Whereas most existing research has examined the prevalence of current English learners (ELs) in special education, we propose and test the use of the ever-EL framework, which holds the subgroup of EL students stable by following all students who enter school classified as ELs. Drawing on two administrative data sets, discrete-time hazard analyses show that whereas current EL students are overrepresented in special education at the secondary level, students who enter school as ELs are significantly underrepresented in special education overall and within most disability categories. Reclassification patterns, in part, explain these findings: EL students with disabilities are far less likely than those without disabilities to exit EL services, resulting in large proportions of dually identified students at the secondary level. These findings shed new light on EL under- and overrepresentation in special education and offer insights into policies and practices that can decrease EL special education disproportionality.

Researcher-practitioner partnerships have gained increasing prominence within education in recent years, yet scholarship on partnerships and tools to guide partnerships' work remain in their infancy. Drawing on our own work in a partnership as well as analysis of abstracts for the 41 partnerships funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and the Spencer Foundation, we analyze the prevalence of four types of research questions-data quality, information gathering, evaluation, and design questions-within partnerships and reflect on the constraints and affordances of each question type for partnerships. We argue that explicitly considering the extent to which possible questions are of high interest and are actionable for both researchers and practitioners may increase the likelihood that the needs of both parties will be met and that partnerships can truly serve as a tool for meaningful improvement in education.

Objective: To understand the experiences that diverse families have when taking their young child to the dentist and document their prevalence. Study Design: An exploratory sequential design was used. First, four focus groups (n=33) with low-income female caregivers of children under 6 years were done in English and Spanish. Discussions centered around facilitators and barriers to taking children to the dentist. Themes derived from the groups were then used to create a survey that was given to 1184 caregivers in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Results: Thematic coding of focus groups found little support for typically reported barriers to pediatric oral healthcare utilization (e.g., transportation, cost, knowledge). Instead, caregivers reported negative experiences (e.g., restraint, separation) to be barriers. From the surveys, 66% of caregivers reported being separated from their child, 25% reported that their child was restrained (53.7% for cleanings), 26% of children were given sedating medication for cleanings, and 22% reported experiences that made them not want to return to the dentist. The prevalence of these experiences significantly differed between Latino, Asian, and Caucasian families and for annual incomes under or above $50,000. Conclusions: Families with lower incomes and/or from ethnic and linguistic minority groups were more likely to report negative experiences at the dentist than higher-income and Caucasian families. These data document the high prevalence of negative experiences and suggest ethnic, financial and linguistic disparities in the quality of experiences. More research is needed on the role of dentists in facilitating or hindering oral healthcare utilization among diverse families.

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Parental practices and beliefs have been recognized as having an important influence on the development of children's self-regulation. Using a mixed methods approach, the present study explored how parental practices and beliefs influence low-income Mexican American children's (N = 44) self-regulation during the fall of preschool. Quantitative results indicated that the family learning environment and parental control were significantly related to stronger self-regulation in Mexican American children from low-income families.Qualitative interviews indicated that "respect" and "being well educated" emerged as key factors guiding parents' expectations of children's behaviors and discipline. Additionally, these results indicated that parents struggled to provide additional educational materials to enrich the home learning environment of their children. This study highlights the importance of understanding the parental practices and beliefs of low-income Mexican American parents and their influence on children's self-regulation to better serve the needs of Mexican American parents and their children.