Disproportionality in special education: Why are students of color over-represented?
About us
We are graduate students in the Special Education and School Psychology program at Seattle University completing a course in Social Justice. This blog is in response to an assignment entreating us to create a relevant vehicle for both educating and promoting discussion about a social justice issue relevant to our field training. After you have browsed the site, we invite you to post your responses to our personal reflections or enlighten us as to how these issues touch you personally in the forums below. There, you will also find our individual personal statements on social justice with regards to our field.
Why is this topic important to us?
As professional educators, we are called to advocate for social justice. We hope that raising the issue of disproportionality in special education on a social media platform, will highlight some of the social issues in special education and how it affects students of color. We hope that by highlighting these issues to future educators that they will be more responsive to the needs of their students and critically analyze developmental labels that hinder the social and academic development of their students. In doing so, we hope that there will be more open debates on how we as educators, need to be self critical about our teaching methods, environments, and adapt to a more Universal Design for Learning, whereby all our students have the flexibility to learn in ways that meet their needs and success in an inclusive environment. In turn, we hope that this reduces the number of students of color being misdiagnosed or placed inappropriate setting.
In this blog will be exploring potential factors that are associated with or influence disproportionality in special education, what the current referral policies are, and what evidence based practices can be adopted such as RtI and Positive Behavioral Support (PBS), culturally responsive curriculums, culturally responsive professional training and development for staff, and increasing parental and community involvement in the decision making process of where their children are placed.
In this blog will be exploring potential factors that are associated with or influence disproportionality in special education, what the current referral policies are, and what evidence based practices can be adopted such as RtI and Positive Behavioral Support (PBS), culturally responsive curriculums, culturally responsive professional training and development for staff, and increasing parental and community involvement in the decision making process of where their children are placed.
Race inequality in special education
Brown Vs. Board of Education - 1954
This was one of the most significant landmark cases in education whereby U.S courts determined that the segregation of students based race or ethnicity was a direct violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Equal Protection clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction (Wikipedia, 2014). Furthermore, the Due Process clause also, " prohibits state and local government officials from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without legislative authorization. Those advocating for this legislation argued that contrary to beliefs that segregated education was "Separate but equal", the education received by African American students were inherently unequal. The Brown Vs Board of education later extended the legislation to limit discrimination of students based on race, ethnicity, culture, language, or disability. Special education particularly benefited from the civil rights movements and laws. The first being the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (1975), then followed by The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1990, 1997, 2004). Central principles and provisions of IDEA law include (but are not limited to):
- Free and appropriate public education (FAPE): Every student has the right to an public education and if school cannot provide needed service then the school district must provide funding for service.
- Least restrictive environment: Every student must be educated in an environment that provides access to general education setting, whilst providing needed educational support.
- Nondiscriminatory evaluations and reevaluations: Schools must provide tests in students native language. Assessments should be given and interpreted by knowledgeable professionals.
- Due process: Parents, caregivers, and students have the right to object if any educational service or practices outlined in the IEP is not being followed.
- Zero reject or child find: Every child regardless of severity of disability must receive FAPE, including those in private schools.
- Parent participation: Parents must be informed in their home language of all processes involved in special education testing, IEP, services, and informed on the rights and roles in this process.
- Discipline: A students exceptionalities must be taken into account when adminstering discipline action. If there is the possibility that a child's disability will interfere school discipline policies a behavior plan must be included in their IEP.
A closer look at data in special Eduction
In order to truly reflect upon the extent of this social issue in special education it is important to analyze the data and what this tells us about the current issues in this important topic.
special education school, classes)
2. More likely to remain in special education programs (Cartledge, 2005)
White students 1.3%
American Indian students 12%
African American students 18.6%
- Students of color are more likely to be diagnosed with Emotional Behavior Disorder(EBD), "mental retardation" now renamed as Learning Disabled (LD), and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD).
- Once students of color are categorized with special educational needs they are;
special education school, classes)
2. More likely to remain in special education programs (Cartledge, 2005)
- In Washington, students of color spend more time than white students in restrictive special education classes
White students 1.3%
American Indian students 12%
African American students 18.6%
- Black students are over represented the greatest in Emotional Behavior Disorder, Mental Retardation (Disability), and Learning Disabilities which are all based on subjective measures and assessments and little on scientific or biological variables, therefore more susceptible to cultural bias.
The figures below are retrieved from the U.S. Department of National Center for Educational Status: Status and Trends in The Eduction of Racial and Ethnic groups (2010) http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf
As shown in both figure 8.1B and 8.1 students of color are significantly over represented in proportion to school population (55.8% White, 22.1% Hispanic, 17% Black, and 1.2% American Indian/Alaska Native) which is discussed further in the following page. Black and American Indian students are particularly at most risk in being categorized with learning disabilities. Furthermore, figure 8.1 also highlights the disparity in age of diagnosis which is much later for students of color resulting in these students missing out on early intervention services that are more likely to result in greater student outcomes in the future.
What was most interesting in this report was that the percentage of public high school teachers with neither a college major nor standard certification in the subject that is their main teaching assignment was greatest in schools with more than 50% Black students enrolled (fig.9.1) What would MLK and other civil rights advocates 60 years ago say about this? And how far have we really come over separate but unequal education?