Snowy Day Jig Saw

My Snowy Day Reading:

In the Shadow of Brown: Special Education and Overrepresentation of Students of Color

By Beth Ferri & David Connor

This article published in 2005 discussed the 2004 50 year Anniversary of the Brown vs the Board of Education Decision to desegregate schools in 1954 ... 

 as well as discussing the 30th Anniversary of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act)

To me the article focused more on:

 Despite the fact that segregation in public school ceased - society at that time reflected these images:

and...

Let's also remember White Privilege which is reflected here...

 and...

To summarize for you who have not read this article, my perception is reflected in the pictures above and below .

Clearly the culture of the time 1954 thru the 1970's was much different than it is today.  

Back then, the teachers grew up in a society where segregation was the way of life and as a result it was very clear that being White was Privilege.  Not being white was very clearly NOT Privilege.  Then came the order to DEsegregate in schools.  This was NOT the known culture.

This article directly looks at feedback from the "Brown" decision in 1954. It follows up on the progress of desegregation in schools reporting through the 1970's. The following are direct quotes from the article to report on how 'desegregation' was working in recent years following 1954's decision:

• unfair educational practices including teacher bias
• overrepresentation of white teachers to student population.  90% teachers white 40% students not white
• similar disproportionate representations licensed to administer assessments
• Special Education has paradoxically participated in maintaining rather than minimizing obvious inequities.
• Black students remain 3 x's as likely to be labeled as having MR as White Students.
• Black students are almost 2 x’s as likely to be labeled as having emotional disturbance
• Disability assignment of students of color are also the most subjective - labels most reliant on clinical judgment are all the labels that are overly ascribed to students from racial and linguistic minority backgrounds
• Black students who attend school in wealthier communities are more likely to be labeled as having MR and assigned to segregated classes than those attending predominantly Black, low-income schools.
• not confined to African American students but Native American and Hispanic Students also fall into this category
• ELL & bilingual Students in elementary schools are likely to be disproportionately placed in special ed in the upper grades
• Asian American students less likely to be overrepresented in Special Ed
• White boys with similar scores as not white boys on IQ were more likely to be labeled as LD NOT MR
• inappropriate classification of racial, ethnic & linguistic minorities for special ed leads to lowered achievement and poor post school outcomes
• Black boys more likely to be identified than black girls yet they come from same socio-economic community
• Although teachers were not willing to attribute differences to race, they had no problem pathologizing students’ cultural or familial backgrounds.
• Learning from Brown we must consider how many of our current educational practices serve as tools of social control and exclusion and not, as we might prefer to think, as democratic tools of social transformation.
• We hope that by attending tour failures and our complicities, we can, from the shadow of Brown, create a different and more inclusive future.

To me, it makes sense, as a society that teacher bias would play a prominent role in what was reported in this article.  These teachers grew up in a segregated society in which they were bred to believe exactly what this article finds.  The reason for segregation was partly due to the fact that White's were obviously (at the time) the dominant race; any other race was inferior.  Differently, today (as I speak for myself and those who surrounded me), we teachers grew up in a different society, one where there was integration; not segregation. I now know to use the term loosely as my knew knowledge has made me aware of the continuation of White Privilege, on a less obvious level to a White Person like me, as I was growing up in the 1970's to now.   My first awareness of White Privilege occurred last semester in College as a Graduate Student.  I guarantee you my Colleagues who have NOT attended College within the past five to ten years also do NOT know of White Privilege.  

I believe with the perseverance of the knowledge we bring to the table today, included in the movement of change will be the migration our educational system to one that practices what is best for all students, period.

Societal Norms change based on the voice and the diversity of our youth.  Negative residuals from generations past do exist and will always exist.  From what I see and continue to hope for is that change is always in motion.  

With awareness of past societal norms on the horizon, positive movements persevere for the betterment of the Society of our future as we diminish the inequalities of yesterday.