SPED Blog Post #4: Disproportionate
Representation in Special Education
Throughout my
education and teaching experience I was well aware that disproportionate representation
was occurring but was unaware that certain racial minority groups were being
target. When I was going through
elementary and middle school, I could remember students being pulled out for
tests, as well as other teachers coming into the classroom. Not knowing back then that those students
were the students with special needs and the Intervention Specialists were the
ones assisting those students to help them succeed in the regular education classroom. Throughout my college education starting in
fall of 2004, when the provisions of IDEA were made, it was mandated to help
general education teachers. Looking back
at my education and learning about the special education laws, I really felt
that in 2004 the law was really trying to make a clear of misconceptions and
make it clear of services need to be provided to students receiving special
education.
Now looking at the
issue of disproportionate in the view of an Intervention Specialist, it means a
whole new thing. Stated in Education
for All, page 137 that in the case of Diana
vs. California State Board of Education (1970) fought for the rights of
those students that spoke Spanish not be evaluated in English. Looking back on a teaching position I had a
few years back, I had a student that was born in Peurto Rico and students with
English, was evaluating in English for her Evaluation Team Report and due to
her lack of skills and knowledge of the language she had scored in the Learning
Disability range.
In my professional
judgment some solutions to the problem of disproportionate and from an Intervention
Specialist point of view, to make a plan, be consise and give it time. Many general education teachers, jump the gun
of wanting students tested for special education services, when it may be as
simple as the delivery of instruction. I
feel this is due to the lack of knowledge the general education teacher has
about making those accommodations to meet student needs, and the extra time it
takes to plan for those. I feel that if
general education teachers, plan, implement and give interventions plenty of
time to be shown over time the progress or lack of progress was made that the
numbers of disproportionate may be decreased.
Our attention needs to be focused on
educating, offering support and services available to teachers of all
services. If general education teachers,
Intervention Specialist and even specialist were more aware of how to accommodate
student’s needs, and given the time and resources I don’t think it would be as
scary to them. I have seen first-hand
teachers being bombarded with an overflow of things to do and do not want
anything to do with the fact of trying and carrying out new interventions and
plan of actions for only a few students.
Many veteran teachers do not like change and rather stick to their
routine and what they are comfortable with.
I agree that all educators should be open to learning more about cultural awareness. Unfortunately there are so many teachers that are set in their ways and are not open to changing their routine. As usual, the student loses everytime. I do, however feel that there should be some type of program in place to support the diverse learner outside of the general education classroom. I don't know how it is humanly possible to expect the general educator to tackle this alone. School districts need to step up and figure out how to pay for additional programs and services needed to help the minority learners. Overloading the special education programs is obviously not the answer but expecting the general educators to fix the problem isn't going to solve it either.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that expecting the general education teacher to be all things to every student is a huge stretch and I watch teachers year after year burn themselves trying to tackle this task. More trained professionals working with all students would help everyone involved but that too would take money and we know how that goes in education.
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