Early childhood special Education
marydyn
Mod4CurrentIssuesinSpecialEducation1.pptCurrent Issues
- There are several areas of current issues in the field of special education.
- Obviously, these change over time, but many of the current issues have been and will continue to be issues for a long time.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- One major issue is special ed labeling.
- There are more males identified in special ed than females. Why is this? Is it because more males than females need special ed?
- No, its because boys tend to act out while girls tend to withdrawal (although this is changing recently).
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- This means that teachers tend to refer boys more often than girls as they tend to cause disruptions in class.
- Females tend to fall through the cracks if they are not disruptive, because they are quiet. So their needs may not be met.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- There are also more minorities in special education, esp. African Americans and Hispanics, than there are Caucasians or Asians.
- Why is this? There are actually many issues that factor into this.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- A major one is racism. Even today, most systems, including school systems, in the United States, are set up to embrace the status quo.
- The status quo is middle class white America.
- Children who don’t conform to these expectations and behaviors can tend to get targeted for special education.
- Just as racism still plays a role in many arenas in our country, it also plays a subtle, but major role in special education.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- A closely related issue is that of culture.
- Again, children whose culture is not that of mainstream America, may be singled out for special ed.
- This is because the behaviors, roles, expectations, and standards may be different than those of the majority culture.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- For example, if two groups of boys (ele school) are walking down the hallway as boys tend to do- loud, pushing, laughing, etc. what happens when one group is all boys who are white and one group is all boys who are black, and a teacher sees them?
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- If you said that the boys who are while would be told to keep it down (be more quiet and less rowdy), while the boys who are black would be given a consequence, you would be correct.
- In this example, both race and culture could play a role.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- Finally, just as there is bias in the testing and assessment process, as we saw last week, there is bias (explicit and implicit) in the identification process, the assessment process, and even in inclusion, and LRE issues for children who may not be from the mainstream culture.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- Another issue with culture, is that of children whose first language is not English.
- When teachers see ESL (English as Second Language) speakers having learning issues, many times they assume the problems are with language and culture.
- These students are also called LEP (Limited English Proficiency) or ELL (English Language Learners). In MD, ESL is a very common term, but nationally ELL is considered more correct and is used in many other states.
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- So, sometimes children who need special ed services do not get referred.
- Other times, children who are ESL speakers are referred to special ed and they do not need to be.
- Once referred, it is difficult to accurately assess these children. Why?
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- As we have already talked about the referral process and tests are already biased.
- This means that we have several layers where misdiagnosis can take place:
- The tests themselves
- The interpretation of the tests
- Cultural issues
- Language issues
- In teaching methods and classroom issues
Current Issues:
Race and Culture
- Bilingual special education is a growing field.
- Some changes include:
- Providing a tester or interpreter who speaks the child’s language
- Providing some tests in other languages besides English (very few to date)
- Interpretation that considers culture and language
- Teaching pedagogies designed for bilingual education are adapted to special education.
Current Issues:
NCLB/ESSA
- NCLB stands for a federal law: No Child Left Behind.
- It was reauthorized by Congress a few years ago, and is now called ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act).
- It is designed to promote higher standards for educators: students, teachers, and school districts.
- It is not just about testing students, but about some conformity in standards among the states, raising standards for teachers and paraprofessionals (aides), and assessing other factors within education that affect learning (curriculum, funding, poverty, special education, ESL, etc).
- How does this affect special education?
Current Issues: ESSA
- ESSA requires having fully qualified teachers and of course this is really important for teaching students with special needs-hopefully, this means they are using effective teaching methods!
- ESSA also looks at the numbers of students who are referred and in special education (for each school district and state), and this does help in ensuring that race and culture are not playing a huge role in identification and diagnosis, but it also means that in some school systems if you are a boy who is a minority (not white) it may be harder to get into special ed (even if you truly need services.) Likewise, it might be easier to get in if you are a girl or a boy who is white, even if you might be better served not being in special ed!
Current Issues: ESSA
- ESSA also requires teachers to use research based teaching methods, and again, this is especially important for teaching students who have disabilities. If we know a strategy works, then it should be used rather than other types of strategies.
Current Issues-ESSA
- ESSA requires that most special education students participate in state wide testing. However, states have to limit the number of students who get accommodations for testing and for those who perform academically at a lower grade level than the grade they are in. This means that some students with disabilities are not getting the accommodations they need (or a test that actually tests their academic level) to get accurate data from the tests.
Current Issues-Standards
- Although not a federal law, Common Core Standards also play a role in special education.
- Many states, including Maryland, use Common Core standards, although because of parent and public backlash to these standards, most states have changed them a bit and renamed them. In Maryland we now call them College and Career Ready Standards.
- Although standards may be good for consistency between schools, school districts, and states, standards also come with testing through ESSA. In Maryland we have given the PARCC test for a few years-last spring (2019) was the last time Maryland has given this test. This spring a new state made test will debut.
- Standards may mean that students with disabilities are given less flexibility in meeting them, and/or in testing, and/or less flexibility in appropriate accommodations.
Other Current Issues
- Pushing the boundaries of inclusion and LRE: This push is coming more from parents than school systems. More parents what their children with disabilities, no matter how severe, to be in gen ed classrooms. This will continue and I’m sure law suits will impact how this issue proceeds.
- The role of technology in special education: With all of the new technologies, being able to support students with disabilities, especially in the gen ed classroom, is getting easier and easier.
- Societal issues which impact special ed: poverty, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, resiliency, trauma, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Other Current Issues
- Advances in medical technology are saving children (babies and others) who previously would have died. This means that there may be more children needing special ed services long term than previously, and these services may be more expensive than services provided in the past.
Current Issues
- As you can see, there are many issues in society which impact special education.
- Keep these in mind as you go through this class.
- Now we will look at some of these issues in more depth.
- Developed and written by Teresa L. Bridger, Ph.D.
