Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Special Education

1. Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Special Education Anthony Gregory Jocelyn Hoy Emily Rolling Nathan Weatherup

2. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) • Formally known as the Education for all Handicapped Children Act, most recently amended in 2004 • Covers students between the ages of birth - 21 • A student is eligible for services only if their disability adversely affects the student’s education progress and performance • Students must receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that prepares them for further education, employment, and independent living

3. IDEA • Components: • Individualized Education Plan (IEP) • Related Services (transportation, OT, PT, social work, parent services, etc) • Least Restrictive Environment • Behavior Manifestation clause • Child Find • Procedural Safeguards

4. Activity WOO!

5. The Evolution of Overrepresentation Historical Context, Professional Authority, and Discourse of Risk: Child Guidance and Special Education by John G. Richardson

6. The Beginning: The Child Guidance Movement • Due to extreme juvenile delinquency affecting society during the early 1920’s, Max Farrand, one of the top directors of the Commonwealth Fund of the Rockefeller Foundation established the Program for the Prevention of Delinquency. • In conjunction with the National Committee for Mental Hygiene ((NCMG) established in 1909), created proposals that would fit with the aims of “scientific philanthropy” that would reach beyond delinquency, encompassing the health and welfare of all children.

7. Delinquency Expanded • The book, Individual Delinquent, written by William Healy, established the professional relevance of psychiatry to the diagnosis of delinquency. • Thus, at the beginning of the movement, the population of children conceived as at-risk encompassed • Delinquent behavior • Emotional Disturbance • Dependency • Soon the term socially maladjusted became the accepted description of these symptoms.

8. Unclear Assessments • By the end of the decade, between 1930 and 1932, the Division on Community Clinics of the NCMH conducted a series of conferences to access the treatments of these clinics and to evaluate their performances. • Because of disparate and conflicting evidence, the conferences failed to reach any clear assessment. • Result? Due to the stressed importance of proclaiming successful outcomes, the Child Guidance Movement was narrowed to focus on the internal, emotional well-being of the individual child; thus as a way of individual assessment, TESTING became the tool of accomplishment.

9. Bringing Attention to the Problem • Lloyd Dunn, a prominent figure in special education, wrote an article in 1968 that questioned the placement of so many minority students in classes for the mildly retarded. • Coincidently a soon-to-be landmark case, Hobson v. Hansen would be won that would confirm that black and Hispanic students were disproportionately placed in classes for the educable mentally retarded (EMR). • Years later, two other cases would further confirm the problem of overrepresentation: • Diana v. Board of Education – suing based on the fact that Mexican children were placed in EMR classes based on test not given in primary language • Larry P. v. Riles – suing on behalf of black children placed in EMR classes based on IQ test that were culturally biased.

10. Jumping on the Bandwagon • Due to the success of cases like Larry P. v. Riles, over the next ten years several lawsuits modeled after the Larry P. case appeared, thus, causing heated debates over the actual defining of overrepresentation. • Result? Placements in social maladjustment and EMR categories declined and a new category emerged, Learning Disability (LD). • A national report on overrepresentation commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences declared, “Overrepresentation could not be placed simply at the doors of discriminatory IQ test or teachers; rather, overrepresentation was symptomatic of ‘deeper failings’ in the educational system.”

11. Explaining Overrepresentation Race, Class, and Disproportionality: Reevaluating the Relationship Between Poverty and Special Education Placement By Carla O’ Connor and Sonia DeLuca Fernandez

12. The National Research Council contended: Poverty impaired children’s development; minority students are more likely to be poor and “being” poor heightens social risks that compromise early development and need for special services. O’Connor and Fernandez contended: That the NRC’s theory, the Theory of Compromised Human Development (TCHD) offers an oversimplified conceptualization of “development” and consequently misspecifies that which places minority students at heighten “risk” for special education. Two Views on Overrepresentation

13. The Theory of Compromised Human Development • O’Connor and Fernandez further explains the definition of TCHD with this summary: • Minorities are more likely to be poor. • “Being” poor increases exposure to risk factors that compromise early development. • Compromised early development impinges on school preparedness and suppresses academic achievement, heightening the need for special education. • Thus minorities are more likely to warrant special education.

14. Countering TCHD • O’Connor and Fernandez argue against TCHD by pointing out these factors: • Most minority children that are considered at risk are measure against unfair norms, namely “white middle children.” • Schools fail in practical and pedagogical terms to build on the capacities with which children enter school. • Minority underachievement is further amplified in an educational system that is riddle by inequities. • The expression of minority students cultures are often interpreted as hostile.

15. Teacher Bias How cultural/racial/language differences affect recommendation and placement

16. Your Average American Teacher • 86% off teachers are European-American (White) • >75% of teachers are Female • Roughly 2/3 of all teachers in America are white women. • The median age is 46 • So your average student is dealing with a white, female teacher pushing half a century

17. Of the remaining 14% of K-12 teachers, 6% are African American (down from 8% during the 1990-1991 school year) 8% of all teachers in America represent all other racial backgrounds These same groups make up 36% of all students In large, urban schools these groups make up 69% of all students, but still only 35% of teachers 2003 National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future Report

18. So what does this mean? • Teachers are the first line of determining LD/MMR/ED/etc. • Most students will not be tested until afterthey have failed and a teacher recommends them for screening • Cultural differences lead to misunderstanding • Eye contact • Vocalization • “The estimated magnitudes of these effects are quite large. For example, [Other Race] increased the odds that a student would be seen as disruptive and inattentive by 89% and 61% respectively.” (A teacher Like Me, Thomas Dee)

19. Statistics% of Disabled Students within Race • European-American – 8.8% • African-American – 12.6% • Hispanic – 8.4% • Asian/Pacific Islander – 4.6% • Native American/Alaskan Native – 14.1%

20. Percentage of total population: Native American/Alaskan Native – 0.98% Asian/Pacific Islander – 4.10% African American – 15.08% Hispanic – 17.65% European American – 62.19% Percentage of Intellectually Disabled Students: Native American/Alaskan Native – 1.21% Asian/Pacific Islander – 1.98% African American – 33.36% Hispanic – 12.35% European American – 51.00% Disparity

21. Statistics (cont’d.)% of disabled students (by race) who graduate • African-American - 37% • Native American/Alaskan Native – 45% • Hispanic – 48% • European-American – 61%

22. Overrepresentation of Minority Students Linguistically and culturally bias testing

23. Disproportionately placing of Minority students in special ed • Testing Bias • Culturally competent • Teaching Bias

24. Construction Design Administration Interpretation High Stakes Testing Construct validity Content of item bias Inappropriate standardization samples Examiner and language bias Testing Bias: Problems with

25. Regulations of test • Administered in the students native language • Administered not to be racially or culturally discriminatory • Measure the extent of disability or special ed needs not English proficiency

26. 15-20% of our students speak foreign language Evaluating and selecting tests Determining the validity and administration Reviewing of test questions Document effective use of test Understand the culture of the test-taker Role of Culture

27. Afro-Amer. Students 3x’s more likely labeled mentally retarded Isolated and restrictive special ed settings Many states rate disproportionate placing Cause: growing use of high stakes tests Inappropriate and inadequate special ed programs Special ed provides service for 11% of students nationwide Disproportionate study

28. High Stakes Testing • Used to make important decisions about students • Promote, graduate, placed in next level or special ed • Goal: make students and teachers responsible for standard of learning

29. No Dentist Left Behind

30. Provide extra time for testing Read test instructions aloud Comprehension of instructions Provide extra breaks Fewer students and distractions Check wording of test Multidisciplinary administrators w/ students language and culture Primary language used Assessment tailored to students Solutions for ELLS

31. Expanding teacher education programs Less reliance on intelligent tests More reliance on other types of assessment Family status Increasing involvement of parents Improving teacher expectations, school discipline and Instructional Quality Solutions for Minority Testing

32. Extent of Disproportionately • Damage beyond special ed. • Preparedness and performance of minority students • Minorities more than 2x’s likely to live in single-parent households • Increasing low socioeconomic disadvantage

33. Legal Aspects of Overrepresentation

34. Champaign Consent Decree Sa’da and Tyjuan Johnson represented by Felicia Johnson vs. Board of Education Champaign Unit School District #4 Filed in 1996- complaints about the one-way busing of African-American students and the services that they were receiving – system-wide discrimination in student assignment, within school segregation practices, tracking, discipline, staffing, etc Office of Civil Rights found statistical disparities between majority and minority students in the areas of gifted, upper-level courses, within-school integration, discipline, and special education

35. Champaign Consent Decree Implementation Plan- “seek to eliminate, to the greatest extent practicable, unwarranted disparities in the assignment of minority students to special education and gifted programs, and to operate such programs in an educationally sound and non-discriminatory manner” Expires at the end of the 2007-2008 school year

36. Questions • Will hiring more minority teachers solve this problem? • Is the problem really racial or social/cultural? • What are some other possible remedies?