomena…)

3. It can lead to divisions and animosity between MLL and other support staff

How disruptive do you want to be?

At this point in our session, Massiel felt a sense of relief (ok, I'm not wrong, and I'm not crazy) but she wasn't any closer to a solution.  A glean in my eye, my heart began to race, "well, this depends on how disruptive you want to be?"  She hesitated, "Uh, Lillian, I'm NEW in this role.  I can't burn the place down! (pause) but just for the sake of argument... what kind of disruptions do you suggest?"

Here are 3 doable disruptions you can try out today:

1. Assemble your squad: find your MLL allies in the school and district, even better if you can get your supervisor on board.  In Massiel's case, her director is aware of the high Hispanic referral statistic, and is motivated to change that narrative. 

2. Do your homework: Massiel needs to understand more about how teacher language ideologies work and operate. I shared this resource with her, and we plan to unpack it on our next call. 

3. Spread the word: drop hints about great podcast episodes, IG accounts, or even statistics that highlight bilingual/language research.  Offer the resources and perhaps some of your colleagues can unlearn myths around language deficits and MLL learning trajectories.

Doable Disruptions

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Doable Disruptions ⭐️

Change doesn’t happen in big sweeping policy gestures or with the arrival of award-winning curriculum, it happens by engaging in doable disruptions to the Monolingual Bias, and it starts with you. And if you're in a district where Latine students are disproportionately referred for SPED services... consider booking my coaching services.  It would be my honor to walk your team through a disruption cycle 🙂.