Blog #4 Disproportionate Representation in Special Education--Corey Creamer

            While reading a magazine, I read an article that stated we see ourselves twenty percent less attractive then we really are. People that see us in our daily lives, tend to view us twenty percent more attractive than we actually are. Thinking back to what I mentioned previously, we all look in the mirror and see things we want to improve. The same could be said for the education we provide to children, and the education we want our children to obtain. Speaking on the field of special education, we often see many things we want to change whether we are veteran teachers or are new to the field.

                One of the common misfortunes we see in the area of special education is disproportionate representation in special education. This means that many minority groups are commonly over represented in our field. “Education for All” (Jimenez and Graf 2008) pages 131-132 stated too often we see that African Americans, Native Americans, and Asians are disproportionately represented in special education. The most commons reasons for this overrepresentation are due to behavior and poor academic performance. The lack of academic achievement is often noticed is the subject area of reading. “Education for All” (Jimenez and Graf 2008) page 162 stated that “Students who feel alienated from the educational process are more likely to engage in behaviors resulting in suspension and exhibit low achievement.” Many teachers have a short fuse for classroom issues, especially when it is a behavioral issue.  Unfortunately, many of us can quickly thing of teachers from our past, or our current co-workers, and think of at least a few teachers who only want to teach the “best students.”

We see students that may have a behavioral issue small or large, or poor academic achievements immediately recommended to special education services by certain teachers who only want the ideal students. Frequently, we see that students of the minority groups mentioned above, as well as other groups not mentioned, enter school lacking certain social or academic skills. This is by no means at the fault of the student; a student is often considered a product of his/her environment. It is extremely unfair and unjust that students are often requested to be tested for special education services by teachers when no disability is present, and the teacher just wants a specific student removed from his/her class.

Fortunately, the special education community is taking steps in the right direction of improving disproportionate representation in our classrooms. The first recommendation is as a society we need to invest more in our teachers. We should have more in depth training for teachers to help distinguish a disability from possible cultural differences. As educators we need to review our practices as teachers, identify practices that lead to student difficulties and amend or abolish those practices.

Another major solution is improving our relationship as schools with parents.  Based on my own personal experience, many parents seem reluctant to meet with me as a special education teacher because they feel I am only going to say negative things about their student. The parents state that in previous experiences in meetings with teachers, the teachers had a majority of only negative things to say about the parent’s child.  Our job as a teacher is to motivate and inspire. We can quickly think back to a teacher we had in school that was negative and possibly put us or our classmates down. Many of us vowed that when we became teachers we would not be like that negative teacher…….. We must help our students see their potential and obtain it.