The overrepresentation of African American students in special education by Latanya Fanion

When African American students are mislabeled, many become disengaged with school altogether.
When African American students are mislabeled, many become disengaged with school altogether.
Photo from onebrothasmind.blogspot.com.

Since the inception of special education in 1975, advocates have been fighting for the fair and equal treatment of students with disabilities. While some wanted these students to receive an educational experience that was comparable to their non-disabled peers, others, such as Lloyd Dunn, wanted to ensure that all students with disabilities: were treated equitably; received disability labels that were non-discriminatory; and were educated in general education versus special education classrooms- a placement where the curriculum was often described as substandard and incapable prepping students for any creditable post-secondary opportunity.

Dunn advocated for these three initiatives because they were all at the foundation of a silent epidemic that was festering in special education programs all across the county- African American students, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, were being disproportionately labeled as having emotional and behavior disorders and mental retardation. The rate at which these students were placed in these two categories outnumbered all other racial groups. In addition to being mislabeled, once placed in special education, many of these students were more likely to receive their instruction in special education classes away from their non-disabled peers. Dunn advocated for the fair treatment of minorities in special education a few years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “separate was inherently unequal” in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education (1954)- the landmark case that ended segregation in the nation’s public schools.

Since that time, the disproportionate number of African American students being labeled with emotional and behavior disorders and intellectual disabilities has remained unchanged. According to data from the 2009-2010 annual special education report compiled by the Georgia Department of Education, African American students continue to outnumber other subgroups of students in the categories of Emotional Behavioral Disorders (EBD) and Intellectual Disabilities. Additionally, African American students are more likely to be served in special education classes and residential placements more than their peers. A variety of reasons have been given for why over-identification of some students occurs— the most prevalent ones being (CEC, 2002):

  • Lack of access to effective instruction in general education programs;
  • Insufficient resources and less well trained teachers, making learning more difficult;
  • Failure of the general education system to educate children from diverse backgrounds;
  • Inequities associated with special education referral and placement procedures;
  • Misidentification and the misuse of tests.

The special education annual report also indicated that African American students accounted for 39 percent of the total special education population. However, they made up 47 percent of the students labeled as having emotional and behavior disorders and 57 percent of students with intellectual disabilities. These data show that African American students were disproportionately represented in these two areas. Hence, when compared to their presence in the overall population of students with disabilities, African American students were overrepresented in each of the specific populations of interest- students identified with emotional and behavioral disorders and intellectual disabilities. Despite these numbers, the proportionality of these students is not considered at-risk by the Georgia Department of Education until a 2.0 weighted risk ratio is reached.

When analyzing the racial representation by setting, the data demonstrates that African American students are more likely to receive their instruction in a special education classroom away from their non-disabled peers. They were more likely to be served in the general education classroom less than 40 percent of the school day, and least likely to be served in the general education classroom for more than 80 percent of the school day.

Data reported by the Georgia Department of Education demonstrates that this silent epidemic is also plaguing many of the metro Atlanta school districts. In some district the disproportionate number of African American students identified as having emotional and behavioral disorder and intellectual disabilities are in the at-risk range as outlined by the state. According to the Council for Exceptional Children (2004), in order to address the overrepresentation of African American students in special education, school districts need to:

  • Understand the seriousness of overrepresentation and commit themselves to reviewing their own school programs for any evidence of it;
  • Seek guidance from special education laws and policies;
  • Use a prereferral intervention process when referring students for special education;
  • Give attention to school climate and how it affects the referral of African American students to special education;
  • Increase family involvement; and
  • Provide teachers with increased professional development.

To learn more about African American students with disabilities in your district, click on the respective links below:

To access the solution focused intervention guide developed by the Council for Exceptional Children and other organizations, click on the link below.

Administrator’s Guide:  Addressing Overrepresentation of African American Students in Special Education

Source

Protecting students from unwarranted special education labels with Response to Intervention

by Latanya Fanion

Response to Intervention (RTI) meets students were they are to increase student achievement for all.
Response to Intervention (RTI) meets students were they are to increase student achievement for all.
Picture from Microsoft Office images

Recently, the state of Georgia adopted Response to Intervention (RTI), a nationally recognized initiative that integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-tiered prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce undesired behavior problems. This initiative came at a time when many states and school districts were being cited by the U.S. Department of Education for the misidentification and overrepresentation of students in special education.

With the new framework, the referral data that had been used for so long to refer students to special education would no longer be sufficient. Now, schools could no longer rely on test results from a single test score detailing a student’s intellectual capacity, or IQ. Instead, before alleging that a student warranted a special education referral, schools would have to form data teams to assist teachers by helping them to:

- Use previous data to diagnose a student’s specific weaknesses or needs;
- Develop research-based interventions to meet the student’s academic or behavioral needs; and
- Collect formative data to document the student’s response to the intervention over a predetermined period of time.

Once all of this data is collected and the data team determines that the student still did not show adequate progress with the intensive interventions, then at that point, the student could be referred to receive additional testing, which could possibly lead to a special education referral. To many, the RTI model serves as safeguard. It prevents students from being misidentified, and it forces teachers to differentiate instruction for students so that more students can achieve success within the general education classroom.

This change in referral practices followed years of unfair and culturally biased testing practices that frequently resulted in students, especially poor and minority students, receiving labels and being unfairly placed in special education classes away from their non-disabled peers. This was a crisis that many educators fought to change. The most notable educator who advocated for better referral practices was probably Lloyd Dunn, a champion in the field of special education.

Dunn (1968) believed that far too many children from minority and/or underprivileged backgrounds were being misidentified as mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed on the basis of cursory identification procedures and inappropriate use of intelligence testing. He argued that those children—of whom he estimated 60 to 80 percent were from “low status backgrounds”—were then placed in segregated, inherently inferior special education settings “at the expense of the socioculturally deprived slow learning pupils themselves,” raising “serious educational and civil rights issues which must be squarely faced.

With RTI, the field of special education is facing the referral inequalities that once existed. It is reducing the number of students being prematurely placed in special education. Most of all, RTI is maximizing instruction for all students extending students’ zone of proximal development. To learn more about Response to Intervention or learn about how Georgia is implementing this framework, visit the following links.

The National Center on Response to Intervention at http://www.rti4success.org/.

Georgia Department of Education, Response to Intervention at http://www.gadoe.org/ci_services.aspx?PageReq=CIServRTI.

get (.PDF) Administrator’s Guide: Addressing Overrepresentation of African American Students in Special Education : http://www.dcsig.org/files/AddressingOverrepresentationAfricanAmericanguide.pdf