Presentaton to the American Speech Hearing Language Ass.ppt

Presentation to the  American Speech Hearing Language Association November 13, 2003 Preventing Overrepresentation of Culturally/Linguistically Diverse Students
Harry N. Seymour & Thomas Roeper
University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA
Jill & Peter de Villiers
Smith College, Northampton, MA

Research supported by NIH contract N01-DC-8-2104
*webpage:
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Prior to Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975)
About half of children with disabilities (2 million) were not receiving a public education
With Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1997)
About 6 million children with disabilities are now in public education
Graduation rates have increased dramatically
Students who go on to college has almost tripled since 1978.
The benefits of IDEA have not been equitably distributed
Minority children with disabilities, particularly African American, experience:
less adequate services
low-quality curriculum and instruction, and
segregation from non-disabled peers.
disproportional representation in Special Ed
All is not equal
African American Disproportionality
Over-representation
% of general population
% of special education
African American children are the most overrepresented in every special ed category and in nearly every state (Parish, 2002)
Under-representation
Obvious but numbers are unclear
The Educational Dilemma
General education impacts special education
Overrepresentation in special education often mirrors overrepresentation in many undesirable categories--- dropping out, low-track placements, suspensions, and involvement with juvenile justice.
African American children are under-represented in desirable categories---such as gifted and talented.
(Office of Civil Rights 1998)
Consequences of Overrepresentation
Students are mislabeled
Students fail to receive services
Scarce resources are mis-directed
For some, receiving inappropriate services may be more harmful than recei