"Disproportionate Representation in Special Education: What Are Some Promising Solutions?"-Jamie Diemert

This subject is very interesting to me because it is about a topic I was totally unfamiliar with. I was raised, educated, and now live and work in an inner city areas. I have only known populations that were mainly minorities, so the idea that these individuals are disproportionate in special education because of their race or culture is a unbelievable idea to me. The school that I currently work at has 401 students with only 27 of them identified as Caucasian. There are only a total of 40 students identified and serviced on IEP’s, so this to me is not an extreme percentage of identified students. I have always assumed that students were strictly identified because they had a disability, not because of their race, culture, or economic level. When learning about special education I was not surprised to learn about the unfair treatment of individuals with disabilities because it was something I have learned and heard about my whole life where I grew up with the people of my neighborhoods, but I never imagined that the two would be connected in such a way. I understand now that the idea of disproportionate representation is being used as another way to limit the education and success of not only the disabled but the children of this country viewed as “not Native-born Americans”.

I feel the first step in finding a solution to this issue is to become more educated as to how children form disabilities and if they can be prevented somehow. This is being done with companies such as the March of Dimes that uses all of their resources and knowledge to limit the number of babies born prematurely, which can cause so many difficulties and disabilities in children as they become school age and beyond. By understanding why these disabilities are real and here, I would hope we could be more understanding and then begin to learn how to treat and teach these students. That leads me to agree with the book's Education for All and other research based solution of RTI in general education classrooms. In my school we do use RTI services for students that teachers feel are struggling and may need further evaluation. RTI is a wonderful service that “challenges educators and researchers to discover what works with which student in what context” Education for All pg 150. Teachers should give the students to learn on different levels of intervention. Change the way the information is presented, provide additional supports, communicate with families to provide home support of strategies, and give the student more opportunities to “catch up” or “catch on” before leaping to the step of identifying them with a disability. Through all my schooling and life I have always understood that no child is the same no matter where they came from, and that just seems like the most logical way people should think.

Our attention needs to first be to not look at a disability but to look at the student and begin to learn to understand how they learn. We need to ask ourselves how can we change things to get them to understand. I am kindergarten teacher and if I look at my students I am sure I could “label” so many of them with disabilities if I simply went by the characteristics of the disabilities, but that would be so unfair, and it is unfair that it is happening. I have changed my instruction sometimes to a preschool level, taken into account their level of home support, educational experiences, and will do all I can to help them learn. If, and only if, all these supports and interventions don’t help my students or any students, they should be placed in the position to be evaluated for their ability.