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Gloria Sanders |
Educators are growing increasingly concerned about a different type of segregation in U.S. public schools - the special education ghetto.
Within the ranks of students classified as learning disabled, an estimated 70 percent are African American males.
"There is a disproportionate number of black children in special education - especially black males - because it's easier to push them into special education and label them learning disabled than it is to work with them," asserts Gloria Sanders, president of Associated Chaffey Teachers and chair of CTA's Brown v. Board of Education Commemoration Committee.
"Part of the problem is that those making the designation may not understand the black culture. Often, these decisions are culturally biased."
Research shows that racial bias and cultural factors may indeed be responsible for who is placed in special education. African American children are three times as likely as white children to be categorized as "mentally retarded," and twice as likely to be labeled "emotionally unstable," according to a study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
"I think there has been a lot of misdiagnosis, because we try to put all children in a box," says Elaine Merriweather, a San Francisco preschool teacher and a member of United Educators of San Francisco. "There is more than one way to teach a child and not all children learn the same way."
The current emphasis on testing has resulted in a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching, which can turn off minority students to learning, says Merriweather, a member of the commemoration committee. "The African American boys I know have a lot of energy. They jump up and down. They need space to explore their environment. They tend to be more active. Their learning style may need to be more hands-on and kinesthetic. But that is not happening in most schools."
When children are erroneously placed in special education classes, it takes precious resources away from those who truly need such services. What could help change the equation, say some teachers, is more training in learning styles, diversity and classroom management, as well as more widely available counseling services for students and families.
When it comes to behavior problems in public schools, young people of color are singled out in high numbers as well. According to a study of 10 cities by the Applied Research Center, race plays a definitive role in suspension practices in schools across the country, with African Americans disproportionately suspended in every city studied.
Students who are suspended are often behind academically, and the suspension may cause them to fall even further behind. A report from the Kids First! Coalition in Oakland showed that local discipline policies resulted in students missing more than 29,000 days in the 1997-98 school year alone. Of these, 72 percent were African American.
Amanda E. Lewis, author of Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms, spent a school year working in three different elementary schools. She found that black students were singled out for discipline more often than their white peers, whether they deserved it or not.
The suspension/expulsion rate and the tendency to place children of color in special education "make you wonder what really is going on," says Merriweather.
Disproportionately punishing African American students and placing them in special education has huge implications for society, says Sanders. "Many of these students don't finish school. And if they're not educated, they're not going any place except into the criminal justice system. The prison system is overloaded with African American men."
"We need to have more programs for at-risk students, additional counseling services and someone to care," she adds. "Something has to be done to reverse this terrible trend."
