Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) is a historic thread in the fabric of American education, the single most significant court decision impacting U.S. educational history. Today, many parents and children of color still wait for what the Brown plaintiffs argued for -- access to the highest quality education possible.
Not long after the courts ordered and began enforcing the mandate that schools desegregate, the methodical tracking of African-American students into remedial and special education programs began. In the decades following Brown, disproportionate numbers of African-American students were labeled as mildly mentally retarded (MMR) and were subsequently placed in classrooms segregated from their mainstream peers. At the time of the Larry P. v. Riles case (1979), which contested the use of intelligence tests as the sole criterion for determining special education eligibility in a California school district, substantial evidence suggested overrepresentation of minorities in MMR programs. At that time, rates for African-American children noticeably exceeded the rates that would be expected given their proportion in the general school-age population. Even though they constituted 66 percent of the students in MMR classes, only 29 percent of the school-age population in the district was African-American.
Demographic trends from decades ago still hold today. National patterns have been consistently demonstrated to be robust over time, with minority overrepresentation having been documented every other year to date since 1968. Currently, African-American students are almost three times as likely as European-American students to be labeled as having mental retardation, twice as likely to be labeled as having emotional disturbance, 1.3 times as likely to be labeled as having a learning disability, and are conversely underrepresented in programs for the gifted and talented (Donovan & Cross, Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education, 2002). Moreover, once identified, these students have a greater likelihood of placement in a more restrictive setting (e.g., separate class, separate school and residential facilities), with schools providing access to inclusive educational settings to only 37 percent of blacks, as compared to 43 percent of Hispanics and 55 percent of whites (Fierros & Conroy, Racial Inequity in Special Education, 2002).
In the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), today's educational context is one driven by high-stakes assessment and accountability, with statewide testing being utilized to determine teacher and school effectiveness. Teachers are therefore under pressure and report feeling unqualified to address the multiple challenges -- cultural, academic and behavioral -- they face day in and day out. When confronted with students perceived as difficult-to-teach, teachers seek the assistance of child study teams at their schools. This request for assistance is often interpreted as "special education referral" and students -- particularly African-Americans -- are set squarely on the path to special education assessment, diagnosis and placement, with a minimal likelihood of return to the general education setting. This outcome is disconcerting because placement in special education has been associated with lower levels of achievement, decreased likelihood of post-secondary education and more limited employment.
The research results over the last four decades suggest vehemently that we need to be doing something diametrically different in the way we prepare tomorrow's teachers to deal with diversity. In order to truly learn and benefit from the Brown legacy, we must examine who is served by our current schooling policies, and consider how these can result in the exclusion and disempowerment of specific groups. At the same time, we must continue to search for constructive strategies to make our teaching more culturally responsive, while demonstrating high expectations for all students.
To document that students of particular racial and ethnic backgrounds are overrepresented in special education does not deny the fact that some of these students legitimately contend with serious learning and emotional disabilities, and special education may indeed assist many of them in accessing needed instructional and behavioral supports. However, the disproportionate numbers of diverse students placed and retained in special education implies that too many of the difficulties experienced by these children are considered intrinsic deficits best managed through special education. It is crucial that schools therefore begin to recognize, investigate and evaluate how they, in their special education decision-making, may reproduce educational inequalities (via inappropriate and restrictive special education placements) for lower-class and minority students. School personnel have been traditionally commended for student success and blamed for student failure. However, the provision of quality education and access to it constitute the shared responsibility of all.
Juliet Hart's primary research interests include multicultural issues in special education and child psychopathology.
