Project BESTT: A Training Model for Rural, Multicultural, Bilingual Special Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Rural schools along the New Mexico-Mexico border face unusual challenges in meeting the special education needs of a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) population. This population includes Anglo Americans, Mexican Americans, Mexicans, and American Indians. Few school districts have an integrated or coordinated bilingual special education program, and many school personnel working with CLD exceptional children have only provisional endorsements in special or bilingual education. Project BESTT (Bilingual/ESL Special Education Teacher Training project) provides an innovative approach to this problem. Current project participants are 30 special education, regular education, and bilingual education personnel, primarily from minority backgrounds, who are working toward a Master's degree in bilingual special education at Western New Mexico State University. In view of the bilingual, tricultural flavor of the region, a major project goal is to promote cultural sensitivity among trainees. The project seeks to provide nearby school districts with a trained cadre of bilingual special education personnel, and in the long run, to refine and disseminate this preservice Master's degree program in bilingual special education. Steps in program development and strategies to ensure graduates the necessary competencies to work with CLD children are briefly outlined. Contains 23 references. (SV)