Healing for Children of A Darker Hue: An inHealing for Children of A Darker Hue: An in--depth look at the affects and effects of Special depth look at the affects and effects of Special Education in relation to AfricanEducation in relation to African-- American American students.students.

George Williams, Jr. & Tarrance D. LeNoirDoctoral Student Masters Student geowillj@unm.edu africanangel4u_70yahoo.com

With Dr. T. Peele-Eady, Department of LLSS

March 11, 2008

Advance OrganizerAdvance OrganizerHistory of African American education (Anderson and Kluger)

Facts on Public Education

History of Disproportionate students

What is Overrepresentation?

Recommendations (Foster and Peele-Eady)

Q’s and A’s

EDUCATION AND THE EDUCATION AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCEEXPERIENCE

Nineteenth CenturyNineteenth CenturySlaves’ fundamental belief in the value of education

President Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation

Equality and freedom for Blacks in America◦ Voting rights◦ Equal opportunity

The next 100 years

Civil Rights MovementCivil Rights Movement

African American families wanted their children to benefit from the same resources and facilities provided to white children.

"THE AFRICAN AMERICAN STRUGGLE for desegregation, did not arise because anyone believed that there was something magical about sitting next to whites in a classroom. It was, however, based on a belief that the dominant group would keep control of the most successful schools and that the only way to get full range of opportunities for a minority child was to get access to those schools.”

Gary Orfield, Co- Director at the Harvard Civil Rights Project

Brown V. Board of Education of Brown V. Board of Education of TopekaTopeka

May 17, 1954◦ the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously

that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution

The 1954 decision declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal.

FACTS ON PUBLIC FACTS ON PUBLIC EDUCATIONEDUCATION

AcademicsAcademics12 percent of African American 4th graders have reached proficient or advanced reading levels (Gordon, 2005)

Black children scored 16 percent below white children on a national assessment in reading ability (Gordon, 2005)

Many Black 17 year- old students graduating high school have the math skills of White 8th

graders (Peele-Eady, Nasir, and Pang, 2007)

Promotions, Retentions, Promotions, Retentions, Suspensions, and ExpulsionsSuspensions, and Expulsions

18 percent of Black students have been retained at least once (Gordon. 2005)

1/3 African Americans students in the seventh- twelfth grades have been suspended or expelled at some point (Gordon, 2005)

HISTORY OF HISTORY OF DISPROPORTIONATE DISPROPORTIONATE STUDENTS STUDENTS

Civil Rights MovementCivil Rights Movement-- 19601960’’ssThe issue of disproportionality of minority students in special education first received national attention.

Researchers and practitioners studied the issue in an effort to:◦ understand and explain the processes used to

identify, assess, and place students in special education programs

Lloyd DunnLloyd DunnExamined concerns that African American children were disproportionately placed in special education re-segregated into substantially separate classes for the mental retarded (Dunn, 1968).

◦ With the belief that current special education practices were morally and educationally wrong, he stated:

“In my best judgment, about 60 to 80 percent of the pupils taughtby these teachers are children from low-status backgrounds—Afro-Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, and Puerto Rican Americans; those from nonstandard English speaking broken, disorganized and inadequate homes; and children from other nonmiddle class environments” (p.6).

Landmark Court Case Landmark Court Case Larry P. v. Riles◦ The case of Larry P. v. Riles (1972, 1979, 1984, 1986)

◦ The outcome of this trial was to declare the disproportionate representation of African American students in programs for students with MMR discriminatory

◦ Ban the use of IQ tests with African American students, and order the elimination of overrepresentation of African American students in Educable Mental Retardation (EMR) programs

WHAT IS WHAT IS DISPROPORTIONATE DISPROPORTIONATE REPRESENTATION? REPRESENTATION?

What is Disproportionate What is Disproportionate Representation?Representation?

The overrepresentation or under-representation of students from a specific group in an educational program being higher or lower than one would expect based on their representation in the general population of students. (Townsend, 2001)

Mental RetardationMental Retardation

0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

3.00%

3.50%

4.00%

4.50%

1974 1976 1978 1980 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1997 1998

Year of Survey

Risk

Inde

x (%

)

Am Ind.

Asian/PI

Hisp

Black

White

Total

FIGURE 2-1 Risk indices for mental retardation: 1974-1998 OCR data.

Emotional DisturbanceEmotional Disturbance

FIGURE 2-3 Risk indices for emotional disturbance: 1976-1998 OCR data.

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

1.00%

1.20%

1.40%

1.60%

1976 1978 1980 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1997 1998

Year of Survey

Ris

k In

dex

(%)

Am Ind.

Asian/PI

Hisp

Black

White

Total

Learning DisabilitiesLearning Disabilities

FIGURE 2-2 Risk indices for learning disabilities: 1974-1997 OCR data.

0.00%

1.00%

2.00%

3.00%

4.00%

5.00%

6.00%

7.00%

8.00%

1974 1976 1978 1980 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1997

Year of Survey

Ris

k In

dex

(%)

Am Ind.

Asian/PI

Hisp

Black

White

Gifted and TalentedGifted and Talented

FIGURE 2-4 Risk Indices for gifted and talented: 1976-1998 OCR data.

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

1976 1978 1980 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1997 1998

Year of Survey

Risk

Inde

x (%

)

Am Ind.

Asian/PI

Hisp

Black

White

Total

Calculating Calculating overrepresentationoverrepresentation

“Overrepresentation” can be assessed by calculating the odd students from one ethnic group, to be placed in a special education program, compared to students from another ethnic group (or compared to all other groups).

50 (African Americans in E/BD classes)_________________________________ = 0.20 250 (All African Americans at the school)

20 (White students in E/BD classes) ______________________________ = 0.05

400 (All White students at the school)

0.20 (Percent of African Americans in E/BD classes)_________________________________________ = 4.00.05 (Percent of White students in E/BD classes)

RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS

Practice responsive and Practice responsive and responsible teaching responsible teaching

Deviance vs. Difference

Instructional strategies that empower students

Teach more about success in the mainstream culture

Build your functional Build your functional cultural knowledgecultural knowledge

Teach in a variety of ways that are culturally appropriate.

“Must Know to Survive, Promote, and Enhance Learning” notebook.

Collaborative reflection

ActivitiesActivities

Discuss academic challenges, racial encounters, and other social issues

Organize classroom settings to reflect Afro-cultural themes

Incorporate affirmation breaks

Affirm as Students LearnAffirm as Students Learn

Affirm cultural identity

Nurture caring and supportive learning environments

Be a professional

How can How can ““WE" as pre/post WE" as pre/post professional educators & professional educators & researchers eradicate the consistent researchers eradicate the consistent overover--representation of African representation of African American (Black) children in special American (Black) children in special education and still provide them education and still provide them with a quality PKwith a quality PK--12 education?12 education?

I KNOW YOU HAVE I KNOW YOU HAVE QUESTIONSQUESTIONS……