1. There are many factors that contribute to the problem of over-representation of
African Americans in special education, but which one do you think has the
greatest impact?
The factor that contributes the most to the over-representation is the that “schools lack professional training for working with diverse students.” Teachers, both general and special education, are the first to recommend or seek assistance for struggling learners. They do need to build the relationship with the child to understand the home life and the social issues that may be affecting the learning. Teachers need to look further into the child that sits before him/her and perform investigation into the previous educational services.
2. What do you think is needed to correct this educational problem?
I completely agree with your statement in your critical task paper, “teachers should be required to complete culture training to increase their awareness of racially biased ways of perceiving students.” Personally speaking, I have not received any formal training on this matter besides what I sought on my own from continuing education inservices. Not only should teachers be inservices on the needs of African Americans, but other rising ethnic groups within the community you service.
3. Before reading about this topic were you aware of this problem? What are other methods to make teachers more aware of this topic?
In my teaching experience I am exposed to a predominantly Caucasian population with a rising number of Asian students. There are a few Hispanic and minimal African American students (3 out of 241 in the sixth grade). Although I am aware of this topic, I am not reminded of it at the workplace. It becomes alarming when reading in your paper, “African Americans have higher incarceration rates, lower college attendance, weakened employment opportunities, lower socioeconomic status, and lower life expectancies (Frazier, 2009).” I also agree with you that teacher training must be incorporated in the school district.
4. Is the special education department living up to its expectations?
According to Fred McKissack, “50 years after walls came down, (the) achievement gap remains.” This is a powerful statement that resonates the thesis of your paper when addressing the representation of minority students. Some teachers (not all) do not properly address the constructive classroom management strategies that would support engagement of learning. School wide positive behavior support programs could help assist this problem. It would be an intervention that could provide documentation as to whether the students were able to receive academic success while the program was existing in the school. Schools need to be on a united front to work together to solve this problem.
“Students in special education are most often assigned to learning environments that focus on managing emotional and behavioral challenges, learning disabilities and other impairments rather than on academic rigor.” This rigor needs to be addressed within the school system according to our initiatives of the Common Core Standards and Ohio’s Learning standards.
5. If one of the solutions is to teach culturally responsive instruction, could this be a solution to problems in other parts of the society?
Yes, I do believe that this initiative of culturally responsive instruction could directly affect our society. If we teach the students how to respect each other through the modeling of in the interaction between teacher and student, then we can begin to reshape our community. Tolerance and acceptance of others goes a long way into our daily living and working environments. After all, our goal as educators is to prepare our students for the real world as problem solvers, as community members, as mentors, and as members of the work force to unite together to make this country a better society.
Thank you, Danielle, for your hard work and research in this critical task. It is imperative to revisit this topic and remind our colleagues of this injustice in our educational system.
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