Addressing Overrepresentation in Special Education

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nIntroduction

nFor many decades, the issues of over-representation of the minority students have taken place in special educations in the United States. The Individual Disabilities and Education Act provides responsibilities to states to set procedures and policies aiming to control unnecessary disproportionate and identification, representation by ethnicity and races for children with special needs (Zhang, Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, 2014). For instance, the minority students, especially African Americans and Hispanics have been overrepresented in special education classes as having intellectual disabilities. It is expected that students with disabilities would be equally distributed in special education among diverse student populations. Over-representation takes place when a certain group in a special education program is more than the percentage of the same group in the education sector or any other disability group (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006). However, minority students, particularly due to belief of culture, race and poverty lead to overrepresentation of African American and Hispanics students in special education classes.

nIn the United States, students from Native American, Hispanics, Whites and African American have indicated a significant gap in reading achievements. Due to lack of early reading interventions and sufficient reading instructions, especially among low performing students, a higher number of minority children are overrepresented in special education classes (Irvine, 2012). Consequently, it leads to high-rate of disability groups such as emotional disturbances (ED), mental retardation (MR), as well as specific learning disabilities (SLD). Ultimately, after identification and placement of these groups, many students may not have the ability to fully access an all-inclusive curriculum such as reading instructions in the response of their personal differences (Irvine, 2012).

nResearch by Rueda & Windmueller, (2006) has noted that children from Hispanic, African American and Native Americans have a high rate of disabilities relative to the white students (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006). According to Zhang, Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, (2014) the African American students are approximately 2.9 times as compared to the white students to exist in mental retardation (MR) programs (Zhang, Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, 2014). Similarly, they were 1.9 and 1.32 times as likely to participate in ED and SLD programs. Furthermore, a survey conducted by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights indicated that African American students had the highest incidence of overrepresentation of 17 percent of the total students enrolled for intellectual disabilities (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006).

nRacially and ethnically, minority groups are often over-represented in learning disabilities (LD) categories. According to Irvine, (2012) use of discrepancy models contributed to the problem of overrepresentation of minority students in the LD category of students (Irvine, 2012). In addition, school districts with higher proportion of the minority students population have a greater representation of students in LD programs. A study conducted in California in school districts with higher numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) noted greater enrolment of minority students as well as higher rates of poverty (Powers, Hagans-Murillo & Restori, 2004). Furthermore, there was a higher overrepresentation of ELLs in special programs. ELLS students were overrepresented in mental retardness classes (MR) and language and speech (LAS) groups. The study also noted that students in ELLs classes had 27 percent chance to join a special program as compared to students who had proficiency in English (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006).

nAdditionally, according to Togut, (2011) these disparities are caused by racial and class bias, unjustifiable dependence on intelligence tests, lack of equality in resource allocation among different races and power struggle between school officials and parents of student of color (Togut, 2011). Unfortunately, study by Irvine, (2012), indicated that African American students have a higher chance of acquiring their education in a more restraining environment. On the contrary, the number of majority students who are in a special education program has been on the decline (Irvine, 2012). Most importantly, more than thirteen states have identified approximately 2.75 percent of African Americans as intellectually disabled. However, no states have identified White students as having an intellectual disability of more than 2.38 percent (Togut, 2011).

nInappropriate Misidentification and Misclassification

nMisidentification means that minority students, particularly from ethnic and racial minority groups are unnecessarily recognized as children with intellectual disabilities. On the other hand, misclassification means incorrect categorization of students who are eligible for special education (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006). Togut, (2011) argues that there are a variety of factors that lead to overrepresentation of minority students in special education. Some of these include the special education process, resource inequity and general education, socio-demographic contributions (Togut, 2011). Essentially, according to the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools need to have appropriate procedures to identify and place students with disabilities in special education programs. The legislation enables children with disabilities to accomplish and progress effectively in the curriculum of the school (Irvine, 2012).

nNonetheless, in the majority of cases, students are inappropriately identified and placed in special education programs when they are not supposed. Ultimately, this is repeated to one or two category(s) of students, especially African American and Hispanic students in a school district. Additionally, it spread throughout the country leading to disproportionate percentage of a certain group in special education program (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006). Such variance in population cannot be easily justified, and it is always an issue of concern.

nEnrolment of Minority students in school district

nResearch by Togut, (2011) indicated that the majority of white school districts enrolls a higher percentage of students from the minority groups for special education as compared to minority-majority school districts. The main reason for this is that white school districts have higher standards of educations as compared to minority-majority school district. Due to this fact, teachers in the majority school districts in most cases disregard minority students for their low academic performance (Togut, 2011). Additionally, they associate minority students with linguistically or culturally deprived. However, evidence shows that academic performance is affected by the racial composition in these schools. Therefore, due to racial composition in these schools, minority students are more likely to drop out of school (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006).

nAssessments

nOn the majority of district schools in the country, educators heavily depend on the use of assessment tests such as intelligence tests and scientific measures in order to determine performance and the ability of a child. In this regard, teachers are able to determine children who are eligible for special education. However, evaluations of these evaluations are often associated with cultural bias, perception of teachers and politics in these schools (Irvine, 2012).

nFurthermore, teachers have a higher level of discretion, hence they decide on what to test, whom to test and when to test as well as interpret responses from these tests. Evidences have indicated that educators refer student from lower socio-status and minority race to special education program. Moreover, research has revealed that parents of students of color who engaged in special education normally received recommendations that are less diverse and more restrictive as compared to their white counterparts (Zhang, Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, 2014). Most notably, teachers in special education, consider referral to special education as the best option for minority students with behavior and learning problems.

nNegative effects of Over-representation

nThe matter is of great interest as it affects many aspects of educational aspects. Most importantly, overrepresentation of minority students in special education programs is a difficult issue that negatively affects the educational equity in the United States. Equity in education arises since misidentifying students may compel teachers to have limited expectations of the children (Powers, Hagans-Murillo & Restori, 2004). Furthermore, misrepresentation in special educations means that resources that are allocated for these students are misdirected from students with actual disabilities (Irvine, 2012).

nPossible solutions to the problem of overrepresentation in special education

nZhang Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, (2014) argue that in order to address the issue of overrepresentation of the minority students in special education, schools should establish a good environment for every students precisely differentiating special needs from cultural diversity. In addition, the researchers suggested that a thorough review of practices in all schools should be carried out in order to recognize and focus on factors that lead to difficulties among students. Furthermore, Zhang Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, (2014) suggest that states should retain and recruit teachers with experience and coursework to hand students from diverse backgrounds. In this regard, the researchers argued that the roles of teachers require to be redefined in order to reinforce shared tasks for all students (Zhang Katsiyannis, Ju, & Roberts, 2014).

nThe stakeholders in the education sector should design preventive measures to reduce overrepresentation of minority groups of minority students in special education. In this regard, the legislation governing special education, such as IDEA should be reauthorized so that students’ identification and placements are done accurately (Togut, 2011).

nIn addition, Powers, Hagans-Murillo & Restori, (2004) argue that teachers and school administration should apply the process of pre-referral intervention to order to deal with over-representation of minority students in special education programs. The process is crucial because it prevents over-identification of minority students in special education (Powers, Hagans-Murillo & Restori, 2004). In this respect, the process has a higher potential of addressing and identifying systemic issues such as lack of adequate resources, insufficient instructions and poor curriculum. Consequently, such methods may, in turn reduce the sources of behavioral and academic challenges of the students (Powers, Hagans-Murillo & Restori, 2004).

nMoreover, according to Irvine, (2012) over-representation can be prevented if school educators initiate effective pre-referral intervention systems. In fact, when these interventions are implemented in the right manner, they are able to prevent unnecessary referrals and enhance the performance of the student (Irvine, 2012).

nIn order to address this problem in the country, the federal government through U.S Department of Education should establish more funds that will cater for many services for the benefit of all children. In addition, it should offer early literacy education via preschool as well as supporting in-service programs in the terms of capacity building of teachers. On the other hand, the state governments should establish incentives for the execution of partnership intervention programs (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006). They should also establish adequate funds for enhancement of regular instructions in the classrooms.

nAccording to Togut, (2011), the problem of over-representation can be addressed through establishment of robust collaboration in the provision of educational services. Collaborative approach in education helps to solve the problem of over-representation in special education because a child with low achievement is likely to be identified (Togut, 2011). After a child is identified to be performing poorly, the first step is to know whether poor performance is due to inadequate classroom instructions. Therefore, if such cases exist, the first task will be to enhance classroom instructions prior to commencement of any other interventions (Rueda & Windmueller, 2006).

nConsequently, if the classroom instructions are adequate, the next task is to assess if the child’s achievement increases with enhancement of classroom instructions. Depending on the child’s needs, more systematic and mindful responses would be implemented. Therefore, in a collaborative approach, the special education professionals, reading specialist and classroom teachers, collaborates in organizing and executing the interventions (Irvine, 2012).

nConclusion

nIn education sector, the minority students, particularly African Americans and Hispanics are likely to be over-represented in special education. In this respect, this is due to challenges in systems of education that leads to misidentification of minority students. Therefore, they are more likely to be overrepresented in special classes such as emotional disturbances (ED), mental retardation (MR), as well as specific learning disabilities (SLD) (Powers, Hagans-Murillo & Restori, 2004). In order to reduce these cases, it is important to initiate proper interventions such as pre-referral intervention and collaborative approaches.

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nReferences

nIrvine, J. J. (2012). Complex relationships between multicultural education and special education an African American perspective. Journal of Teacher Education, 63(4), 268-274.

nPowers, K. M., Hagans-Murillo, K. S., & Restori, A. F. (2004). Twenty-five years after Larry P.: The California response to overrepresentation of African Americans in special education. The California School Psychologist, 9(1), 145-158.

nRueda, R., & Windmueller, M. P. (2006). English Language Learners, LD, and Overrepresentation A Multiple-Level Analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39(2), 99-107.

nTogut, T. D. (2011). Gestalt of the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Duality of Overrepresentation of Minorities in Special Education and Racial Disparity in School Discipline eon Minorities, The. Am. UJ Gender Soc. Pol’y & L., 20, 163.

nZhang, D., Katsiyannis, A., Ju, S., & Roberts, E. (2014). Minority representation in special education: 5-year trends. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(1), 118-127.