Examination of the Disproportionate Rate of Minorities in Special Education

The assessment and placement of minority students and culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education, in the United States, has been a major topic of controversy since 1968 (Rhodes, Ochoa & Ortiz, 15). In 1968, Lloyd Dunn published, “Special Education for the Mildly Retarded—Is Much of It Justifiable?” in the September issue of Exceptional Children. Dunn presented one of the first discussions of the disproportionate representation of minorities in classes containing children with mental retardation and intellectual disabilities (Gentry, 2009, p.7).
Public Law 94-142 otherwise known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 required that students must be assessed in their native language, when possible, and without bias. The revisions made to this law put forth in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 and 1997 continued to push for these rights (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.15). Despite these efforts, however, the existence of disproportionate representation in special education is still a growing problem. In the reauthorization of IDEA in 1997, Congress required states to:
(a) report, annually, the extent of minority representation by disability category; (b) determine if significant disproportionality exists, and (c) if observed, review and revise policies, practices, and procedures in identification or placement to ensure that minority children are not inappropriately identified or served in more restrictive settings (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.17).
Under the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, the evaluation process for students who may be eligible for special education services must not be discriminatory. All tests must be given in, and reports written in, the native language (Pierangelo & Guiliani, 2009, p.23). That means that tests must be given in the student’s native language, and reports sent home must be written in the student’s parent’s native language.
Special education, when provided properly to those who need it, can be very effective; however, it can be detrimental to a student that has been misidentified as having a disability. According to Ruben Gentry (2009), disproportionality can be defined as “the representation of a group in a category that exceeds expectations for that group, or differs substantially from the representation of others in that category” (p. 5).
In Ruben Gentry’s paper “Disproportionate Representation of Minorities in Special Education—How Bad?”, he states that African Americans are overrepresented in overall special education service, as well as intellectual disability and emotional disturbance (Gentry, 2009, p.6). American Indian and Alaska Native students, however, are overrepresented in learning disabilities. Furthermore, African American students are suspended more often than other students and have higher rates of office referrals, corporal punishment and school expulsion p.7). Overall, higher proportions of males and students of color are part of special education programs (Gay, 2002, p.613).
Some of the possible causes of the disproportionate representation include: “test bias, socio-demographic factors, unequal opportunity in general education, teacher ethnicity, and special education eligibility” (Gentry, 2009, p.6). Some professionals believe that overrepresentation is caused in part by family and community issues, school pressure such as high stakes assessments and mandated curriculum, classroom management and instruction, intrinsic characteristics of the students, and teacher perception and attitudes (p.8). Others believe that educators misinterpret the behavior of minority students as behavior problems that may simply be cultural differences (p.9).
Furthermore, the qualifications for special education services vary from state to state. This may be one reason why the occurrence or degree of severity of overrepresentation varies from state to state. Some states use a discrepancy method in order for a student to be eligible for service or qualify a student as LD; each state’s definition of significant discrepancy, however, varies (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.23).
Unfortunately a student’s spoken language has not been greatly considered in research on disproportionality in special education. Currently, there is no research that examines the influence of language and ethnicity on special education placement (Rhodes et.al., 2005, p.19). The question still remains unanswered: whether or not special education representation varies depending upon an ethnically diverse student’s proficiency in English. The little information that has been collected on this topic does not distinguish between different languages, rather it lumps all language subgroups together (p.19).
Socioeconomic status is also linked to school success. Children of poor socioeconomic status are more likely to have poor educational outcomes. There is a higher chance of poverty for students of minorities. Poverty lends itself to many factors that increase a child’s risk of problems in school—for families and women of low social economic status, prenatal care may be too costly. Furthermore, low socio-economic status significantly lessens the options a family has regarding childcare. For example, for a family that is upper middle class, childcare is not a very big issue, there are many options to choose from, including daycare, nannies, or even a parent staying home full time to be with their child. All of these options include generally healthy environments filled with stimulation for a growing baby’s/child’s brain.
According to an article by Clancy Blair and Keith Scott entitled, “Proportion of LD Placements Associated with Low Socioeconomic Status”, many factors influence a child’s risk of developing a learning disability. These factors include the amount of his mother’s education, whether or not his mother was married at the time of his birth, the trimester in which prenatal care was initiated, and his weight at the time of his birth (Blair & Scott). In their research, linking birth and school record data in Florida, they found that learning disabilities were most likely to occur in students whose birth records showed: a maternal education of less than 12 years, the mother was not married at time of child’s birth, prenatal care did not start until after the first trimester of pregnancy, or the child was born with a low birth weight (Blair & Scott). Blair and Scott found that if any of these conditions existed, children were between 1.2 and 3.4 times more likely to have a learning disability placement by their early teenage years (Blair & Scott). Minorities have a greater chance of identifying with one or more of these risk factors.
Immigrant children are affected by many social-emotional factors that non-immigrant children are not faced with. Concerning education, every nation and group of people look differently toward, and put a difference emphasis on, education and formal schooling. In Mexico, at age ten children may have a different understanding of math and geography than a ten year old American child may have. When coming to the United States, an immigrant child may have faced a period with no schooling at all; whether that period is long or short, it can still affect the student adversely. Some countries teach students both their native language and English, others do not. All of these factors can affect an immigrant child’s achievement in school. Immigrant children may often feel overwhelmed with the demands of American schools because the workload may be far more demanding than schools in their native country.
Parents of minority students must also be considered. Many immigrant parents may be less involved in their children’s school because of language barriers. Not all schools can afford translators at school events, but, it may help increase involvement to have translators present. Schools can try to increase parental involvement by implementing some of the following: the use of translators for all school functions, a separate “back to school night” for parents new to the school, especially for those who need translation services, parent buddies—parents who are very active in the school may volunteer to be “buddies” of those parents who are new to the school, and multicultural nights which would bring families together and help parents and students achieve a better understanding of other people in their communities. The new services will encourage immigrant and culturally and linguistically diverse families to get involved and make them feel like they, and their culture, are important.
Many students are placed in special education classes because teachers misinterpret cultural differences as characteristics of learning disabilities. Teachers have a propensity to identify European and Asian-Americans as having higher intelligence and academic abilities, and see them as being less disruptive in classes, as opposed to African, Native and Latino Americans (Gay, 2002, p.615). According to Geneva Gay (2002), in her article “Culturally responsive teaching in special education for ethnically diverse students: setting the stage”, the way in which African Americans move and interject motion, implement emotional energy into their thinking, communicate and relate socially may be misinterpreted as “hyperactivity, attention deficit, irritability, attention-seeking, disruption, and being quarrelsome” (p.616). In addition, latino students are more culturally socialized in cooperative groups and are, therefore, reluctant to engage in individual activities, which can be seen as a lack of motivation (p.616).
Asian-American students who are disengaged and do not want to participate in conversations and activities with peers and instructors may be considered to have a social disability because their actions may be perceived as being unfriendly, withdrawn, reclusive, insecure and self-conscious (Gay, 2002, p.617). Furthermore, Native American students are often taught through demonstration, therefore they learn best by observing, so, in certain classroom situations they may be seen as lacking interest or motivation and having other characteristics of learning disabilities (p.17).
In addition, when students are of low economic status they sometime have dialects that mainstream society perceives as being characteristic of linguistic deficits. This stigma may go so far as to have people thinking that these students have less intellectual ability, because of their speech style. Some people believe that the way someone speaks is indicative of his intelligence (Gay, 2002, p.617).
Being mistakenly assigned to special education services has many consequences, present and future. There is a stigma that goes along with the label “special education student”. This stigma can follow them throughout their lives, influencing how teachers and classmates treat them and may give them a poor self-image and affect their self esteem (Gay, 2002, p.615).
One recommendation is that classroom teachers implement culturally responsive teaching. Teachers would be able to acknowledge and better understand the influence that race, culture and ethnicity has on instruction and learning. They could integrate cultural experiences, perspectives, traits and contributions of different ethnicities into their lessons and use them as tools for teaching diverse students (Gay, 2002, p.619). Teachers learning about their students’ backgrounds, cultures and upbringings will help them to understand which behaviors are normal and which require taking a closer look. If a teacher truly understands the behavior of different cultures—that certain students are culturally prone to acting hyper while others are more apt to be withdrawn— she will be able to better serve her students because she will recognize the true warning signs of disabilities.
Culturally responsive teaching and the achievement of students of color are directly related. When one increases so does the other. Therefore, if culturally responsive teaching increases, academic performance, social adjustment, school satisfaction, student confidence and self-concept all increase (Gay, 2002, p.627). If teachers implement this style of teaching and become more culturally aware, the misplacement of minorities in special education will decrease significantly.
Along with culturally responsive teaching, implementing differentiated instruction would help students and teachers alike. Differentiated instruction would allow students to display their strengths which would give teachers a better idea of each student’s progress. Teachers would be able to assess students through observation. Because the learning styles of groups of people vary across cultures, differentiated instruction will help the minorities in class learn in their own way and demonstrate what they have learned more effectively.
Disproportionality in special education is not a new problem. Despite efforts of teachers, school districts, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, minorities, unfortunately, are still overrepresented in special education and underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. Teachers need to be made aware of cultural differences so that overrepresentation does not continue.