Restrictions and Race in Special Education
Placements in For-Profit and Non-Profit Charter Schools in California
Edward Garcia Fierros and Neil A. Blomberg
Charter schools are seen as an attractive enrollment option to parents
with special education students, yet there are concerns over the way special
education is implemented in charter schools and the access they grant
and provide to students with special needs. This study examines the condition
of for-profit and non-profit charter schools in California to better understand
whether a charter school's for-profit or non-profit status can lead to
differential enrollment patterns of students with special education enrollment.
This research analyzes the restrictiveness of minority students with special
needs in both charter and non-charter school settings. It compares minority
students and white students deemed eligible for special education to identify
placement rates in educational settings.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
The Issue of Cultural Reciprocity
Phil Parette
The issue of segregation of students with disabilities across cultural groups is a function of cultural values demonstrated by charter schools and the resulting dissonance between these values and those demonstrated by families. Lack of understanding about school culture and diverse family value systems can lead to varying family responses to the school culture, including assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization. Assuming a posture of cultural reciprocity is suggested as a means for education professionals in charter schools to more efficiently understand families of children with disabilities. This four-step process includes (a) identifying the education professional's interpretation of family and child needs; (b) determining the degree to which the family values these assumptions and how the family's perception may be different; (c) acknowledging and respecting differences identified, and explaining the basis for professional assumptions; and (d) determining how to adapt professional interpretations or recommendations to the family's value system.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
The Failure to Prevent or to Return
Gwendolyn Cartledge
Disproportionality in special education is a widespread problem for racial minorities, particularly for African and Native American students. Furthermore, special education placements for racial minority students tend to be highly restrictive and permanent. School personnel might approach this problem through a focus on prevention. That is, schools need to develop policies, programs, and goals designed to (1) prevent general education at-risk students from developing a disorder, (2) keep diagnosed students from moving to more restrictive environments, and (3) assist placed students to be transitioned into less and less restrictive settings. Interventions that address administrative procedures, educational programs, and teacher competence are needed to achieve these goals and avoid further jeopardizing the schooling of vulnerable students. These factors are discussed within the context of race.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
Socio-cultural and Linguistic Considerations
Sheryl V. Taylor
The relationship between achievement and cultural, ethnic/racial, and linguistic diversity cannot be ignored given that students who struggle to learn are often the ones that are referred to special education even though the failure may not be due to a disability on the part of the student (Presidential Commission on Special Education, 2002). In particular, Fierros and Blomberg's article, "Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education Placements in For-Profit and Non-Profit Charter Schools in California," presents readers with urgent concerns regarding the overrepresentation of minority students in Special Education. After a review of the authors' findings, this commentary presents and overview of considerations relevant to pre-referral interventions grounded in the field of culturally responsive instruction as well as suggestions for the professional development of teachers, both general education teachers and special educators, relevant to addressing the needs of students from diverse ethnic/racial, socio-cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education: The
Content Mastery Center Model
Amelia Jenkins
Certain minority students are over represented in special education programs nationwide. Many of these students identified for special education receive services outside of the general education classroom through the resource room (pull out) model. The Content Mastery Center (CMC) is a resource/consulting model that is an alternative to the traditional "pull-out" approach to educating students with special needs who are struggling in the general education classroom. The CMC can serve as the first level of support for students who are experiencing academic difficulties prior to a referral to special education. Students, such as those who are culturally and linguistically diverse, could be assisted to maintain passing grades in general education through the support provided by the CMC. The CMC program requires high levels of collaboration between the CMC teachers and general educators. Studies on CMC programs report satisfactory student performance in general education classrooms with CMC support both for students with mild disabilities and those "at-risk." More wide-spread replication and additional studies could provide support for this model as an alternative to placement in special education services for minority students.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education: Practicalizing
the Laws
Festus Obiakor, Floyd D. Beachum, Mateba Harris
This article is a response to Fierros and Blomberg's article on "Restrictions
and Race in Special Education Placements in For-Profit and Non-Profit
Charter Schools in California." It compliments these scholars for confirming through their findings that ethnically diverse students with special education needs endure segregationist policies in charter schools. To a large measure, this article calls for vigorous critiques and analyses of reform programs such as charter schools before consumers can jump on the emotional band-wagon. In this era of accountability when no child is supposed to be left behind, society cannot and must not condone presumed innovative programs that disenfranchise those that they are expected to help. In a nut shell, this article's premise is that true quality and equity must go hand-in-glove.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
Access to a Special Education Infrastructure
Courtney Davis
Parents of students with disabilities want the same access to educational opportunities as parents of students without disabilities. This "right" to particular services and learning environments is securely supported by federal regulations and policies in all schools, including charter schools. However, in the work of Fierros and Blomberg (2005, in this issue) "Restrictions
and Race in Special Education Placements in For-Profit and Non-Profit Charter Schools in California," it illuminates the interrelationship of race and placement of minority students with disabilities enrolled in charter schools. In response to the article I share several remarks that charter schools may be in danger of limiting access to minority students with disabilities, including the following, 1) charter schools are in danger of mirroring traditional public schools in California, 2) inequitable recruiting practices may be evident, 3) there is a lack of support for charter schools concerning special education, and 4) dearth of studies concerning students with disabilities in for-profit and non-profit charter schools is clear. Later, I conclude with recommendations to improve disproportionality of students with disabilities enrolled in charter schools.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
Facts that Remain Difficult to Ignore Anymore
Bob Algozzine
Perhaps one of the most long-standing concerns in special education is the over-representation of some groups of children in special education. In this issue, Fierros and Blomberg report that racial/ethnic representation of special education students in charter schools mirrors that in general education populations. These findings are not new and are easily reproducible; the position taken here is that illustrating that over-representation exists, or the extent of it, is misplaced effort. If special education worked, few would be concerned about the distribution (or 'over-distribution') of services; but, special education does not work all that well for many children receiving it; and therefore, research, reassessment, and reform should be redirected to the quality of services students receive not who receives them. This also is not a new idea, but it is among the least long-standing actions taken in special education and the time for change is rapidly approaching a critical edge.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
Educating All Learners
Patrick A. Grant
The education of special needs students continues to show a complete disregard for the lack of appropriate services for minority groups. The over-representation of African American learners in the more restrictive placement continues. The advent of charter schools have not changed this picture, and in some cases the discrimination of minorities in the less restrictive classes are accepted and tolerated by agencies granting the charter for these schools. General and special educators are feeling the pressure to educate all learners in spite of their abilities, disabilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, racial identities, cultural differences, linguistic differences, and national origins. Charter schools effective denial of access to students with disabilities and their limited enrollment of students of color raise serious misgivings about whether a special needs child can and will be served effectively in a charter school should be of great importance to public education.
Restrictiveness and Race in Special Education:
Addressing the Problem We Know Too Well
Edward Garcia Fierros
In addressing the problem of disproportionate placement of minority students with special education in charter schools, Fierros describes the commentaries of this issue's contributing scholars. The contributions expose a variety of topics to address the needs of inequities experienced by students with special needs. These topics include: the development of appropriate and preventive intervention programs for students experiencing learning or behavioral difficulties; the creation of formative and summative assessment instruments and programs that consider students' racial and ethnic backgrounds; the improvement of teach education programs to include culturally responsive training; and the development of collaborative approaches to addressing the needs of all students. The author identifies the themes of accountability, assessment, collaboration, and cultural responsive practice as necessary to change the longstanding inequity that has existed for minority students with special needs in public schools and that now exists in charter schools.
