Stand and Deliver: Multiculturalism and Special Education Reform In the Early Twenty-first Century
Theda Wiles Zawaiza, Ph.D.
*Former Senior Legislative Analyst
Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights
U.S. House of Representatives
Abstract
This paper presents a brief update on activities of the Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights; and a discussion of issues related to multiculturalism, special education, and school reform. The author discusses the goals, advantages, and problems of various types of legislation including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The paper also highlights a number of inequalities in the schools, the importance of special education research findings for minority students, and failures of educational reform as it relates to upgrading the curriculum and student performance.
Good Morning and welcome to Washington, D.C. I am pleased and honored to be here today. It is good to see some familiar faces from the past and I am sure you will all have a productive experience at this gathering. I thank you for inviting me to speak and hope that what I have to say will be useful to you. Let me first thank Dr. Walker for inviting me to participate in this conference and commend the Research and Training Center which, under her guidance, has developed some very promising strategies with respect to youth and adult transitions and parent empowerment. I have been asked to bring the "View from the Hill" on issues of interest to the disability community, so I will begin with a brief update on the activities of the Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights and then address some issues related to multiculturalism, special education, and school reform.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will be reauthorized next year. During the Fall of this year, we will solicit comments and plan hearings and possible forums to be held during the Winter and Spring months. The Rehabilitation Act was amended last year and the Department of Education is currently promulgating regulations pursuant to those amendments and has already requested public comments on sections dealing with
*Currently, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, U.S. Department of Education protection and advocacy of individual rights, choice of rehabilitation providers, standards and performance indicators to measure the performance of each state's program, and others. Technical amendments to the Rehabilitation Act and the Education of the Deaf Act were passed by both House and Senate during the first week of August.
The Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act was passed by both the Senate and the House on August second and third, respectively. This Bill authorizes financial assistance to the states to develop and implement a consumer- responsive and consumer-driven comprehensive statewide program of technology-related assistance for individuals of all ages with disabilities. This program is designed to create systematic change and foster advocacy. A Bill to reauthorize the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (H.R ＞ 856) was passed by the House on August second. With the expanded jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights, we are now planning a series of oversight hearings on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a full committee mark-up of the age discrimination in employment amendments in late September.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
As you know, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the primary source of federal aid to state and local school systems for instructional support services to children with disabilities. Sections 611-618 of P.L. 94-142 as amended, constitute the central vehicle through which the federal government maintains a partnership with the states and localities to provide an appropriate education for children with disabilities requiring special education and related services. Over 4.5 million children with disabilities nationwide, birth through age 21, are receiving special education and related services.
The challenge of this Administration and Congress is to ensure inclusion of children with disabilities when planning school reform, to encourage creative ways to ensure outcome accountability procedures that are fair and accurately reflect student performance, and to safeguard the policies that provide a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, due process procedures, non-discriminatory assessment, individualized education programs, and a continuum of placement alternatives.
Part B, Section 619 is intended to assist all states in ensuring that all children with disabilities, three to five years old, receive special education and related services. We will solicit ways to strengthen the federal commitment to these children who number approximately 400,000 nationwide. It is anticipated that these numbers will continue to rise given an early intervention program that is graduating at-risk children and children with disabilities and promoting them into preschool.
Funding levels for Parts C-G commonly known as the Discretionary Grant programs are sorely underfunded given that these are the programs which provide the innovation in special education delivery systems. Research, evaluation, and personnel preparation (Parts C-G) which are critical components of reform, can impact the success of school improvement efforts, and therefore, must be funded accordingly. We commend the Department of Education's commitment to children and we still have as a goal the original commitment of 40% federal support to state agencies.
The Early Intervention Program (Part H) must be funded at levels that reflect the growing numbers of children affected by poverty, prenatal drug or alcohol exposure, or HIV infection who may cause the demand for services to increase dramatically. The current fiscal crisis facing most of the states places the statewide early intervention and preschool programs in serious jeopardy. The Early Education for Children with Disabilities program provides the underpinning for addressing critical needs of this very vulnerable population. States are particularly in need of assistance in their efforts to serve a growing population of at-risk children and to reach traditionally underserved families, including low-income, rural, and minority families. We will be looking at what else the federal government can do to make sure there is an early intervention program in each state.
Vocational Rehabilitation
The Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1992 provide consumers with enhanced services (e.g., personal assistance services) and more choice and options than ever before. It has a stronger Finding and Purpose Section and empowers consumers with more participation, policy advisory input, and strengthened protection and advocacy systems. Though the majority of the over 200,00 people successfully rehabilitated in 1991 were individuals with severe disabilities, still only a small percentage of those eligible for services receive them. We must substantially increase the effectiveness and efficiency of rehabilitation which serves the poorest, most exploited, least educated, and most unemployed segment of our population. As RSA goes about the business of promulgating regulations, the subcommittee will be there, encouraging creativity and progress because the time is ripe to send a clear message to the disability community and the American people at large that the United States Congress and this new Administration is committed to enabling freedom and independence.
The rehabilitation system of today must provide services to individuals with a wide variety of disabilities and needs. This service provision is occurring in a climate, post ADA, which is supportive of full integration of people with disabilities into society. It stresses the movement of people with disabilities from situations of dependence and limited opportunities toward power, self-determination, community integration, and enhanced productivity.
This climate is in the spirit of the movement towards deinstitutionalization that began in the 1960's and which created new rehabilitation concepts about independent living, supported employment, and new laws for protection and advocacy.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
With the historic passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), expectations have been raised wherein individuals with disabilities can enjoy equality of opportunity, economic self-sufficiency, and full participation in mainstream society. As you well know, the ADA has been called the legislation that opened the door of opportunity for persons with disabilities, and the Rehabilitation Act, the legislation that prepares persons with disabilities to proceed through that door. Through meetings with Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), oversight hearings and participation in the rule-making process, the subcommittee will do its best to ensure that legislated services and programs are implemented as intended. After the first year of full ADA implementation, the National Council on Disability ADA watch reported that the earlier records on voluntary compliance with the ADA are mixed. Some covered entities have offered exemplary models for accommodating the needs of people with disabilities. Many have done what is necessary to meet the ADA's requirements; and some others have largely ignored the ADA or have been ignorant of it. While those that have complied have incurred some costs, it does not appear that any of the dire economic predictions made by some have materialized. The report goes further to say that overall, the ADA continues to be a major success of American public policy emulated by countries around the world.
In the past few years, minority provisions were the result of legislation included in IDEA: "The commissioner must develop a policy to prepare persons from minority groups for careers as special education teachers and related services personnel, focusing on recruitment of persons from minority groups and financial assistance to HBCU's." Further, the commissioner must develop a plan for providing outreach services to increase the participation of such entities in competitions for grants, contracts, and agreements. One percent of the part C-G appropriation is to be used for this purpose. Personnel training grant applicants are required to include a detailed description of strategies that will be utilized to recruit and train members of minority groups. Boards of the parent training centers are required to include minority parents and professionals. In addition, priority must be given to minority students for receipt of fellowships or traineeships.
Similar provisions were authorized in the rehabilitation amendments which state: "The commissioner must develop a policy to prepare minorities for careers in vocational rehabilitation, independent living and related services, focusing on recruitment of minorities and financial assistance to HBCU's. Further, the commissioner must develop a plan for providing outreach services to increase the participation of such entities in competitions for grants, contracts, and agreements. One percent (1%) of the dollars in titles II-VII is set aside for minority outreach." Another rehabilitation amendment states that NIDRR may examine factors that have created barriers for successful VR outcomes for minorities and factors that have created significant underrepresentation of minorities in the rehabilitation profession. Also, the commissioner is to make two grants to support the development of Rehabilitation Technician Programs. This last amendment was triggered by a site visit to several Indian communities in New Mexico and is an excellent example of how one underserved population was addressed in the reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Presently, there are 309 federally approved American Indian Tribes in the United States with a population of 1.4 million. Of the total population of American Indians in 1980, 46% resided on reservations, trust lands, Alaska native villages and former reservations in Oklahoma according to a Bureau of Indian Affairs report. Of this number, only fourteen American Indian tribes have vocational rehabilitation projects funded by Rehabilitation Services Administration under Section 130 of the Rehabilitation Act. This leaves a large population of American Indians underserved.
American Indians, as a group, have disabling conditions at a disproportionately high rate. The 1980 census data indicated a rate of work-related disability for American Indians at about 1 1/2 times that of the general population and at a higher rate than other minority groups. At the Native American Research and Training Center, Northern Arizona University researchers, Martin and Tanner, estimate that 12.7% of American Indians of working age (16-65) were work disabled and 6.4% were prevented from working due to disabilities. This is higher than data reported for the general population which is 8.5% and 4.4% respectively.
American Indians with disabilities often reside on Federal Indian reservations and trust lands located in remote and rural areas, limiting access to rehabilitation services. Each of the 14 vocational rehabilitation projects offers varied services to meet unique needs of each reservation according to the geographic locations and consumer needs. Each tribe is different culturally and the geographic locations determine the quality and quantity of VR services to consumers. One common barrier on each reservation or trust land is the lack of job opportunities on or near the reservations. Another is the lack of transportation which affects the consumer's ability to meet appointments and impedes participation in training programs off the reservation. Recommendations that were incorporated into last year's reauthorization included: increasing the discretionary grant funds under Section 130 from a minimum of 1/4 of 1% to a minimum of 1% of the total appropriation for the states, addressing specific mechanisms to train indigenous people in this specialized field, and providing technical assistance to American Indian communities.
"Diverse, underserved, and/or special populations" are usually euphemisms for persons from minority groups, often non-English speaking and of low socioeconomic status. Today, 20% of U.S. children under 17 are members of minority groups and by the year 2000, one-third of all school-age children will fall into this category.
In 25 of the nation's largest cities, half or more than half of the public school students come from minority groups. By the year 2000, almost 42% of all public school students will be minority children or other children in poverty. Two of our nation's largest states, California and Texas have a majority of persons from minority groups in their classrooms. In California, one out of every six students is born outside of the United States and one out of every four does not speak English at home.
Savage Inequalities, the title of Jonathan Kozol's latest book is an apt phrase to describe the reality in America's schools. Nearly 40 years after Brown vs. The Board of Education, American schools remain both separate and unequal. There are two school systems in America: One is predominantly white, suburban and successful; and the other is mostly minority, urban, and an abysmal failure.
The federal role in education has been closely identified with youth who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, language minorities, and/or disabled. Yet in 1988, the federal commitment to education was sufficient only to serve:
- one out of every five low-income children in need of pre-school education
- two out of every five children in need of remediation
- one out of every four children in need of bilingual education and
- one out of every twenty youth in need of job training
Minority Americans are burdened by a long history of oppression and discrimination. They remain largely segregated in minority neighborhoods and minority schools. Many of these children, over time, tend to fall behind their white peers in academic achievement. For example, African American children begin school only slightly behind their white classmates in educational attainment. By the third grade, they have fallen six months behind their white peers and by the sixth grade, they are one year behind. By eighth grade, they are two years behind and by twelfth grade they are more than three years behind.
While African American students comprise 16% of the elementary and secondary public school enrollments, only about 8% of public school teachers are African-American and this number is decreasing. These inequities are exacerbated by individual, cultural, and institutional racism which spawn other tragic educational aberrations. For example, in high schools, African-American males are suspended about three times more often than whites and African-American children are three times more likely than white children to be placed in classes for the educable mentally retarded, and only half as likely to be in classes for the gifted and talented.
Between 1976 and 1986, college enrollment rates of African-American males, 18- 24, declined from 35% to 28%. Everyday in the United States over 1,500 teenagers drop out of school. About 13% of all 17 year-olds in the United States can be considered functionally illiterate. Functional illiteracy among minority youth may run as high as 40%.
According to a report by William Taylor and Dianne Piche for the House Education and Labor Committee, inequitable systems of school finance inflict disproportionate harm on minority and economically disadvantaged students. The federal government does not have a system for directing data that enables it to gauge the scope of problems of fiscal inequity, the effect of these problems on important educational services, and the impact of fiscal inequity on children who are at-risk of educational failure.
Property-poor districts, which have lower assessed valuation per child, often tax at much higher rates than property-wealthy districts yet yield far fewer dollars for their effort. During the past 20 years, several state courts have addressed the issue of whether inequitable state finance systems violated guarantees of a "thorough and efficient" education and "equal protection of the laws" contained in state constitutions. Further research is necessary to identify remedies to reduce fiscal disparities.
Educators have reached substantial consensus that several types of educational services are important and in some cases vital to the success of at-risk students, e.g., pre- school development programs, reading in the early grades, reduced class size, counseling and parent involvement programs, teachers with experience and expertise, and a broad ranging curriculum.
A more equitable distribution of resources by states to local school districts could reduce the costs of assuring effective educational services to at-risk children. While the costs of providing such services are high, the evidence is that the investment called for would be more than repaid in the taxes paid by productive citizens and in avoidance of the cost of crime and welfare dependency.
There is wide-spread agreement within the education community that all students can learn at high levels, and we know far more than we practice about how to teach. The National Education Goals and Goals 2000: Educate America Act, indicate a commitment to raise the educational achievement of all children, regardless of their abilities. The objective of educating all children can be greatly enhanced by bridging the divide, on all levels of aggregation, that currently separates special education from general education. The Department of Education, through the Office of Education Research and Improvement (OERI), can commit to research on the wealth of effective educational practices developed and/or advanced by special education research and devise a system whereby these practices may be transferred to general education and made available for more wide- spread applications. OERI and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) can lead the way in applying special education research findings to general education settings.
Fundamental to special education are three statutory provisions: individualized education programs, nondiscriminatory and multidisciplinary assessment of educational needs, and education in the least restrictive environment. These provisions allow schools to maximize the educational development of students with special needs. The research that has been guided by these provisions has yielded findings applicable to the mainstream of American education. For example, the individualized education program, customized to the needs of each student taking into consideration the learner's strengths, weaknesses, learning style and modalities, provides a model for meeting the needs of a diversified student population.
Special education research findings can be very helpful with these student populations because it has made many contributions to the educational knowledge base in the form of alternative teaching methods for remediation in various subject areas, as well as analyses of the interactions between learner differences and various types of subject matter. A variety of interventions have been designed based upon careful, reliable research to improve the performance of "special populations," i.e., those children who have needs beyond those traditionally accommodated in a regular classroom. Increasingly, critical considerations have been given to assessment methods and placement alternatives within general education settings. The past 10-15 years have seen a proliferation of findings--potentially beneficial for a wide range of student populations in such areas as: assessment (e.g., curriculum based assessment, dynamic assessment), instruction, (cooperative learning models, strategies instruction, metacognitive interventions, reciprocal teaching), and curriculum (social skills, early intervention).
To date, the most influential of these interventions has been the Perry Pre-school Program based on the premise that early childhood intervention could improve the achievement of disadvantaged youth. One of the original grants for this study, using students in special education classes, was funded by the research division of the OSEP. This project, which helped to spawn the nationwide Headstart program, demonstrated long- term positive effects in the areas of education, employment, and social responsibility.
Other special education innovations are based on the premise that all children can learn, that early intervention programs can enhance that learning, and that educational resources are correlates of student performance. What is needed is a systematic way to Review special education interventions and policies, ferret out the most promising, and make them readily available to local and state education agencies. One welcomed effect may well be the successful accommodation of more variance in the regular classroom and less special education referrals and placements of minority children who are presently overrepresented in these classes.
Minority students will be forced to meet world class standards although they have not gone to school with proper teachers, laboratories, and other facilities. Educational improvements cannot be obtained by focusing on the achievements of students alone. Standards, assessments, and report cards must also be established for those who govern and manage. Before we forge ahead to institutionalize the national testing of students, it would be more logical, more efficient and more just to establish a national program for the assessment of governance and management performance of the states, school districts, and local educational agencies responsible for the education of students.
I question testing as a method for educational reform and argue that current reform incentives such as testing will undermine rather than upgrade the curriculum and student performance. The proposed voluntary testing system is akin to the discovery that children born with fetal alcohol syndrome have low birth weights, so we invent a more sensitive scale! This does not help these babies. Testing risks exacerbating existing inequalities and can derail other more forward looking initiatives.
There is research evidence on the negative effects of the high stakes standardized testing for example:
A) When test results are given high stakes by political pressure and media attention, scores can become inflated, thus giving a false impression of student achievement.
B) High stakes tests can narrow the curriculum. Tested content is taught to the exclusion of non-tested content--in direct proportion to the stakes and overwhelmingly in poor performing schools.
C) The kind of drill and practice instruction that tests reinforce is based on outmoded learning theory. Rather than improve learning, it actually denies students' opportunities to develop thinking and problem-solving skills.
D) Because of the emphasis and pressure on test scores, more hard to teach children are rejected by the system (resulting in sorting and segregation).
E) The dictates of externally mandated tests reduce both the professional knowledge and status of teachers.
F) Inconsistency between the purpose and use of tests will lead toward invalidation of norms and totally compromise our ability to accurately measure achievement.
Recent research at the State University of New York at Albany found a correlation at the school level between improved student achievement scores and increased segregated settings. The Educational Testing Service conducted a summary of findings from 20 years of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It reached several alarming conclusions; among them is the observation that very few students demonstrate that they can use their minds well. In recent assessments, more students are gaining basic skills, yet fewer are demonstrating a grasp of higher-level applications of those skills.
During the past 20 years, relatively little has changed in how students are taught. Despite much research suggesting better alternatives, classrooms are still dominated by textbooks, teacher lectures, and short-answer activity sheets. Despite progress in narrowing the gaps, the differences in performance between white students and their minority counterparts remain unacceptably large. Little progress had been made in reducing gender performance gaps favoring males in mathematics and science and females in writing.
We need to do some soul-searching here: Are we really, honestly, and truly committed to multiculturalism or to the perpetuation of a distinct underclass which, not all coincidentally, provides for cheap labor? We must affirm what we value and ensure that policies are representative for all Americans. We must include various special populations e.g., individuals with disabilities, people of color, persons with limited English proficiency, and other cultural backgrounds, as we plan school reform. We must consider how these policies will impact personnel development, school finance, standards development, assessment, and strategies to reach the six national educational goals. Otherwise, to take liberty with a saying: "If we continue to allow looking at the rainbow of diversity through single filter, many children will erroneously seem devoid of light."
I suggest that we view diversity as a national strength not as a liability, but something precious that celebrates culture, heritage, and tradition; honors contributions of all peoples, and is reflected in the curricula of the primary public acculturation tool--our public schools.
Earlier I spoke of the need for more minority elementary and secondary school teachers. But there is also a substantial underrepresentation of persons from minority groups in education research and development and the number is rapidly declining. It is imperative that persons from minority groups play an active role in this arena since education research and demonstration strongly influences the education of persons from minority groups through its impact on education policies, programs, and practices.
In its 1990 report, the House Committee on Appropriations directed the Department of Education to "Develop a Pilot Program which prepares persons from minority groups for research careers and increases their participation as specialists in research and development." In the ten years spanning 1976 to 1986, the number of African-Americans awarded doctorate degrees in education declined by 39%. At a subcommittee hearing, Dr. Henry T. Frierson observed that, "this is a foreboding trend concerning the production and contribution of Black faculty in fields related to educational research and development." According to the statistical abstract of the United States, of the degrees conferred between 1986 and 1987 in education at the B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. levels, only 6, 8 and 8 percent, respectively were awarded to African American or Latino students.
The lack of minority participation in the development of educational reforms has been cited as a major factor in the negative school experiences of minority teachers and students. More individuals who have a unique and valuable perspective on the relevant and pressing minority issues confronting educational research are needed in education research and development, and they must be encouraged to use their research, and research and demonstration skills in all areas in order to bring refreshingly poignant points of view to not only minority concerns, but to a broad spectrum of issues. Dr. Henry T. Frierson states that there are factors inherent in the academic community that suppress the participation and subsequent production of African-American educational researchers, e.g., the ambivalence of the milieu, prejudice and discrimination, and the effects from the lack of solid mentor-protegee relationships. He concludes that: "the continued loss of potential scholars is staggering and the academic community will be remiss unless serious efforts are mounted, not only to reverse the decline in Black doctorates, but also to increase substantially their production and the subsequent development of Black researchers. If not, the crisis will continue, and it will be to the detriment of the nation."
Education reform must be approached the way "Operation Desert Storm" was approached, an overwhelming strategy, a strategy of overwhelming resources, of using all that we have available, of using the very American approaches which are unique, maximizing our advances in technology, not hesitating to test all kinds of theories, to break the mold, and use what we know to get what we want. Each of us, in our own particular way can contribute to the optimal performance of all our children. I encourage each of you to do your part and in closing, I will leave you with a thought, the late Robert F. Kennedy expressed twenty-seven years ago in Johannesburg, South Africa:
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or strikes out against injustice, or acts to improve the lot of others, she/he sends out a time ripple of hope, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples to build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Thank you.
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Page last updated on March 20, 1997 by Mary Kaye Rubin