Introduction
The amendments made to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act led to the emergence of a new crisis in most American schools. Currently, most American schools suffer from an unbalanced representation of learners from linguistically and racially different settings in special education programs.
Overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education is a major challenge affecting the majority of schools. By 1968, over 80 per cent of students in special education came from minority groups (Samson & Lesaux, 2009). Moreover, in California, Mexican Americans and African Americans had higher chances of suffering from mental problems relative to the whites.
It has been hard to address these challenges through the established laws. One of the factors that have made it hard for the Americans to address these challenges is a failure by policymakers to put into consideration the ever-changing miscellany in American classrooms, as they come up with new education policies (Samson & Lesaux, 2009).
In looking at the issue of overrepresentation, and when coming up with new reforms in the school system, policymakers have not paid adequate attention to the English language learners and the minorities. This paper will focus on the level of overrepresentation of the minority and English language learners in special education. It will also identify some of the factors that contribute to the overrepresentation and how to mitigate them.
Nature of the problem
The principal supposition of overrepresentation among the minority and English language learners is that when represented correctly, the ratio of the minority or English language learners in any program ought to be equal to their ratio in the broad school population.
Different studies have shown that “the ratio of the minority and English language learners serving in special education has changed over the last few decades” (Skiba, et al., 2011, p.266).
The African-American children have higher chances of being deemed as suffering from mental retardation relative to the White children, which has contributed to the increase in the overrepresentation of minorities in special education, as more students from the minority groups are sent to schools offering special education.
In the United States, special education seems to be set aside for minorities and English language learners. Most of the public schools offering special education record high numbers of minorities and English language learners (Skiba, et al., 2011). This trend has not changed since the establishment of the special education program.
In Arizona, Hispanic students attending schools dominated by the White students have higher chances of being placed under the special education programs relative to their White counterparts. Most of the Hispanic students are enrolled into special education programs while they do not deserve to be in such programs.
In a bid to identify students who should enroll in special programs, the Americans use an approach of disability, which identifies the challenges or “disease” in the students and then tries to address the challenges through a sequence of remedies or “treatments” (Skiba, et al., 2011).
Nonetheless, teachers assess students’ abilities based on other aspects and not on their capabilities. The factors used to assess students when placing them under the special education include culture, language, race, economic status, and sex (Skiba, et al., 2011).
The absence of competent personnel and apposite assessment criteria in the assessment of minorities and English language learners contribute to the current level of overrepresentation of these students in special education. The biasness in the assessment process forces most of minorities and English language learners to enroll in special education while they have the capacity to enroll in other programs.
Demographic changes
With time, the United States has encountered drastic changes in demographic patterns due to immigration and changes in birth rate. By 2000, more than 281 million people resided in the United States. Over 40 per cent of this population comprised people from the minority groups.
Continued immigration and increase in birth rates have led to increase in the number of people of color and minority groups in the United States (Bollmer, et al., 2007). Majority of the minority groups report higher birth rates relative to the Whites. These changes in the American demography are being reflected in the American schools.
In 2005, almost 40 per cent of the students in public schools hailed from families with diverse racial and linguistic backgrounds. About 10 million of the students came from non-English speaking families.
The number of people speaking the minority languages is growing at an alarming rate relative to that of the English-speaking people. Hence, with time, the number of students from the minorities and English language learners is expected to go higher in most of the major United States’ cities.
Accounting for overrepresentation
The available data on “the level of overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education shows that this problem still exists despite its identification many decades ago” (Skiba, et al., 2011, p.266).
The current data is drawn from nation, state, and district level, thus showing many disparities in the different geographical regions. The factors identified to account for the overrepresentation include poor performance among the minorities and English language learners, inappropriate identification, poverty, and language proficiency.
Poor performance
One of the factors that contribute to the current overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education is poor performance. According to Townsend (2008), students from the minority groups tend to incorporate their racial challenges into the academic feat. Townsend (2008) notes, “Students from the minority groups adopt racial identities in opposition to school expectations and codes” (p.227).
This habit makes it hard for students to perform well in class thus appearing to suffer from certain disabilities. Most of minorities and English language learners are academically endowed.
Nevertheless, their attitude towards academics pushes them to perform poorly. In return, most of them are sent to schools offering special education in the name of helping them improve the academic capabilities, thus their overrepresentation in these schools.
Some of those engaged in the assessment process claim that if English language learners are not doing well in general education programs, there is no problem in recommending them to enroll in special education. They claim that it is only in special education programs that such students can have a chance to get individualized services, thus helping them to enhance their learning capabilities (Rueda & Windmueller, 2007).
Nevertheless, a majority of students enrolling in special education still do not perform admirably. A study conducted on the Spanish-speaking students proved that even after the students from the Spanish background enrolled in special education for three years, it did not help in enhancing their learning abilities (Artiles, et al., 2010).
Instead, most of these students ended up performing poorly relative to how they performed in their previous placements. This aspect shows that placing the minorities and English language learners under special programs does not significantly help in improving their learning ability.
The reasons behind this aspect include poor assessment methods used in identifying the students to place under special programs and lack of competent personnel to carry out the assessment process.
Inappropriate identification
Another factor that has contributed to overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education is the absence of appropriate methods for identifying students that deserve special treatment.
In spite of numerous schools recording an increase in the number of students from the different ethnic backgrounds, most of these students hardly get a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) as stipulated in the provisions of the Individuals with Disability Education Act (Artiles, et al., 2010).
English language learners and minorities with disabilities who live in areas locked under poverty and in towns are prone to the risk of performing poorly in education since they receive biased identification and placement services.
In spite of the American student body becoming increasingly diverse, children from the minority groups as well as English language learners still fall in the category of those suffering from mental retardation and other disabilities. Hence, most of these children enroll in special education leading to an increase in their number.
Language proficiency
Schools in the United States have the duty of ensuring that every child has a good command of the English language in a bid to perform effectively in classes that offer all the subjects in English. Nonetheless, the law does protect the minority groups as well as it does protect English language learners from discrimination by schools for not having a command of the English language.
Schools are required to offer curriculums that would help English language learners to understand the language. Therefore, to ensure that all students fit in the American curriculum, it is imperative to evaluate them based on their English proficiency. Besides, some states recommend schools to assess if the students understand their native languages.
Some children from the minorities and English language learners understand neither English nor their native language. Mahoney and MacSwan (2009) realized that at least 13 states in the United States called for their schools to ensure that English language learners knew their native language prior to their admission into the schools.
The reason behind this evaluation is the belief that minorities and English language learners have poor language proficiency, which contributes to their poor performance in schools.
This thorough scrutiny on language proficiency prior to enrollment leads to overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education. The fact that students from the two categories are poor in either English or their native language makes it hard for them to pass the language proficiency test (Zhang & Katsiyannis, 2007). It is hard for children with poor command of English to enroll in the general classes.
The classes conduct their lessons in English. By recommending English language learners and minorities with poor language proficiency to enroll in special education, the schools believe that these students can best work on their language proficiency only in special education programs.
The student: teacher ratio in special education programs gives room for individualized services. Hence, teachers are capable of having close interaction with individual students thus helping them to improve their language proficiency.
The majority of the minority groups have difficulties with the English language, which leads to their classification as English language learners. Moreover, most of students from the minority groups have challenges with their native language. The minority groups are made of the immigrants. Hence, most of the students were born after their parents migrated to the United States (Rueda & Windmueller, 2007).
This scenario leaves them at a position where they are incapable of learning their native language. The American education policies subject individuals with challenges in both the native language and English to placement under the special education, and thus a high number of minorities and English language learners end up in special education thus adding to their overrepresentation.
The reason behind placing these groups under the special education is to ensure that they receive adequate attention and support from the teachers.
Poverty
Poverty significantly contributes to the current rate of overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education. A study on poverty analysis indicates that it leads “to different representation trends for the various disabilities” (Skiba, et al., 2011, p.266).
Increase in poverty level among the minority groups forces their children to suffer from gentle mental retardation, and the opposite happens to children with severe emotional complications. A study on the wealthy minorities proved that they are capable of tolerating emotional challenges, which is an indication that poverty contributes to the inability to use other preventative measures (Orosco & Klingner, 2010).
It becomes hard for families from the minority groups to apply pre and post-natal nutrition measures in addressing some of the disabilities facing their children. Eventually, their children end up exhibiting some challenges like low intelligence quotient and thus they are recommended to enroll in special education.
Overrepresentation in various American states
The number of the minority and English language learner students who enroll for special programs differs across the United States. For instance, in Texas, some districts have higher rates of English language learners enrolling for special education than others.
According to the current trend, accessibility of language support programs and high population among the English language learners contribute to the current level of overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners students in special education.
In a bid to understand the level of representation of English language learners in special education in Texas, Linn et al. (2008) carried out a study among the Latinos in the state. From the study, they realized that there was a high level of overrepresentation of the English language learners from the Latino group in most of the districts.
Most of the schools that reported overrepresentation came from Education Service Centre (ESC) regions. In 2009, overrepresentation in special education data at the state level showed that the comparative risk ratio stood at 0.9 (Linn, 2011).
A study conducted by Artiles et al. (2007) on South California schools proved that the number of English language learners was high both at the state and district levels. Inadequate aptitude in either English or the indigenous language and grade level is one of the factors that contribute to overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in South California schools.
Valenzuela et al. (2009) posit, “English language learners in secondary schools, as well as those with inadequate aptitude in the first and second language, are the most overrepresented in programs for students with mental retardation, learning disabilities, and language and speech impairments” (p.434).
Teachers in secondary schools offer limited language support to English language learners compared to teachers in the elementary schools.
Artiles et al. (2007) also learnt that English language learners were in higher chances of being categorized in the high incidence disability groups relative to the English speakers. The inclination to categorizing the English language learners under this group contributes to their overrepresentation in special education.
Sullivan (2011) carried out a study on public schools in Arizona, where she learnt that the trend of overrepresentation of the minority and English language learners is still high among the students in this state. Using comparative risk ratios, Sullivan (2011) noted that the state level involvement of minorities and English language learners in special education progressively went up from 0.77 to 1.19 between 1999 and 2006.
In addition, she found that there was also overrepresentation of these groups at the district level. According to Sullivan (2011), the proportion of districts that recorded overrepresentation of minorities and the English language learners in special education went up from 32 per cent to 42 per cent between 1999 and 2006.
Addressing overrepresentation
Overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education is challenging since it has negative effects on students even with no signs of disabilities. At times, schools refer students to special education out of mere speculation that they might perform poorly or their chances of social, economic, and academic advancements are minimal.
Rather than referring the minorities and English language learners to special education, the American government ought to establish a school environment that helps the minorities and English language learners to deal with their challenges at an advanced stage, and thus help them realize academic success (Linn & Hemmer, 2011).
Moreover, schools ought to come up with proper assessment criteria to ensure that they do not discriminate against students from the minority groups.
Conclusion
Amendments made to the Individual with Disability Education Act led to the problem of overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special Education. In the United States, most of minorities and non-English speakers enroll for special education programs.
Numerous factors contribute to the enrollment of these people in special education programs, which include poor performance, language proficiency, inappropriate identification strategies, and poverty.
Students from minority groups and English language learners exhibit poor academic performance, which convinces policymakers to view them as academically challenged individuals, thus recommending them to enroll for special education programs. Moreover, the American schools demand that all children should pass the language proficiency test. Children from the minority groups are not proficient in English.
Today, “minorities and English language learners are overrepresented in special education at the national, state, and district level” (Sullivan, 2011, p.324). In Texas, schools close to the Education Service Centers report a high level of overrepresentation of the Latino people in special education.
In California, inadequate aptitude in English and native language contributes to overrepresentation of minorities and English language learners in special education. In Arizona, more students from the minority groups and non-English speakers continue to enroll in special education thus adding to an already overrepresented population.
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