This webinar, featuring Drs. Donna Sacco, John Hoover, and Tracy Spies, illustrates considerations for implementing data-based individualization (DBI) with ELs that accounts for their unique academic, social, behavioral, linguistic, and cultural experiences, assets, and needs. They share why it is important to (a) deliver instruction that represents culturally and linguistically sustaining best practices, and (b) distinguish the needs and assets of learners to improve progress (i.e., second-language acquisition, culture, learning challenges).

Did you miss the February 2022 NCII Newsletter? The newsletter introduced the new NCII team, highlighted the new look on the NCII website, and shared a new intensive intervention for English Learners resource. The newsletter also highlighted OSEP's 43rd Annual Report to Congress and new resource from the Lead for Literacy Center and National Center for Systemic Improvement. If you are not receiving our newsletter, enter your name at the bottom of the page or email us at ncii@air.org.

To support English Learners (ELs) with intensive intervention needs it is important to (a) deliver instruction that represents culturally and linguistically sustaining best practices, and (b) distinguish the needs and assets of learners to improve progress (i.e., second-language acquisition, culture, learning challenges). This brief illustrates considerations for implementing data-based individualization (DBI) with ELs that accounts for their unique academic, social, behavioral, linguistic, and cultural experiences, assets, and needs.

This two page handout highlights how to use the Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity when selecting, evaluating, and intensifying interventions for students who are English learners (ELs). Specific considerations for ELs are provided across the dimensions of strength, dosage, alignment. attention to transfer, comprehensiveness, behavioral support, and individualization.

Although instructional and intervention practices that work for monolingual students often benefit English learners (ELs), there are additional considerations when assessing, instructing, or providing intervention to ELs that account for the nature of English acquisition. The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) and the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) have compiled freely-available resources to support educators and educational organizations serving ELs. This list includes resources related to instruction, multitiered system of supports, special education, implementation supports, and partnering with families.

In this video, Dr. Rolland O’Connor, Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California Riverside a member of the NCII Academic Intervention Technical Review Committee, addresses the implications of early reading research for understanding late-emerging reading disabilities, working with students learning English, and preparing teachers to have a strong grounding in the stages of reading development.

In this video, Dr. Alba Ortiz, Professor Emeritus of Special Education at the University of Texas at Austin discusses the importance of culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and intervention.

In this video, Cathy Kea, Professor of Special Education at North Carolina A&T State University, discusses how we can better serve racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students who have persistent learning and behavior problems.

In this video, John M. Hintze, Professor in the Department of Student Development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst explains why it is important to consider whether an assessment is biased against a specific sub-group.

English learners (ELs), as defined by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, are individuals enrolled in school between the ages of 3 and 21 whose native language is not English. Although ELs are categorized under a single, homogeneous label, they represent a diverse population of students with wide-ranging cultural experiences, native and second-language proficiencies, and varying degrees of subject matter knowledge (Vaughn et al., 2019).  Delivering intensive intervention for ELs involves consistent attention to students’ language development, culture, and academic and behavioral needs throughout the DBI process. Supporting ELs with intensive needs depends on an educator’s