This is one of the sadder education columns I’ve read in awhile. The title asks, Is Special Education Racist? — in other words, are too many black children given special education designations? The authors’ answer is no. In fact, they say, despite the fact that a proportionately larger number of blacks are labeled as needing special ed than other children, there should probably be more black children enrolled in the programs.
It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that the authors are racists who believe that blacks are naturally inferior intellectually. In fact, the authors are college professors from Pennsylvania State University and University of California, Irvine, who have published a study concluding that black children “are far more likely to be exposed to the gestational, environmental and economic risk factors that often result in disabilities.” Because more black children are exposed to these risk factors than children in the rest of the population, more of them are likely to have traits that qualify them for special education.
Here is the authors’ analysis of exposure to lead, which has terrible effects on children.
Thirty-six percent of inner-city black children have elevated levels of lead in their blood. The figure for suburban white children is only 4 percent.
Continuing to list risk factors:
Black children are about twice as likely to be born prematurely and three times more likely to suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome.
Here’s their analysis of socioeconomic factors linked to student achievement:
About 65 percent of black children, compared with about 30 percent of white children, live in families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line. From 1985 to 2000 about 80 percent of black children grew up in highly disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by widespread unemployment, racial segregation, poverty, single-parent households and welfare.
When children are correctly diagnosed as needing the extra help that comes with a special education designation, that’s supposed to help those children by increasing the educational help and attention they receive. It doesn’t mean they will be locked away in separate classrooms. If the label is misused, that’s a fault with the individual program, not the designation itself. If children who need the extra attention are left to fend for themselves, they aren’t receiving the educational support they deserve.
There’s a stigma that goes along with being labeled special ed, and it certainly looks like racism is at play when more black children are given that label than children from other groups. But to the extent the professors’ analysis is correct, which is pretty likely, it’s our society, which allows preventable problems that cause permanent harm to children to fester, that deserves the blame, not the schools.
The professors’ conclusions should serve as a wakeup call to anyone who labels schools “failing” because they aren’t able to counteract problems that began at birth, or before birth, which lower children’s abilities to be successful in school. Successful education results where there are good practices inside and outside the school walls. If we work to repair problems in the outside world at the same time we improve education in school, our children will be better educated and more successful.
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2015.
“The authors’ answer is no. In fact, they say, despite the fact that a proportionately larger number of blacks are labeled as needing special ed than other children, there should probably be more black children enrolled in the programs.”
But to the author, never miss an opportunity to race bait. To heck with the facts, time for the ‘progressives’ to ramp up, never miss an opportunity, time to join Farakhaan, Obama, Sharpton, Wright and Grijalva and take America down.
Has anyone in the Black community ever heard about birth control? It goes a long way in solving society’s problems. That goes for all races.
So now we are responsible for no family values in the communities that he says are the fault of society. NYC, Baltimore, LA and others prove to all that these victimization theorists and redistributors that even if we spend more on these communities there will never be enough! The War on Poverty, a failure, Headstart and other spend ever more programs over the past 40 years also failures. There is never enough spending to Safier short of taxing (except for the few non-guilt ridden) really rich departing for tax havens and the rest of society supporting the self destructive! He should give all his income to tax cheats like Sharpton the political industrial and charitable foundation industry of the Clintons and then cry in his homelessness as Safier turns his home over to the illegals, the non-workers and vacuous parent victims and failed funds sucking, union dominated school systems that are the subject of this Article. Boo Hoo!
3rd generation American here, none of my relatives owned slaves.
The study states it is not racist, these kids didn’t have a chance before they made it outta the womb.
Every American should have free and easy access to birth control and abortions. Period.
I would be curious to find out how many students get accepted at the U of A who have a Special Ed background. I suspect that prejudice against all Special Ed students ( black, white, brown etc) is built into the system.
My read of the article is that black students have lousy parents. Lay off the booze when pregnant, don’t feed the kids lead, and create a disciplined environment and the kids will do a lot better. Unfortunately, the conventional answer in the big cities is bigger welfare checks and schools as employment mechanisms for educrats.
Maybe if we get rid of Confederate flags and all other signs of the Confederacy, there will be fewer black children in special ed. After all, let’s blame anything but a largely deteriorated family structure, bad parenting, and lack of discipline for the failure/success of a child. This is a problem that you can’t throw money at and make go away.
I have seen first hand the effects of a child being passed over for special or exceptional education. And I have not seen a disproportionate number of African American kids in SPED programs, at least not here. Because districts are so concerned about racial equity, it seems as if, sometimes, students of color are passed over for child study. We are encouraged to try every intervention first, before requesting an IEP meeting. The list of “identified” students seems to get longer every year, and they don’t all end up in SPED/EX Ed programs. Whether this is due to an overburdened system, racial equity issues, or a lack of identification is not clear…I’m sure it varies from school to school. But one thing I really wish is that readers and those who comment would stop making politically and racially-charged assumptions. They have little or no understanding of what is going on in education, and a very one-sided grasp of what is going on in society. This is just one study. There are no easy answers. “Get on birth control, stop making poor kids” is not a very helpful suggestion.
Clearly the majority of commenters have spent no time in public school education working with children. The conditions of poverty can overwhelm so many good teachers’ efforts. Ironically, many African-American activists claim schools can arbitrarily put black children into special ed classes without parent knowledge and consent. Not true, either.
The study that the article cites is very interesting and i agree with the commenters who note that few of the comments reflect much knowledge of the public school system and its intricacies. But there is nothing new about that, right? Everyone goes to school so everyone is an expert, right? Except that this has everything to do with the definition of special ed, whether we are talking about pull out special attention in addition to mainstream ed or seperate classroom education,etc. As in many other things, the devil is in the details so its worth it to know something about them. In TUSD the Unitary Status Plan,which so many seem to object to, demands accountability about these very details. Its not because its “politically correct” one way or another, its because we won’t ever know unless we start keeping track of it whether our policies and practices are racist or not. The effort to just talk about kids sounds laudable but hides the fact that the playing field is not at all level for all kids. Once it is, then maybe we can just talk about kids. Until that day, though,we will need to delve into those details and the USP offers alot of ways to do that, and alot of ways to improve our policies based on the data that it demands.
It looks like the last part of your article was edited out; the part where you tell us all what will work and why.
“This is just one study. There are no easy answers. “Get on birth control, stop making poor kids” is not a very helpful suggestion.”
Easy access to birth control, abortions and sex education is step one. Step two, free and easy access to prenatal care, heck – free medical care until they are 12. Step three, cap state and federal benefits for families at two children. Have more than 2 children – you only get financial assistance for 2, unless one set happens to twins.
This goes for all low income families, white, brown and black. Want to have more than 2 kids – earn it. Make a decent living to afford to care for the children you have.
There needs to be carrots and sticks to give these kids a chance to succeed.
It’s a sensitive topic. I don’t care whether there are too many black children as long as white children get the same priority. It’s likely just coincidental. http://www.abpathfinder.com/for-schools/