Archives: Minorities

The claim

Students living in poverty are more likely to be identified as candidates for special education services.

The facts

The link between poverty and special education is related to last week’s topic, the over-representation of minorities in special education. As I wrote in that blog post, many researchers have found that minorities are over-represented in special education classes. Most of those researchers believe that poverty is a major factor in minority students’ academic troubles. Coping with a disability is stressful for all children and families, but it is even more stressful when the family is living in poverty. Research shows a connection between poverty and disability rate, as children and adults in poverty are more likely to have higher rates of disabilities, and people with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty.

Based on his work at the National Center for Children in Poverty, Lawrence Aber reported that nearly 40% of children living in the United States often live a paycheck away from the poverty line. Although Aber found that poverty affects children from all races and ethnicities, the poverty rate among African Americans and Hispanics is three times as high as the poverty rate among whites. Persons living in urban and rural areas are more likely to live in poverty, but rates in suburban communities are rising as well. Aber also points out that even if you include all demographic data (race, ethnicity, gender, community classification) the U.S. would still have the highest poverty rate of any industrialized nation in the world.

Research shows that disability rates are rising among children living in poverty, while rates for children above the poverty line have remained steady. Many factors shape a child’s learning and development and can be categorized into social and biological factors. According to the research, living in poverty increases the exposure to these risk factors that compromise human development and often increase the need for special education services.

Biological factors are factors that are associated with the nature of human beings and their biological makeup. Some of the biological factors that are cause for concern in children living in poverty include lead and other toxin exposure, prenatal exposure to alcohol/drugs, and malnourishment. Most research has focused more on the more factors that can influence child development, especially for children living in poverty. For example, most children who live below the poverty line experience factors such as parental stress and poor child care settings early on in life. Limited access to books, poor quality childcare, and less interaction time between children and their primary caregivers are also contributors. These factors have a tremendous impact on children’s school readiness and achievement.

According to the National Research Council, the most influential factor of successful child development is the relationships developed between the child and their primary caregiver. These relationships are often — though not always — strained when the family is living in poverty. Research shows that families living in poverty tend to engage in less verbal discussion, which can limit a child’s vocabulary development. The amount of literacy tasks or exposure to books also tends be lower in these situations. Additionally, disciplinary principles and influential parenting approaches also tend to be lower among families living in poverty. According to studies, poor students are typically more likely to drop out of school or be suspended or expelled from school. School districts with high rates of suspensions and expulsions tend to have higher special education referral rates.

Conclusion

According to the available research, this claim can be considered to be fact: Families living in poverty are more often exposed to the biological and social risk factors that influence special education services. This correlation suggests a need for more attention from our educational system and for additional research in this field. Until it is recognized that poverty is playing a big role in the underachievement of America’s youth, improvements will not be made.

Surprisingly, the National Center for Children in Poverty found that the majority of people they surveyed did not believe that poverty was the major issue facing America’s children today. It is unacceptable for the educational system not to serve these children as well as it serves the middle or upper class. Children living in poverty have the same capacity to learn as their better-off peers; the difference is in their access to the proper care and resources. More attention to providing these resources can reduce the alarming rate of special education services reported for children living in poverty.

In our last blog post, we addressed issues surrounding the over-representation of minorities in special education classrooms. In our continuation of this discussion, we will consider some of the root causes for this over-representation, discuss possible preventative measures, and analyze some statistics behind referral of students into special education classrooms. By providing a basic understanding of factors that contribute to disabilities, as well as the ways in which schools can proactively eliminate the need for special ed services for some students, we can shed some light on the demographic data that exists across disability categories.

Root causes

Research into the causes for various disabilities points to four major factors: biological factors, ecological factors, educational opportunities, and poverty. Let’s look at them one by one:

Biological factors

Many disabilities can be linked to biological factors. Chromosomal abnormalities that arise during the development of an egg or sperm cell can result in Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and other physical disabilities. Heredity can play a role in other disabilities, such as learning disabilities.

Ecological factors

Exposure to hazardous waste or other environmental toxins pose another threat that can result in the presentation of some disabilities. For example, some intellectual and learning disabilities have been linked to exposure to lead found in pipes and paint.

Educational opportunities

Disparity between students can sometimes be explained by a difference in educational opportunities. Research conducted by Russell Skiba in 2008 linked poor educational achievement of minorities to inadequate classroom instruction, lack of access to highly qualified teachers, and fewer resources.

Poverty

Not surprisingly, the one factor that links all three of the aforementioned factors together is poverty. Educational demographer Harold Hodgkinson cites poverty as the most handicapping condition affecting America’s youth, regardless of race or ethnicity. In 2002, the US Department of Education found that twice as many African American and Hispanic children as white children came from families living below the poverty line. Although there is no real way to link poverty to academic difficulties in children, researchers such as Harry and Klingner and Russell Skiba found that teachers’ perceptions of children who live in poverty is strongly related to lower academic expectations.

Prevention

Research points to a variety of factors that are effective at preventing the prevalence of disabilities in children. These include greater access to health care, improved home environments, and access to quality pre-school programs.

The benefits of pre-school experiences

The last of these factors, a focus on early intervention, is a critical consideration, and the one over which educators have the most control. Many students with disabilities have had limited access to quality educational experiences before first grade, and many have not participated in any kind of school experience before entering kindergarten. Without these pre-school experiences, students enter school with inadequate readiness skills, background experiences, and social experiences, all of which can lead to academic and behavioral difficulties. The National Reading Panel has also stressed the importance of pre-school experiences on children’s reading development. This lack of experience often leads to a higher prevalence of learning difficulties, especially reading disabilities such as dyslexia.

The role of expectations

Students who experience learning and behavior problems often have problems with academic engagement, which results in increases in school dropout. African American and Hispanic students who struggle in school are twice as more likely to drop out of school than white students. The National Center of Educational Statistics released a report in 2007 that revealed some valuable insights into why these students drop out of school. First, schools attended by low-income minorities are often inadequate and provide a less engaging environment in which to learn. Secondly, teachers’ expectations of these students are often lower than for their peers. When students sense this disparity, they often disconnect themselves from the schooling experience. To counter these effects, schools should work to provide higher expectations of academic achievement, provide more intensive instruction, and make instruction more engaging and culturally relevant for them.

A look at the statistics

Now that we have looked at some of the contributing factors leading to the prevalence of certain disability categories, it may be helpful to understand some of the relevant statistics. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that of the 48.6 million students enrolled in public schools during 2005, a little more than half are white, about 20% are Hispanic or Latino, and 17% are African American.

These types of statistical data are available for North Carolina as well. Each year, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) analyzes the risk level of certain races for over-representation based on disability category. Using this information, NCDPI creates a document called the Disporportionality Report. The report examines the representation of a particular racial/ethnic group of children receiving special education services based on over- or under-representation in the general school population. It also examines the status of a particular racial/ethnic group of children being identified in specific disability categories.

According to NCDPI, students in a particular group who are represented at a higher percentage than other students in racial/ethnic groups when compared to their representation in the general school population are of major concern. Based on North Carolina’s criteria for significant over-representation, there are two disability categories where students of a particular racial/ethnic group are of major concern. Those disability categories are Educable Mental Disabilities (EMD) and Behavioral-Emotional Disabilities (BED).

The table provided below presents data calculated for the 2005-2006 school year for North Carolina Public Schools. Based on the data collected from school districts across North Carolina, we have selected some surrounding school districts that represent urban, suburban, and rural school settings. The number of students receiving special education services across all disability categories is presented in this table. As you can see, in primarily urban settings, the number of African American students receiving special education services far outnumbers the number of white and Hispanic students receiving those services. However, in primarily rural settings, white students outnumber both African American and Hispanic students in receiving special education services. Could it be that percentages of students receiving special education services is directly related to demographic representation within particular communities?

Conclusion

The representation of minorities in special education populations is an issue that sparks a great deal of debate in educational communities. Many researchers argue that minorities are over-represented in special education while many other researchers argue the opposite. The answer to this issue is still unclear, even in light of the available statistics. While the data for some local counties suggests an over-representation of minorities in special ed, the data for other counties refutes the idea.

This argument is also made more complex when the percentages of different types of disabilities are evaluated. Different types of disabilities produce different percentages that can either support or refute the claim of minority over-representation. It is clear that additional analysis is needed in order to find growing trends in referral rates in the special education population. As a result, it is important for educators and practitioners to consider the wide array of available information when forming an opinion on this issue.

The claim

Certain ethnic groups are disproportionally represented in special education classrooms.

The facts

One of the hottest topics in education today is the ever-changing demographics of the American classroom — the result of immigration. A look at the national data often sparks debate about what the referral rate “should be” for students recommended for special education classrooms, particularly in terms of race and ethnicity. When discussing minority representation (or over-representation) in special education classrooms, it is important to take some important details into consideration.

First, the declaration of ethnic categories is difficult, considering there are only five that are used to describe dimensions of race and ethnicity: African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, and Caucasian. Many individuals do not fit into one category or another, so identification is often difficult. Another consideration is more complicated: School districts are often considered rural, urban, or suburban. There are many studies that have demonstrated that the more urban the school district, the fewer minority students are placed in special education classrooms. Still other studies have found that school districts with high minority populations, regardless of their geographic or economic status, place fewer students in special education classrooms.

Finally, socio-economic status has become one of the more reliable predictors of referral — or risk for referral — for special education services. Students who come from low-income families often suffer from nutritional deficiencies and lack of school readiness when compared with their economically advantaged counterparts. Poverty has become the one factor that affects all races and ethnicities within the United States.

To further complicate matters, there are two ways in which over-representation of minority students are reported. One method is to use a composition index in which a specific group’s percentage in special education classrooms is compared to its percentage within the general school population. For example: suppose there are 20 students in a special education classroom: 4 are Hispanic (20% of the class), 8 are African American (AA) (40%) , and 9 are white (45%). Within the whole school population, there are 25 Hispanic kids, 75 AA, and 100 white. If you look at the percentage of the whole school population, let’s see which group is over-represented within the special education class. 5 out of 25 Hispanic kids from the entire school population makes 16%, which is less than the 20% within the special ed classroom, so this is not over-representation. 8 out of 75 AA students represents about 11% of the total population of AA students in the school, so that indicates a case of over-representation of AA students within the special ed classroom. With 9 out of 100, or 9% of the white student population being in special education, but representing 45% of the special education class, it would indicate that white students are also over-represented within this class.

The second method of determining over-representation of minorities in special education classrooms is to calculate a group’s representation compared to that of other groups. This method, sometimes referred to as the risk index, uses percentages of students by race or ethnicity across disability categories to determine the likelihood of a student’s being referred for special education services, given the student’s race or ethnicity.

So why are problems with over-representation of minorities such a concern? Many claim that some students from specific ethnic groups are placed in special education classrooms based purely on the color of their skin and not because they actually demonstrate characteristics of a disability. There are several repercussions if this occurs.

First, the student will have been wrongly removed from access to the general education curriculum, which can lead to reduced educational opportunities and services. Second, a student incorrectly identified with a disability may receive inappropriate and unnecessary behavioral or instructional services, which could be provided to a student who could better benefit from the services offered in a special education classroom. Third, being placed in a special education classroom often comes with a social stigma that can greatly affect a student’s self esteem and motivation. Finally, it is often thought that special education services are pushed even when parents do not want the services provided. Many parents from diverse backgrounds do not seek out such interference from schools and instead have services imposed on them with very little input.

Conclusion

This week’s topic is certainly debatable and has no easy answer. To address this issue, more specific information should be presented and discussed. Issues concerning cause, prevalence, and prevention should be presented before a final conclusion can be made. In next week’s blog, we will present national statistics on the representation of different minority groups across several disability categories using the two indices described above. We will also discuss ways in which issues of over-representation can be prevented.