What are some of the repercussions of prolonged or unsuitable special education placements?
First and foremost, it is an issue of discrimination and violates the fundamental tenants of IDEA 2004, NCLB 2001, and ultimately, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). NCLB (No Child Left Behind) mandates that all children have fair and equal opportunity to receive high quality education, IDEA (Individual with Disabilities Education Act) states that all children have the right to a free and appropriate education in their least restrictive environment, and Brown v. Board of Education opposes segregation of students on the basis of race or ethnicity. The overrepresentation of individuals from minority groups as having Intellectual, Emotional or Behavioral disabilities demonstrates, at least in part, that current referral and evaluation practices in some schools are inherently, discriminatory.
Separate is not equal
The ramifications of inappropriate special education placement for minority youth are numerous including: less access to mainstream environments and rigorous curricula, lowered expectations on achievement, social stigma, and fewer opportunities for advancement now and in the future.
Achievement Gap:
In 2009-10 the national graduation rate for Black male students was 52%. By contrast, the graduation rate for White, non-Latino males was 78%. While graduation rates showed improvement during the preceding decade, the national Black/White male graduation gap only decreased by 3 percentage points over ten years- representing a disparity of 26 percentage points (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). States with the largest disparities in graduation rates between minority students of color and their white counterparts typically have larger concentrations of those population groups than the national average. States with the largest gaps between the graduation rates of Black and White, non-Latino male students include the District of Columbia (50%), Iowa (49%), Nebraska (43%) and New York (42%). Higher graduation rates for Black male students are reported in states in which Black students account for lower concentrations of the general population (Maine, Utah, Vermont, Idaho). We have known for some time that there are higher percentages of minority students with low socio-economic status (SES) in large, urban school programs (Patton, 1998). It is easy to infer that Black males, are likely to exhibit better individual performance in locales and districts that are not historically under-resourced. In fact, Black male students are more likely to produce similar or superior results to their White male peers when they are provided similar opportunities . Disciplinary Policies:
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In the video below Dr. Jim Scheurich (Texas A&M University) explores how the achievement gap is perpetuated by institutional racism in the education system that leads to the over-representation of students of color in special education and discipline actions. He also explores the role of over assignment of teachers with the least experience in the most under-performing schools with the highest student of color populations.
http://www.sbe.wa.gov/documents/BoardMeetings/2014/Jan/02DisciplineData.pdf
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Implications for society
The consequences for the misidentification of minority youth are dire for those individual students who we are failing to adequately serve. However, there are also considerable burdens levied upon local communities that are deprived of those students intellectual capitol and the greater society, which bears the burden of steadily increasing financial and social costs for crime and incarceration, addiction, mental illness and homelessness. The correlation can be understood by examination of the numbers in which minorities are over-represented on welfare roles and within the US prison system. Students who drop-out of school or fail to get an adequate education will be challenged in finding a job. The greater the challenges the more likely that former student will become dependent on the system or worse yet, choose illegal activities to sustain. The cycle is then perpetuated for children who are born into environments where known risk factors (ex. poverty, addiction, abuse) are already present.
School to Prison
In failing to adequately identify and serve the needs of our culturally and linguistically diverse students, we are giving them an express pass on the route from underfunded schools to the awaiting prison industrial complex. A staggering 70 percent of prison inmates in this country are illiterate. Co-incidentally, as much as 80 percent of US inmates have a history of substance abuse. The proportion of African-American men arrested for violent crimes has increased little over the past 20 years. However, the proportion of African-American men arrested for drug crimes has has tripled during the same period. White men and consume illegal drugs at approximately the same rates as Black men, but black men are five times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses. Sadly, the result is that about half of US inmates are African-American. Possibly the most damning of all evidence is the fact that one out of every fourteen black men is now in prison or jail, and a sobering 25% of all Black men in the US are likely to face incarceration at some point during their lives (Schlosser, 1998).
Hidden Costs
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Dr. Billy C. Hawkins was labeled Educable Mentally Retarded (EMR) in elementary school and was in special education from third through tenth grade. He is currently the president of Talladega College and previously served as president of Texas College.
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Albert Einstein’s early school failures are fairly common knowledge. Had Einstein been born Black and in an urban school district in America, he might have been placed on a conveyor belt for services that almost pre-determined a very different place for him.
For the few celebrity examples like Albert Einstein, there are thousands like Dr. Billy C. Hawkins who quietly worked against the barriers of lowered expectations and limited access to opportunity. Unfortunately, for every story like Dr. Hawkins’, there are millions more students whose stories we will never hear. Among these students are scientists and educators that will never become manifest, and this potential loss of intellectual capital far overshadows the economic cost of what to do with troubled youth.
Below is a talk by Dr. Crystal Kuykendall, author of From Rage to Hope: Strategies for Reclaiming Black & Hispanic Students sharing her own experiences of being the daughter of working parents and self described"late reader" who went on to hold five degrees and become a highly respected educator and advocate for change and growth in education.