Access and outcomes of children with special education needs in Early French Immersion

Abstract

This study investigated access to and outcomes of Early French Immersion (EFI) for students with special education needs (SEN) attending a large school board in Canada. Data analysis was carried out on: provincially mandated achievement test scores for all Grade 3 students with SEN participating over a three-year period (n = 705) who attended either EFI or English programs; standardized French and English language and reading scores for a small subset of students (n = 20); and interviews with parents of Grade 4 students in EFI (n = 9). Results revealed lower participation but higher English academic and language performance for students with SEN in the EFI program as well as development of French language and reading skills. Interviewed parents often believed children with SEN ‘could not handle’ EFI and that withdrawal should be an option in response to learning difficulties. Implications for inclusive practices in EFI are discussed. Cette étude a examiné l’accès et les résultats des élèves ayant des besoins éducatifs spéciaux fréquentant un programme d’immersion française (EFI) d’un grand conseil scolaire au Canada. Les données analysées étaient : les résultats aux tests obligatoires de rendement scolaire pour tous les élèves de 3e année avec besoins spéciaux fréquentant un programme EFI ou anglais, sur une période de trois ans (n = 705); les scores aux tests standardisés du langage et de lecture en français et en anglais pour un petit sous-ensemble de ces élèves (n = 20); et des entrevues avec des parents d’élèves de 4e année en EFI (n = 9). Les résultats ont révélé une participation plus faible mais des performances académiques et linguistiques en anglais plus élevées pour les élèves ayant des besoins spéciaux du programme EFI et le développement des habiletés langagières et de lecture en français. Les parents interrogés pensaient souvent que les enfants ayant des besoins spéciaux «ne pouvaient pas gérer» la EFI et que le retrait du programme devrait être une option en réponse aux difficultés d’apprentissage. La discussion porte sur les retombées concernant les pratiques inclusives.

The Challenges Facing Irish-Medium Primary and Post-Primary Schools When Implementing a Whole-School Approach to Meeting the Additional Education Needs of Their Students

“…For IM schools to be able to implement a comprehensive whole-school approach to inclusion, there is a need for more investment in the areas of assessments, evidence-based interventions, and access to Irish-language/bilingual educational services [26][27][28][29][30][31]. In the future, it is suggested that bilingual (Irish and English) external/educational services would be beneficial for students attending IM schools in relation to assessment and interventions (e.g., educational psychologists and speech and language therapists) [37,38].…”

“…The topics covered in the questionnaire included participant background information, the challenges of meeting the AEN of students in IM schools, educational professionals working with/in IM schools, assessment, and resources. The challenges of meeting the AEN of students in IM schools [11,18,20,28,29,34,37,46,47] Educational professionals working with/in IM schools [36][37][38][39][40] Assessment [8, [11][12][13][14]18,20,28,29,34,37,[46][47][48][49][50] Resources [8, [11][12][13][14]18,20,28,29,34,37,46,47,[49][50][51] To recruit participants, an email was sent to the school administrator's/principal's email address of all IM primary schools and post-primary schools in the RoI inviting the teachers in the school to take part in this research. The email contained a link to the questionnaire as well as a plain language statement and an informed consent form.…”

“…The international research states that it is often the case that those learning through a second language are disproportionately represented with additional educational needs (AEN) [25,26]. It is thought that there are several reasons for this: for example, the fact that there are few assessments available in a minority language to accurately assess the language and literacy skills of students in all their languages, the lack of access to external educational services in minority languages, and a lack of evidence-based interventions and resources [27][28][29]. This has made it difficult for immersion education schools throughout the world to implement a whole-school approach to meeting the needs of their students, and, in some instances, this has sometimes led to students with AEN transferring from immersion education to schools that teach in the majority language of the community.…”

“…One of the teachers said it looks bad that IM schools have no standardised assessments through the medium of Irish, especially as their school is a Gaeltacht school and Irish is the majority language of the community [8]. This teacher spoke about how parents are dissatisfied with the lack of assessment available through the medium of Irish at the post-primary school level [17,[27][28][29][30][31]37].…”

Overcoming barriers to access in French immersion: Special education needs and socioeconomic status

“…While Canadian FI is lauded as a highly successful language immersion program, it has also been characterized by persistent systemic barriers which have created an inequitable system (Barrett DeWiele & Edgerton, 2021;Davis et al, 2021). While much progress has been made in recent years, some authors have highlighted the difficulties in accessing support for students with special education needs (SEN) in FI programs (Kay-Raining Bird et al, 2021;Selvachandran et al, 2022). However, several studies have shown that students with SEN in FI perform at least as well as their peers in the monolingual English program (Kay-Raining Bird et al, 2021;Wise & Chen, 2010).…”