Overrepresentation in Special Education

Disproportionate Representation in Special Education 21

The Overrepresentation of African American Students in Special Education:

Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Christy Austin

University of Texas

Abstract

This paper explores the problem of the overrepresentation of African American students in special education. It will discuss reasons for the overrepresentation of African American students in special education, the negative effects and consequences of inequitable education for African American students, as well as recommendations for possible solutions to create equal opportunities for all students.

A History of Inequitable Education for African Americans

In 1956, in Brown vs. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court declared separate schools for African American students and White students unconstitutional because it denied equal educational opportunities to Black students. Despite the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement and despite laws and amendments designed with the intent to improve education for all students, racial inequality in the U.S. school system still persists as a major concern. One marker of inequality for African American students is their disproportionate representation in special education. Research by Blanchett in 2006 shows that special education segregates African Americans from the mainstream classrooms, curriculum, and students, acting as a mechanism for keeping many African American students from receiving an equitable education. This same research details how African American students are disproportionately referred to and placed in the high-incidence and judgmental special education categories of mental retardation, emotional or behavioral disorders, and learning disabilities. Once labeled as having a learning disability, African American students often enter special education and despite making educational gains, are still much less likely than their white peers to leave these restrictive classroom settings. Lastly, although the education law mandates inclusive general education placement as often as appropriate, African American students are still over-represented in segregated, self-contained classrooms with little to no exposure or access to non-disabled peers, to general education instruction, or general education curriculum. The misidentification and disproportionate placement of African Americans in special education is a form of racial discrimination and is a clear violation of civil rights, but despite all of the research and knowledge of the factors that cause the inequality associated with special education referral, assessment, and placement processes, the problem of overrepresentation of African Americans in special education has yet to be corrected (Blanchett, 2006).

Overrepresentation in the Special Education Categories of Mental Retardation, Emotional Disturbance, and Learning Disabilities

Disproportionality exists when African Americans' representation in special education as a whole, or in the specific special education categories such as mental retardation, emotional disturbance, speech and language impairments, and learning disabilities, is not proportionate to African Americans' enrollment in the school's general population. For example, "African American students account for 14.8% of the general population of 6-21 year-old students in the United States, but they make up 20% of the special education population across all disabilities. (Losen & Orfield, 2002, p. 1). A study in 2005 stated that African Americans are 2.41 times more likely than White students to be identified as having mental retardation, 1.13 times more likely to be labeled as learning disabled, and 1.68 times as likely to be found to have an emotional or behavioral disorder (Klingner et al.). Disproportionality indicates that African American students are being misidentified and referred to special education for reasons other than having a learning disability, but if these students are not in fact learning disabled, their needs can not and will not effectively be addressed in special education.

Overrepresentation in Restrictive Educational Environments

In 2004, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act was revised to require that all students with disabilities be served in the least restrictive environment appropriate for their needs. In 2006, Skiba studied reasons supporting why inclusive placement is important, and found that students included in the general education classroom experiences many benefits including finishing more assignments, improved reading performance general academic functioning, strengthened social skills and showing more appropriate behavior, improved self-esteem, and improved language development. Given all of these benefits of serving students with disabilities in general education classrooms, it is a shame that research suggests that access to general education curriculum and instruction is not equal across racial/ethnic groups.

African American students are over-represented in more restrictive educational environments and under-represented in less restrictive educational environments. "By analyzing data from the Office for Civil Rights 1998 compliance report, among students with disabilities, 55% of European American students as compared to only 37% of African American students were educated in inclusive settings when defined as spending less that 21% of the school day outside of the general classroom. Conversely, 33% of African American students with disabilities received services in substantially separate class placements, compared to only 16% of European American children with disabilities" (Skiba, Poloni-Staudinger, Gallini, Simmons, & Feggins-Azziz, 2006, p.413). Some have hypothesized that disproportionality in restrictive educational environments is a product of African Americans' overrepresentation in disability categories that are more likely to lead to restrictive placement, however, research from Skiba, Poloni-Staudinger, Gallini, Simmons, and Feggins-Azziz in 2006 shows that African American children in each particular disability category are also more likely than their peers of other racial/ethnic groups in the same disability category to be placed in restrictive settings and less likely than their peers in the same disability category to be served in the least restrictive environment.

Possible Reasons for the Overrepresentation Problem

Dialectal Differences of African Americans

As any dialect, African American English is a legitimate, rule-governed, and mutually intelligible communication system shared by groups of people. African Americans tend to be more energetic, non-verbally animated, assertive, and emotionally expressive in their speech (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2005, p. 179). Some of the most prominent dialectal features of African American English include substituting or reducing final consonants ("mouf" for mouth), deletion of suffixes ("she like him"), using "be" as a habitual or intermittent action ("he be writing"), and deletion of the contracted form of is and are ("she pretty"). Fromkin and Rodman state that there are many dialects of English spoken in the classroom and African American English is no less valid than any other dialect, but because of society's perception about African Americans, this dialect of English is judged as having less value than other dialects. "A standard dialect (or prestige dialect) may have social functions, bringing people together or providing a common written form for multidialectal speakers. It is, however, no more regular than any other dialect. Any judgments, therefore, as to the superiority or inferiority of a particular dialect are social judgments, not linguistic ones" (Fromkin and Rodman, 1988, p. 263-264). Many teachers argue that African Americans need to learn Standard English so that they are not disadvantaged by our society that does not accept non-standard English, but some of these same teachers often hold deficit views that devalue African American English and disadvantage Black students in the education system.

Lee presented research in 2006 demonstrating how language is the main form of communication in a classroom, including not only spoken language, but also paralinguistic modes of communication, patterns of interactions, and genres. The differences between African American English and Standard English in both linguistic and paralinguistic features might be a contributing factor to students being misunderstood by teachers when they do speak. Green believes that African Americans who engage in certain behaviors common in African American culture, such as language (Ebonics), movement patterns, and a certain ethnic appearance, are over-referred for special education placement (2005). First, differences in linguistic and paralinguistic features could cause teachers to assume students are not learning effectively, that they are acting out aggressively, being defiant, or that they are speech and language impaired. Second, the incompatibility between the students' home language and the language spoken in the classroom might also cause students to participate and engage less in classroom talk if they are not comfortable with the language differences or if they are worried about being corrected for their use of African American English. "The consequence of limited opportunities to participate is a limited opportunity to learn," (Lee, 2006) which would cause students speaking African American English to fall behind academically, leading to failure in school and special education referral. Third, students speaking African American English is a language rich in figurative language, symbols, irony, and satire, but many African American students cannot connect this knowledge to making sense of symbols in literature (Lee, 2006). Perhaps if this knowledge of symbols, irony, and satire was used as a cultural scaffold to teach literary interpretation, students speaking African American English would not lag behind their white peers in their ability to interpret literature?

Testing is Linguistically and Culturally Biased

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act requires that students be evaluated using instruments that are not racially or culturally biased (Harris, Brown, Ford, & Richardson, 2004). Unfortunately, unbiased assessments is not a reality. Tests should be both linguistically and culturally sensitive, but this is very often not the case, as a large majority of tests benefit middle-class, White students. Evaluators or examiners are often not knowledgeable about the cultural and dialectal differences of African American students, or might even hold stereotypes or biases against this racial group that could influence their evaluation. Evaluators should be licensed and credentialed in assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students. They should also have experience and expertise in using culturally sensitive methods for assessing African American students, should consider using a cultural broker if they are unaware of the cultural differences of African American students, should interpret assessments in light of students' dialectal differences, cultural, and other background characteristics, and should be able to guarantee the effectiveness of the instructional practices that have been offered to the African American student being tested (Ortiz 2002).

"There appears to be enough theoretical and statistical evidence suggesting that intelligence tests are biased and harmful to many African American learners, and furthermore, the deleterious effect of standardized intelligence testing is exacerbated by the fact that most of these tests are used only for classification purposes, rather than for diagnostic, or effective treatment purposes" (Patton, 1998, p. 26). If this testing is not effective in accurately identifying African American students as requiring special education services, and these tests are not being used to determine special education curriculum, then the usefulness of these assessments in making special education decisions needs revising.

Schools' Perpetuate Racial Inequality

Many have argued that schools in the United States play a large role in maintaining the existing social and economic inequality between different groups of individuals. Patton states that school structures, especially the process of labeling children as disabled, reflect only the values, attitudes, and beliefs of the dominant social, economic, and political groups in this nation (1998). School systems function with the assumption that if a child fails in general education, they have a deficit that should be labeled as a disability and solved in the special education system. The problem then, is believed to be within the child, not within the nature of the school, the instruction, or the teacher. (Skrtic, 1991). "The structures, processes, assumptions, and beliefs of the dominant classes are deeply embedded in the special education knowledge base and its knowledge procedures, thus undermining its theory, research, and practice" (Patton, 1998, p.27). By only considering the values, attitudes, and needs of the dominant group, special education is a system that is unjust for African Americans. When policy makers acknowledge that African Americans are being poorly served in the education system, yet the system remains unchanged, then school becomes an agent for maintaining the racism and inequality that is present in the United States.

Blanchett states that racism, or white privilege, can be viewed in the American school system on the individual level through biased teacher attitudes and perceptions, on the structural level with curriculum, instruction, and a school climate that benefits White, middle-class students, on the political level as shown through biased educational policies, on the economic level with schools unequal funding stemming from disparity in property taxes, and the social level because disability is a social construct, but schools only view disability from the perspective of the dominant social viewpoint. (2006). For the problem of the overrepresentation of African American students in special education to be addressed, the school system would need to address the inequality present at each of these levels. "Many educational change efforts appear to stall or to come to a halt because educators are unwilling to assume responsibility for students' low achievement and failure. Efforts to raise achievement are often hindered by school districts' and educators' tendencies to place the problem within the student (and family) or within the school, without examining the links between school practices and student outcomes" (Garcia and Guerra, 2004, p.150). If educators refuse to examine school practices and their own individual practices, and continue to view students from a deficit perspective, believing the problem lies within the child or with the families, African American students will continue to receive inequitable education.

Unequal Schools and Unequal Teachers

Kalyanpur and Harry discuss how statistically, a much larger percentage of African American students are members of families of lower socioeconomic status than White students. Schools attended by a population that is higher minority and lower socioeconomic status are typically underfunded, lack resources necessary to effectively teach, have less qualified teachers, a higher teacher turn-over rate, experience more violence, and use a less challenging, more basic skill oriented curriculum to teach. More qualified teachers often seek and gain employment in wealthier, suburban school districts, leaving less experienced or less credentialed teachers teaching in poor, urban schools (1999). Inequality between schools means that poor African American students are receiving a lower quality educational experience than their White, middle or upper-class peers, which could, in effect, cause them to lag behind academically and to suffer from the lack of resources, lack of good teachers, and lack of effective instruction and intervention. Until school systems find a way to fund all public schools more equally so that all students have experience buildings, resources, curriculum, and teaching that is challenging and effective, whatever their race and socioeconomic status, many African American students will continue to be taught with a curriculum that lacks rigor and ultimately sets them up to fail academically and be referred to special education (Blanchett, 2006).

Culturally Biased Instruction

For African American students, curriculum not only excludes African American perspectives and history, but it is also not tested as research-based practice on culturally diverse students. "Ensuring that African American students have consistent access to rigorous curricula goes hand-in hand with providing them with culturally appropriate and responsive curricula" (Blanchett, 2006, p. 27). Klingner discusses how instruction is only evidence-based if it has been tested on students similar to the students the instruction is being used on. If instruction proved to be effective in teaching middle-class, White students, there is often no evidence to suggest that this same instruction will prove effective in teaching lower socioeconomic status, Black students. Teachers need to not only be prepared to "address the needs of ethnically and culturally diverse students, but they also need to be trained and have access to knowledge about how to provide culturally responsive instruction to African American students in order to improve learning opportunities" (Blanchett, 2006, p. 28). The incompatibility between the schooling environment in terms of the structure, content, curriculum, teaching practices, materials, and organization leads to an environment that is not conducive to African Americans maximizing their learning potential, therefore a larger percentage of African American students perform lower academically, causing overrepresentation in special education. It is also important to note that African American families, coming from a culture that is different from the culture of the schooling system, often lack the knowledge necessary to advocate on behalf of their child if they feel that the special education placement is unwarranted. First, families might not be aware of services available at the school, therefore they have no way of knowing if their child is being offered the services they might benefit from. Second, if the parents themselves are uneducated, they might not feel as if they are qualified to know what might benefit their child educationally. Third, parents might not feel comfortable speaking up that they disagree with a professionals opinion. Finally, school personnel might, either consciously or unconsciously, discourage parental participation, devaluing the contributions parents can make in communicating the needs of their child.

Consequences of Inequitable Education and Overrepresentation In Special Education for African American Students

Harry and Anderson discuss the deleterious effects that the overrepresentation of African Americans in special education has had on this population in terms of their school experiences and educational opportunities. African American students inappropriately placed in special education are more likely to experience lower levels of achievement, have lowered self-esteem, can suffer from adverse psychological and emotional effects, miss meaningful educational and social experiences in general education, and have higher rates of dropping out (1994). Blanchett demonstrates these consequences, stating that "the overrepresentation of African American students in special education and their restrictive special education placements limits access to the general education classroom and to peers without disabilities. These students have low academic performance, are subjected to a watered-down curriculum, have poor self-esteem, and experience higher rates of dropping out" (2006, p. 25). Special education labels carry a strong stigma with them, and if a student benefits from special education services, then this stigma comes at the price of a better educational environment, however when African American students are misidentified as having special education needs for reasons other than having a disability, the stigma can cause African Americans to give up their dreams, goals, and aspirations, recognizing and internalizing that the system is set up for them to fail, so why bother? (Baker and Brooks, 2006).

Post-Secondary Consequences of the Overrepresentation of African American Students in Special Education

The overrepresentation of African American students in special education has negative consequences for adulthood as well. After completing high school, African American students have higher rates of unemployment, are ill-prepared for entering the workforce, and have a harder time going on to obtain a post-secondary education (Blanchett, 2006). "Among high school students with disabilities, 75% of African American students, as compared to 47% of their White counterparts, are not employed two years after school. More than half (54%) of African American young adults are not employed five years after completing their schooling, compared to 39% of White young adults" (Green, 2005, p. 34). This disparity between post-secondary outcomes for Black students compared to White students only serves to further perpetuate both racial stereotyping and perpetuates a lower socioeconomic trend for the Black race. African Americans that struggled in school, received a less quality education, dropped out, or were poorly served by instruction that was culturally biased are likely to be resentful and hold negative views about a society and a system run by White people that failed to serve them effectively and equally, perpetuating racial tension in the United States.

Implications for Schools: Solving the Problem of the Overrepresentation of African Americans in Special Education

Teacher Education and School Reform: Raising Cultural Awareness to Fight Against School Climates that Perpetuate Racial Inequality

School reform efforts are often ineffective because of deficit beliefs that impede on educators' abilities to examine their assumptions and look beyond requiring students and families to change to find solutions within their own instruction and within school reforms (Garcia and Guerra, 2004). Teachers need preparation in multicultural education in order to deconstruct deficit thinking about African American students and to also become aware of effective practices for teaching culturally diverse students. In addition, however, Garcia and Guerra discuss the importance of professional development to identify the elements of the school culture and climate that lead to schools systematically marginalizing differences in learning and attributing them to pathological differences rather than cultural ones. Most teachers are well-intentioned, caring individuals, but are unaware of the deeper, hidden, or invisible dimensions of culture present in schools that advantage some students and disadvantage others (2004). By educating teachers about their own classroom practices that hinder learning for African American students, and also educating them about issues within the school system that contribute to the achievement gap between White and Black students, teachers can begin to act as agents that can reform schools.

Garcia and Guerra discuss many important factors in effectively educating school personnel to teach culturally diverse students. First, it is important that professional development activities systematically and explicitly linking equity knowledge to classroom practice (2004). It is also crucial that teachers and administrators raise awareness of the harmful effects of overgeneralizing about students and family backgrounds. "Many teachers and administrators hold assumptions that students do not enter school ready to learn. From their perspective, culturally and linguistically diverse students' educational risks could be linked to sociocultural variables such as poverty, limited English proficiency, and racial or ethnic minority status. These generalizations perpetuate the view that CLD children and families are deficient and in need of remediation and this hinders a teacher's ability to appreciate the resources or the funds of knowledge in every family and to view teaching and learning as an interactive process" (Garcia and Guerra, 2004, p. 151). Training programs can help teachers see that at-risk youth, including struggling African American students, are at-risk not only because of their demographic characteristics, but also because of school, classroom, teacher, and pedagogy contributing to their academic difficulties (Garcia and Guerra, 2004). Teachers need to understand that all students come to school ready to learn and that their prior knowledge can be scaffolded to effectively teach in the classroom. It is also important that teachers are trained to understand that there are a variety of child-rearing practices that are successful in raising children so that deficit views about family and culture do not create stereotypes that a child is not learning because of cultural differences. By eliminating the belief that students and families need to change because the system works to teach students, teachers and schools can acknowledge that the system does not work for a large percentage of students and can examine practices that contribute to inequality and can recognize the importance of not placing responsibility elsewhere. Schools will continue to be systems that perpetuate inequality until these changes are made.

Implementation of Culturally Sensitive Response to Intervention Programs

Prior to the development of response to intervention (RTI), local education agencies were using discrepancy models to identify students with learning disabilities, but RTI was implemented because discrepancy cannot be operationalized. The discrepancy model does not accurately assess students as learning disabled because this model was a primary cause of the overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education. Many have argued that RTI will solve the problem of overrepresentation of African Americans in special education. These arguments suggest that RTI could keep low-performing students that are struggling for reasons other than having a learning disability from being unnecessarily placed in special education, which would both cut costs in special education, and would also keep students from being labeled as learning disabled without actually having a disability. However, many argue that using RTI without truly using culturally and linguistically appropriate instruction may lead to greater disproportionality (both under and over representation) of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education (Brown and Doolittle 2008).

In 2005, Klinger and Sorrells present a culturally and linguistically responsive ecological RTI Model focuses on a three-tiered education model in which tier one and two are general education, with the second tier representing response to intervention for struggling students, and the third tier representing special education. RTI has good intentions, however, African American students are frequently getting referred to special education simply because they have had ineffective instruction from teachers who are unknowledgeable about the educational needs of this cultural group. RTI is required to deliver evidence-based instruction to all students, but unfortunately, most "so-called" evidence-based practices have not been sufficiently proven as evidence-based with CLD students. The question remains, who are these practices evidence-based for? RTI evidence-based practices might be effective with most students, but if these practices have only been studied and analyzed on students who are not CLD, then there is no evidence that these practices will work on culturally or linguistically diverse students.

Klinger and Sorrels believe that although response to intervention has good intentions, the problem is that it assumes if a child is not learning, that it is a problem within that student. It is imperative that research looks at context to successfully implement RTI programs. Without considering classroom setting, demographics, who was included in the study, who is implementing the instruction, what prior experiences and knowledge students are bringing to the table, and so many other factors, evidence-based practices are not really evidence-based. It is necessary that educators do a sort of cultural scaffolding in order to avoid deficit thinking about African American and other CLD students with fewer experiences. Rather than educators looking at CLD students with fewer experiences as lacking knowledge, it is necessary that teachers shift their thinking to a positive view by acknowledging that all experiences are worthwhile and then helping those students connect new ideas to what they already know.

If RTI programs are implemented without tailoring these programs to the special needs of African American students, the results will be the same. There will simply be another program in place that fails to appropriately serve Black students educationally - another school system that fails to offer equitable education - and after RTI, many African American students without disabilities will still be inappropriately perceived as needing special education services. By implementing culturally sensitive, research-based RTI programs, schools can ensure that African Americans are placed in special education only because of an actual disability, and African Americans educational needs will be more effectively addressed in general education. With culturally and linguistically evidence-based response to intervention, one would hope that African American students will be less likely to be referred to special education because of teacher bias, ineffective instruction in the general education environment, or because of assessments that are culturally and linguistically biased.

Conclusion

The question that remains is why researchers and local education agencies are aware of the reasons for the overrepresentation of African Americans in special education, but that still, schools are failing to meet the educational needs of such a large group of students. Schools are becoming increasingly diverse, and what is concerning is that even after endless discussion about educational reform, schools and school personnel are still not succeeding in creating a learning environment that is conducive and beneficial for African American students (Harris, Brown, Ford, & Richardson, 2004). African American students still remain over-represented in special education and remain less likely than their white peers to succeed both in school and after high school. Harry and Anderson stress the importance of schools becoming places that facilitate lifelong learning for all students in an increasingly diverse and multicultural society. Learning must be seen as valuable by all students instead of students viewing schools as a place that judges and sorts students according to perceived ability (Harry and Anderson, 1994). Schools and teachers need to educate themselves in order to provide quality instruction, interventions, assessments, and support that respects the differences present in African American culture. By respecting, recognizing, and developing all students' strengths and talents rather than interpreting differences as barriers to their ability to learn, African American students will no longer be viewed from a deficit perspective (Harry and Anderson, 1994). As stated by Harris, Brown, Ford, and Richardson, "A mind is a terrible thing to erase" (2004, p. 335).

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