For the past 30 years, surveys by the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights have found that minority students are overrepresented in the public school special education population. Responding to these findings and to concerns voiced by local community leaders, The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University published Racial Inequity in Public Education, edited by Daniel J. Losen and Gary Orfield.
The report contains 11 chapters contributed by scholars who explore the extent of racial disparities in special education placement, unequal treatment of students who have been assigned to special education, possible causes of these inequities, and recommendations for changes in the education system to address the problems.
Unequal Identification and Treatment
Data from the U.S. Department of Education and state education departments show clear patterns of overrepresentation of minority children in special education nationwide. These patterns vary dramatically by state, disability category, and race. In most states, African American students are between one-and-one-half and four times as likely as white students to be identified as mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed. Native American students also tend to be overrepresented in cognitive disability categories. Asian American students tend to be underrepresented throughout the United States; Latino students are overrepresented in some districts and underrepresented in others.
In addition, after schools place students in special education, they tend to provide different services depending on the students' race. Federal law specifies that schools should strive for inclusion, providing services to special education students in the least restrictive environment possible. But minority special education students are significantly less likely to reap the benefits of inclusion. For instance, African American and Latino students are about twice as likely as white students to be educated in a restrictive, substantially separate education setting.
Causes of Inequities
Inequities in special education have many roots that are intertwined with inequities in the education system and society as a whole, the editors assert. Although poverty accounts for some of the racial disparities in special education placement, the high variation in identification rates among minority groups with similar poverty levels suggests that bias also plays a role.
Possible reasons for racial disparities include low expectations, cultural insensitivity, and misunderstanding of African American males. In addition, the poorly trained teachers who are dis-proportionately employed in high-minority schools may be less able to handle students with behavior problems in the classroom and may use special education as a disciplinary tool.
Decisions about placement in special education are inevitably subjective, the report points out. These decisions can be affected by such factors as school politics, power relationships between school authorities and parents, and the quality of regular education.
Complex Solutions
Losen and Orfield stress the tremendous benefits that today's special education system provides for students with disabilities, guaranteeing their right to a free and appropriate public education and dramatically increasing their chances of graduating from high school and going on to college. The inequities described in the report, they warn, are no excuse for the U.S. Congress to question the overall worth of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or to withhold needed funding for special education programs.
Instead, schools, legislators, and enforcement agents should explore ways to improve opportunities for minority students in general, considering special education as part of the whole education system. Most important, educators should view each student not as a special education category but as an individual:Scholars report that many schools today still operate under a deficit model, where school authorities regard students with disabilities as the embodiments of their particular disability and ask only what the special educators are required to do in order to accommodate the student's problem. A universal commitment to equity in special education would help erode this deficit model by shifting the focus to what all public educators should do to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for all children. [italics in original] (pp. xxvii–xxix)
Racial Inequity in Special Education. Published by Harvard Education Press, 8 Story St., 5th Fl., Cambridge, MA 02138; (800) 513-0763. Price: $28.95 paperback.
—Reviewed by Deborah Perkins-Gough Senior Associate Editor Educational Leadership
