Federal funding for this website ended in 2003, therefore few materials have been added since that time. Fortunately, there is continued interest in culturally and appropriate materials, curriculum, and programs. Because of this, we have allowed this site to remain as an archive. Please feel free to use this site, but recognize that it is no longer current.
The following Review Guidelines are intended to help service providers and individuals involved in personnel preparation determine the congruence between the beliefs, values, and practices of the individuals in your community and current recommended practices in early childhood/special education. The Review Guidelines will first help you consider the overall effectiveness of presentation of a material. Next, questions follow which pertain specifically to the content area of Inclusion.
It is important to realize that no material is likely to match the exact needs of individuals in your community. Therefore, in many instances, you may wish to make some simple adaptations to the materials before using them.
A separate set of Review Guidelines is available to help select materials that have been translated from one language to another. In addition, other suggestions for choosing materials are available on the CLAS Web site (http://clas.illinois.edu). It is our hope that you may use these Review Guidelines to engage in meaningful dialogue with families and colleagues in your community, as you decide which materials to use in your early childhood setting.
Effectiveness
of Presentation
Please respond to all that apply.
Clarity
- Is the purpose of the material clear?
- Is the presentation of the information easy to follow?
- If there are directions on how to use the material, are they clearly stated?
- Does the material include an effective explanation of technical terms or jargon?
- Does the language in the material acknowledge diversity (e.g., family structures, multi-generations, disabilities, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, etc.)?
- Is the format (e.g., print, audio, video, etc.) appropriate for the intended users of this material?
- Are contact agencies or persons for accessing additional information or support easily identifiable?
Comprehension Level
- Easy = mainly simple sentences with minimal or no technical jargon;
- Average = a mix of simple and complex sentences with some technical jargon (e.g., USA Today);
- Difficult = mainly complex sentences with a lot of technical jargon or discipline-specific terms (e.g., College-level text or New York Times).
- For printed materials, the reading level of the material is:
Easy | Average | Difficult | N/A - For video and audio materials, the comprehension level of the material
is:
Easy | Average | Difficult | N/A
Graphics, Illustrations and Photos
Do the graphics:
- Represent a non-stereotypical view of cultural (e.g., contemporary dress) and linguistic groups?
- Represent a wide variety of groups (e.g., disabilities, gender, race, generation)?
- Enhance the materials (e.g., photo prints and designs are appropriate and of high quality)?
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Systems Issues
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To what extent does the material …
- Provide an appropriate definition of inclusion that refers to ALL children in an integrated environment, with the provision of special services by trained professionals?
- Address changes that may be required in the existing system in order to promote inclusive options (e.g., staff training and funding)?
- Address changes in the existing system that are required to accommodate children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds (e.g., hiring bilingual/bicultural staff, employing community liaisons, multi-cultural mission statement and curriculum)?
- Include a discussion of fiscal or resource issues when reviewing inclusive options (e.g., tuition costs, travel costs, aid to families)?
- Address the need for interagency cooperation and collaboration when offering inclusive services involving more than one agency (e.g., school district and Head Start or private preschool)?
- Address the disposition for change as critical factors in supporting inclusion (e.g., willingness, attitude, desire and commitment)?
- Discuss strategies for ensuring appropriate supervision and channels of accountability for staff across all participating programs (e.g., monitoring child’s IEP to ensure its implementation)?
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Establishing a Healthy Relationship Between Providers and Families
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To what extent does the material …
- Acknowledge that not all families will choose to have their child placed in an inclusive setting?
- Emphasize that when the family chooses to have their child placed in an inclusive setting, the family participates in the process of identifying inclusive options?
- Emphasize the importance of providers and families establishing a comfortable relationship prior to identifying, assessing, and addressing a child's educational setting (e.g., understanding values and beliefs)?
- Encourage providers to engage in self-reflection regarding their role, assumptions and beliefs, and how they may be perceived by the family (e.g., supportive, interfering, guiding, intrusive)?
- Encourage interaction with families in their preferred language or through the assistance of a qualified translator/interpreter who can serve as a cultural mediator?
- Encourage professionals to clarify their role with families and to gather information regarding family expectations about the placement of their child in inclusive settings?
- Offer strategies when the family chooses to have their child placed in an inclusive setting and a conflict arises between suggested inclusive placements and families' preferences?
- Acknowledge the importance of developing a climate of mutual respect and trust by responding to family concerns as they arise (e.g., answering questions and providing resources)?
- Acknowledge the importance of employing service providers who respect and are knowledgeable about the cultures and languages of the families served?
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Intervention Strategies—Preparing for Successful Inclusion
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To what extent does the material …
- Acknowledge that family members may differ in their availability or desire to participate in activities in the inclusive setting, which may increase or decrease over time?
- Provide information on the variety of ways that families and program staff can communicate with one another (e.g., journals, phone calls, home visits, personal communication)?
- Encourage providers to choose content, themes, or units that are reflective of and relevant to the children's everyday lives?
- Encourage providers to use instructional materials with written text which reflects the diversity of languages, cultures, and abilities present in the classroom (e.g., picture books, posters, bulletin-board displays)?
- Encourage providers to display and give children access to a variety of non-stereotypic materials in all areas or centers of the classroom.
- Encourage the use of instructional supports that are meaningful to the children (e.g., adapting tasks for a child with a sensory disability, providing books about the child’s culture in the reading center, daily transitions using a song or phrase in the child’s primary language)?
- Address how the teacher can help bridge the culture of the child and the culture of the classroom (e.g., recognizing differences in communication patterns, using familiar games, songs, foods, and other materials)?
- Address how the teacher can help bridge the language of the child and the language of the classroom (e.g., using labels or phrases from the child’s language)?
- Present strategies for supporting children who are medically and/or physically challenged (e.g., ventilator-dependent, wheelchairs)?
- Address how providers and families can be sensitive to differing expectations for the child with disabilities in inclusive settings (e.g., cultural views on cause/treatment of disability)?
- Suggest strategies and materials that can be embedded within the family's routines and environments?
- Encourage adapting activities, materials, equipment, environments, and intervention strategies as needed to accommodate the abilities and sensory needs of individual children?
- Encourage intervention strategies that take into account the environment in which the family lives (e.g., living space, safety considerations) and in which the interventions will be delivered (e.g., home, school, community)? Strategies should be environmentally sensitive, and may vary according to the setting.
- Encourage collaboration among all the providers in planning, implementing, and evaluating interventions (e.g., regular preschool teacher, special education teacher, bilingual teacher, and speech-language therapist)?
- Emphasize that intervention services must be consistent with what is required under IDEA?
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Staff Training and Support
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To what extent does the material …
- Address staff development and inservice training as an ongoing need for all personnel involved in inclusive programs?
- Recommend providing support and follow-up to inservice training (e.g., discussion group, materials)?
- Encourage program staff to meet with individuals who can provide information regarding the culture and/or language of children in the classroom (e.g., community representative, community leaders, parents)?
- Address logistical issues to facilitate the provision of staff development (e.g., location, incentives, scheduling, diversity of presenters)?
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Model Effectiveness
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To what extent does the material …
- Identify potential short-term outcomes for both the caregiver and/or the child?
- Identify potential long-term outcomes for both the caregiver and/or the child?
- Specify the cultural and linguistic groups with whom the approach has been used?
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Evaluating Impact and Appropriateness of Inclusive Programs
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To what extent does the material …
- Provide information to assist staff in evaluating their successes (e.g., supports or elements that make inclusive programs work) and challenges (e.g., discrepancies between school district and private school schedules, differing staff philosophies, etc.) in their provision of inclusive settings?
- Provide opportunities for families to participate in the process of evaluating their child's progress and adjustment in the inclusive setting?
- Encourage providers to systematically evaluate the appropriateness of the interventions with families based on their changing needs and preferences?
- Suggest ways of ensuring that outcomes are important and meaningful to the families as well as the service providers?
- Include a variety of options for gathering information from families (e.g., interviews, observations, checklists, etc.) that respect families’ cultural and linguistic background and considers families’ level of acculturation?
| The following two questions are intended to deepen the analysis of the ways materials address issues of diversity. In some cases, these issues may have been addressed in the preceding questions. |
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Does the material acknowledge and address complex and sometimes subtle aspects of diversity as they relate to inclusion, such as:
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- Power (refers to the division of members of society into levels with unequal access to resources, knowledge, and authority)
- Racism (refers to systems advantage based on race)
- Prejudice (refers to an adverse judgment or opinion based on preconceived beliefs and ideas about different groups)
- Socio-Economic Class (refers to the division of society into levels with unequal wealth and prestige)
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Are there any spoken or unspoken assumptions, values, or beliefs in this material that could conflict with the delivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (e.g., assuming all parents view themselves as advocates or equal partners)?
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign