ipl-logo

Disproportionality In Special Education

1604 Words7 Pages

Disproportionality refers to the overrepresentation or underrepresentation of particular demographic groups in comparison to the overall student population. Disproportionate representation of ethnically diverse students in special education and disciplinary action (office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions) has been an epidemic in the school system for the past forty years (Walker & Gresham, 2014). This disproportionality occurs at every level of education, elementary to high school, and every level of disciplinary action (Walker & Gresham, 2014). Research has found evidence that suggests a student’s ethnicity can significantly influence the likelihood of diagnostic identification, as well as disciplinary action (Walker & Gresham, 2014). …show more content…

While some children have trouble with the rules for how to behave, so it is common to see students being redirected every so often. However, I have noticed on a few occasions some of the African American students will be reprimanded for not following the PAX rules (such as being quiet in the halls and keeping hands to themselves) when another student (often times Caucasian) will be gently reminded of the rules. The students in Meachem Elementary are, unfortunately, fully aware of the difference in consequences due to ethnicity. A large majority of the school staff are Caucasian, furthering the belief in some students that they will fail due to their skin color. This sets students up for long-term outcomes that can affect their drive for academic and behavioral …show more content…

At Meachem, there is a student who is punished for leaving the classroom on his own accord, yet when he acts out in class, the teacher will often send him into the hallway. This sends the student a mixed message on appropriate and inappropriate behavior. A way to integrate best practice in this situation is to sit down with the student and teacher and establish ground rules for appropriate behavior. One should also explain to the teacher that a child cannot be reprimanded for behaviors that the teacher is instituting. Additionally, a check in/check out system with a peer mentor may be beneficial to the student in helping them achieve daily goals, such as calming down when upset or completing class work. A larger scale check in/check out with the classroom teacher may also be useful for setting goals, such as remaining in the classroom for a certain period of time and then being allowed to walk around the school with a peer for a few minutes. In general, Meachem appears to be lacking a strong Tier 2 behavioral intervention basis, with many of the staff feeling overwhelmed and underprepared to effectively handle students with behavioral problems. A way to approach this concern would be to provide more support and professional development for the school staff when handling students with emotional and

Show More
Related

  • Inequalities In The 1954 Brown V. Board Of Education Cases

    171 Words  | 1 Pages

    Inequalities have always existed in society. These inequalities are often perpetuated through education. While the United States Supreme Court supported desegregation of schools and struck down the idea of “separate, but equal” in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education cases, there still exists many inequalities within the United States educational system today for minority races and people of the lower economic classes. Ann Ferguson in her article “Bad Boys” discusses punishment practices in schools and the detriment these practices provide as they resemble incarceration. Conley in his article “Education” discusses education acting as a sorting machine and the tracking of students.

    Read More

  • Slavery In Joseph Ellis Founding Brothers

    1128 Words  | 5 Pages

    ”This is what is supposed to be in effect overall public schools and colleges. But discrimination is inevitable, not because of all the racist people out there, but because of the lack of opportunities to be aware of discrimination between races. Although the United States has come a very long way in race equality, there is still vast room for improvement among all

    Read More

  • White Like Me Analysis

    1248 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is hard for a person to learn and develop something that quickly. Many children have been learning things from school. I think being in college is when students really show what they're good at and still learning and developing their intelligence. The two authors of the books, White Like Me by Tim Wise and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, discuss education on their point of view when they experience this during their college years. Coates states, “When our elders presented schools to us, they did not present it as a place of high learning but as a means of escape from death and penal warehousing” (Coates 26).

    Read More

  • Essay On School To Prison Pipeline

    1112 Words  | 5 Pages

    Students of color are disproportionately affected by these policies. According to the School

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Seattle Decision On Race And Public Schools

    595 Words  | 3 Pages

    Barrett, D. E., & Katsiyannis, A. (2008). The Seattle decision on race and public schools: Implications for special education. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 4(6) Retrieved from http://escholarship.bc.edu/education/tecplus/vol4/iss6/art6 In the article, The Seattle Decision on Race and Public Schools” Implications for Special Education by David Barrett and Antonis Katsiyannis the authors give information on why Special Education shouldn’t be used to segregate kids of different races. The purpose of this article was to provide past historical information to support how special education should be implicated.

    Read More

  • Racial Disparities In Schools

    125 Words  | 1 Pages

    Daniel J. Losen wrote a policy brief called “Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice.” This piece is a compilation of reviews conducted by researchers that address racial disparities in schools regarding disciplinary policies. Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, delivered a speech that suggested “that students with disabilities and Black students, especially males, were suspended far more than their White counterparts.” For example, research conducted in 2006 found that “over 28% of Black male middle school students had been suspended at least once, nearly three times the rate for White males.” () Another key point is that law makers and school officials should keep schools safe while using alternative practical methods

    Read More

  • Zero Tolerance Policy

    775 Words  | 4 Pages

    Introduction There is an ongoing abuse of the zero-tolerance policy that continues to affect the lives of minority girls in schools in the public and private school sector. The current literature supports data that show that minorities are severely impacted by the policies. However, there is a gap in the literature that addresses the magnitude of how minority girls are impacted by these policies. Furthermore, due to the zero-tolerance policies, cultural differences are not even considered. Due to a lack of a universally accepted definition of zero tolerance, there are only estimates of the frequency of enforcement (Daly, Hildenbrand, Haney-Caron, Goldstein, Galloway, and DeMatteo, 2016).

    Read More

  • Disparities In High School

    351 Words  | 2 Pages

    The disproportionately low number of black and Latino students – together which account for about 4 percent of the students in a county where they make up 32 percent of the student population-

    Read More

  • Racial Variations In Education

    856 Words  | 4 Pages

    They are in a sense still segregated due to the areas of where they live, the intersectionality and stratification of their parents within America’s society. Students that are minorities face more hurdles and obstacles than a student that is white, living in a predominately white suburban neighborhood and has a higher socioeconomic status. In addition, minority students are clumped together in classes and there is usually less qualified teachers and instructors that can properly teach these students. In some schools, teachers will use the tracking system to track the students’ abilities and place them in certain groups that they believe will benefit the student and the system, however, this can not only help a student but it can also harm them. If the tracking system is not directed properly, it can lead to many students that are minorities and of low income families being put in lower academic groups even when they do not belong within a lower

    Read More

  • Racial And Ethnic Disproportionality In Schools

    276 Words  | 2 Pages

    Youth of color specifically are at an increased risk of being suspended at an extended time out of schools. Consequently, they are casted into the streets, which ultimately sends them into juvenile detentions or into prison. The problem of racial and ethnic disproportionality in the discipline of schools is not new issue. In 1974, in one of the earliest investigations of disciplinary policies and practices, “the Children’s Defense Fund revealed that suspension rates for African American students were between two and three times higher than those for white students”( Thomas Rudd February 05, 2015) Ongoing research are still showing that in many places, this problem have worsened significantly.

    Read More

  • Asian American Education

    993 Words  | 4 Pages

    Next, I attended an inner city Junior High School. I was not zoned there; I was accepted through their gifted program, but this only comprised a small fraction of the school. Coming from a school in a good neighborhood to one that was subpar was a huge leap, I immediately noticed the vast differences in the quality of education. My junior high school was mostly composed of Blacks, Hispanics, and a small percentage of White. In Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds, by Motoko Rich, the statistics show that “43 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of blacks attend schools where fewer than 10 percent of their classmates are white (Motoko, 2012).

    Read More

  • Essay On Achievement Gap

    1087 Words  | 5 Pages

    Asian students perform as well as white students in reading and better than white students in math. Reformers ignore these gains and castigate the public schools for the persistence of the gap. Closing the racial achievement gap has been a major goal of education policy makers for at least the past decade. There has been some progress, but it has been slow and uneven. It isn’t surprising that it’s hard to narrow or close the gap if all groups are improving.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racial Inequality In Education

    733 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, with diversity comes inequalities that people of color face throughout their lives. A particular issue in the United States, specifically in education, is unequal opportunities and treatment in regard to race. Research shows that students from single-parent black families had a high chance of dropping out and participating in illicit behavior (Hallinan 54). While the issue of race is a complicated issue to breach for

    Read More

  • Racism And Classism In Schools

    1327 Words  | 6 Pages

    Racism and classism management in schools today What if you were not offered the same opportunities based merely off of the color of your skin? What if your peers thought lesser of you because of how much your parents made? It may seem like something of the past, but these manifestations of racism and classism continue to lurk among the depths of schools across the globe. These forms of discrimination are still common within school systems, and continue to affect the lives of many students(Expereiences of racism).

    Read More

  • Culturally Responsive Teaching

    1289 Words  | 6 Pages

    As our cultures blend and change, educators must find effective ways to instruct the students of our multicultural society to higher levels of achievement. Minority students of our multiethnic culture often come to school with fewer skills and more risk factors than those of other cultural groups. Although there are no easy answers or quick fixes to ensuring minority students achieve at the same level of other students, it is attainable with the right conditions. Laying all excuses and disparities aside, adolescents of minority groups are capable of achieving high expectations and standards.

    Read More

More about Disproportionality In Special Education

Open Document