Why is there an over-representation of minority groups in Special Education?

Question

Why is there an over-representation of minority groups in Special Education?

Answer 1

One reason is that those from bilingual homes or English as a second language are behind in English.  Some of it is because of poverty/low income homes don't have the same opportunities as their peers.  Some is due to testing bias, and discrimination on the teacher's parts.

It is definately not due to having a lesser intelligence.

EDIT:MEAD 19  Am I understanding you correctly that minorities have more behavior problems because they are neglected, abused and come from dysfunctional homes?  Wow that is a blanket statement coming from a teacher.  There is no place in teaching for racism.

Answer 2

I agree that sometimes it is a testing issue.  White students are over-represented while collecting data from mass numbers of students.  Teachers and other potential data assessors at heavily minority schools are frequently overworked with issues outside of school and simply cannot volunteer their time to help with a test manufacturers sample test.

The other thing is that many of the ones making the test are highly educated and come from non-minority groups from surburban homes.  They are not familiar with topics and wording that poorer minority students are comfortable with on a daily basis. This ties into a language issue with students.  Students who are learning English as a second (or third) language OR who are learning a English dialect (think urban or very rural area) have difficulty reading formal or standard English.  This is an intimidating thing for the students and they often will grow confused and "shut down" on the examination process.

Another issue is the teacher-student relationship.  Fact is, that many of the teachers out there are from more affluent backgrounds and many are white.   We are not completely understanding students and their social skills, no matter how hard we try to educate ourselves and become comfortable in another social environment.  Anger and pride, for instance, are  difficult things for many males to express without drawing attention to themselves in the hallways.  Repeated instances of this can often an IEP team to look at a student for behavioral problems.  

Another point, I'd like to make in broad generalities is the reaction of the parents.  Many parents of financial means will spend a great deal of money on tutors, computer programs, summer camps, etc to make sure their kids are doing well in school.  Many minority families do not have the access to these instances.  Hence, the middle-class white child with a mild learning disability is receiving one-on-one help afterschool. The minority child from the working poor family does not have this problem and depends solely on the school for assistance.   Falling further and further behind, the minority child can be identified as having a learning disability more easily.

Again, broad strokes on multi-faceted problem.

Answer 3

I would say that the over-representation is directly related to the over-representation of Minorities in single parent homes, in poverty, in non-english speaking parents each working 2 low wage jobs and not being there to interact with their children.

If those factors - that we know are critical - have more minorities feeling the impact - it would only be logical that would carry over into special education as well.

Answer 4

For the extra income of having children with disabilities.

Answer 5

As a special education teacher I think that a lot of it is due to behavior problems.  When kids are neglected at home, abused at home, or live in dysfunctional homes they will more than likely have behavior issues.  Behavior issues tend to get in the way of the learning process.  Also keep in mind when you say an over-representation of minorities in special ed that there is a high correlation with low-income.  Unfortunately, minorities tend to have less income and resources.

Answer 6

The issue is multifacted.  I agree that sometimes issues of poverty and race get mixed up.  I do think that children from empoverished backgrounds get referred more often, especially if the teacher hasn't had good training in multicultural education.  Teacher training instutitions have to be better about this sort of training.  Once a teacher is out there, though, hopefully the school principal will evaluate the teacher on this issue.  There is a book called 'Framework for Understanding Poverty' by Ruby Payne that makes a lot of sense.  School life is very 'middle class' in it's approach.  Thus school set up as an alien environment for some parents and families.  

It's also frustrating that in many schools, the only way to get specialized instruction for a child is special education.  Teachers feel their hands are tied when confronted with children who aren't performing at the same level as peers.  I personally am sick of people referring kids to special education because they need help when they know it's an environmental issue (which is SUPPOSED to be an exclusionary factor).  I say 'then help them'!

As a school psychologist, I can't say it's the tests themselves, tests are simply tools.  Its really how they are used or misused- in otherwords it's us as evaluators.  There are several types of standardized IQ tests that can be used, although a lot of us tend to use one more than others.  We have to get out of that and use assessments in a culturally sensitive fashion.  I really need to meet a child's family to interview and understand where they are coming from to help me know what I need to do.  There are some cases where language is used differently (or a child is Limited English Proficient), and I know a highly language based test would result in a lower score for a child.  So I can use a nonverbal test where language can still be assessed, but through a visual/relational means.  Nonverbal processing is the area that is least impacted by social or ethnic background, so it's often the best estimate of a child's ability.  It's still important to test verbal ability, but I just don't recommend making decisions based on it if I know it's different due to environmental issues.  I am just one person on the team, however, and I have gotten into arguements about it.

Another question is why is there an over representation of males getting special education services???