Submission for Teachers College Record

The editors invite submissions for a special issue of Teachers College

Record devoted to the intersection of high-stakes testing

accountability practices and special education services.

The theme of this special issue focuses on the ways in which

high-stakes testing accountability systems interact with special

education instructional and referral practices. We already know that

minority students and English Language Learners are disproportionately

identified for special education services—identification practices

that can have deleterious effects on academic outcomes. However, we do

not know the extent to which consequential standardized testing

systems influence how these students are identified or treated, and

what types of educational opportunities are offered/withheld.

Therefore, a primary goal of this special issue is to look at how

high-stakes testing pressures influence special education labeling,

expectations, and instructional practices and to examine their impact

on students’ psychological and motivational processes and associated

phenomena such as the stereotype threat, learned helplessness, and

self-fulfilling prophecies.

We welcome theoretical/empirical submissions in the following areas:

(a) Analyses on the ways in which high-stakes testing accountability

systems inform/influence special education referral, identification,

and instructional practices; and (b) The social, psychological,

motivational, and academic effects of special education

identification/determination in high-stakes testing contexts.

We are especially interested in these topics as they relate to

students of culturally and linguistically diverse background and

English Language Learners.

We welcome a full range of theoretical and methodological approaches.

Review of proposals will begin immediately; for consideration please

submit a 500-word abstract to Sharon Nichols (Sharon.Nichols@utsa.edu)

by November 30, 2014. Authors will be notified of acceptance by

December 15, 2014. Authors of accepted proposals will be invited to

submit a full manuscript for this special issue by March 15, 2015. All

manuscripts will be subject to a peer-review. Questions should be

directed to Guest Editors Sharon Nichols (Sharon.Nichols@utsa.edu) or

Felicia Castro-Villarreal (Felicia.CastroVillarreal@utsa.edu)