Zina Yzquierdo

Research Assistant Professor of Special Education

Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 1995

Short Biography

Zina Amelia Yzquierdo is a Research Assistant Professor of Special Education and Member of the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. She is a module developer for the IRIS Center for Faculty Enhancement, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. The IRIS Center's main goal is to provide course enhancement materials for non-special education faculty members who train pre-service general education teachers, school administrators, school nurses, and school counselors so they are better prepared to work with students who have disabilities and with their families. In working towards the project's goal, she is involved in translating special education research to practice, which is done by creating online interactive modules. The modules are used in non-special education teacher training programs throughout the United States, and in other countries including Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Venezuela and Israel. IRIS content materials include a variety of specialty areas such as high stakes testing, cultural and linguistic diversity, early reading strategies, and collaborative school practices for school administrators.

Zina was part of the very successful Alliance Project, a federally funded project, which provided technical assistance to faculty from minority institutions of higher education who prepare college students from historically under-represented groups for careers in special education and related services. Within this scope of work, Zina provided mentoring services to faculty members submitting personnel preparation grants to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). She also served as a reviewer for the OSEP grant selection panel. Since 1999, she has been a reviewer for the journal TEACHING Exceptional Children.

Zina has had considerable experience teaching children with disabilities including children from culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional backgrounds. Her teaching tenure is varied in terms of the types of programs (e.g., learning disabilities, severe and profound disabilities, communication disorders) and the types of settings in which she has worked (e.g., Head Start, elementary, middle and high schools, Department of Defense Dependent Schools, Peace Corps in Paraguay, South America). In the spring of 2004, Zina presented training about working with students with mild mental retardation for members from the Guatemalan Ministry of Education, university faculty members and exemplar teachers selected from various regions of the country. Because Zina is fluent in Spanish, she was able to present the entire training in Spanish for the participants.

Areas of Specialization

Bilingual Special Education
Speech and Language Pathology
Star Legacy Module Development

Learn More about Zina Yzquierdo:

Projects | Courses Taught
Selected Publications | CV

Selected Publications

Tyler, N., Yzquierdo, Z., Lopez-Reyna, N., & Flippin, S.S. (2004). "The Relationship Between Cultural Diversity and the Special Education Workforce: A Critical Overview." Journal of Special Education, 38(22-38).

Yzquierdo, Z.A., Blalock, G., Torres-Velasquez, D. (2004). "Language appropriate assessments for determining eligibility of English Language Learners for special education services." Assessment for Effective Intervention, 29(2), 17-30.

Smith, D.D., Elleman, A., Tyler, N.C., & Yzquierdo, Z. (2003). Instructor's resource manual and study guide for introduction to special education: Teaching in an age of opportunities (5th ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Tyler, N.C., Yzquierdo, Z., Lopez-Reyna, N. (2002). "Diversifying the Workforce: A research synthesis." Gainesville, FL: Center for Personnel Studies in Special Education.

Qi, C. H., Kaiser, A. P., Milan, S. E., & McLean, Z. Y. (2002). "The Performance of Low-Income African American Children on Preschool Language Scale-3." Manuscript submitted for publication.

Smith, D.D., Tyler, N.C., & McLean, Z.Y. (2001). Instructor's resource manual and test bank for introduction to special education: Teaching in an age of opportunities (4th ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Smith, D.D., Tyler, N.C., McLean, Z.Y., & Curran, C.C. (1998). Instructor's resource manual and test bank for introduction to special education: Teaching in an age of challenge (3rd ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Smith, D., Tyler, N.C., Yzquierdo, Z. & Curran, C. (1998). Instructor's section for introduction to special education: Teaching in the new millennium; (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

McLean, Z. Y. (1995). History of Bilingual Education. NYSABE, 10(1), 6-12.

Smith, D., Tyler, N.C., & McLean, Z.Y. (1998). Instructor's section for introduction to special education: Teaching in an age of challenge; (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Smith, D., Tyler, N., McLean, Z.Y., & Curran, C. (1998). Instructor's resource manual and test bank for introduction to special education, (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Invited Presentations

Smith, D., & Yzquierdo, Z. (December, 2004). IRIS course enhancement materials: Implementation site selection. Presented to College of Education faculty at Utah State University.

Smith, D., Tyler, N., & Yzquierdo, Z. (November, 2004). An overview of IRIS course enhancement materials for non-special education faculty. Presented to College of Education faculty at Vanderbilt University.

Yzquierdo, Z. (October, 2004). Infusion of Technology into college courses: Course enhancement materials on the effective instruction of students with disabilities. Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education, Galveston, TX.

Smith, D., Tyler, N., & Yzquierdo, Z. (October, 2004). Implementing IRIS course enhancement materials. Presented to College of Education faculty at North Carolina Central University.

Tyler, N. Yzquierdo, Z., Green, J., Kee, C., (2003, October). Culturally responsive instruction: What does that mean? 25th International Conference on Learning Disabilities, Council for Learning Disabilities, Seattle, WA.

Yzquierdo, Z., (2003, October). Bilingual special education students and reading comprehension: Maintaining high expectations. 25th International Conference on Learning Disabilities, Council for Learning Disabilities, Seattle, WA.

Yzquierdo, Z. (2003, October). Effective inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education, San Antonio, TX.

Kaiser, A. P., Hancock, T. B., McLean, Z. Y., & Stanton-Chapman, T. L.(2001, October). Building social communication skills during peer interaction: Kidtalk-for-Peers. Paper presented at the Head Start University Partnership Grantees Meeting, Alexandria, VA.

McLean, Z. Y. & McDuffie, A. S. (2001, June). Language skills, conversational competence and behavior in African American Head Start girls. Poster session presented at the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.

McLean, Z. Y. & McDuffie, A. S. (2001, April). Language skills, conversation strategies and behavior profiles in African American preschool girls enrolled in low-income daycare. Poster session presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.

Qi, C. H., McLean, Z. Y., Kaiser, A. P., & Hancock, T. B. (2000, June). Language Performance of Low-Income, African American Children on the PLS-3. Presented at the 5th Head Start National Research Conference, Washington, DC.

Kaiser, A. P., Hancock, T. B., Foster, E. M., & McLean, Z. (2000, June). KidTalk: Early Identification and Prevention of Conduct Disorder in Head Start Children. Presented at the 5th Head Start National Research Conference, Washington, DC.

McLean, Z. Y., Hancock, T. B., Milan, S. E., & Johnson, E. J. (2000, June) Child language, problem behavior, and social stress as it relates to parenting stress. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Family Research Consortium, Keystone, CO.

McLean, Z.Y., McDuffie, A. S., & Kaiser, A. P. (2000, April). Making a PBJ sandwich: A pilot study of conversational skills in high and low externalizing Head Start girls. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Treatment Efficacy Conference, Nashville, TN.

Qi, C., Yzquierdo-McLean, Z., Kaiser, A. P., & Hancock, T. B.(2000, April). The performance of low income African American children on the Preschool Language Scale-3. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Treatment Efficacy Conference, Nashville, TN.

Qi, C. H., Kaiser, A., Hancock,, T. B., & Yzquierdo-McLean, Z. (1999, November) Performances of African American preschoolers on the PLS-3. Paper presented at the ASHA Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA.

Kaiser, A. P., Hancock, T. B., Solomon, N. A., & Yzquierdo-McLean, Z. (1999, November). NIDCD Clinical Research Center on Language Intervention; Project III: Generalized Effects of Parent-and therapist-implemented naturalistic teaching. Paper presented at the ASHA Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA

Hester, P. P., Kaiser, A. P., Hancock, T., Yzquierdo-McLean, Z., & Foster, M. (1999, November) Intervention for the prevention of conduct disorder: Identification, characteristics, and treatment of young children identified at-risk for the development of conduct disorder. Presented at the 23rd Annual conference on Severe Behavior Disorders of Children and Youth Sponsored by Teacher-Educators of Children with Behavior Disorders (TECBD), Scottsdale, AZ.

Kaiser, A.P, Hancock, T.B., McLean, Z.Y., & Hester, P.P. (1999, June). Families of preschool children at-risk for conduct disorder. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Family Research Consortium III, Breton Woods, NH.

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