1. Equality of Educational Opportunity: Race, Gender, and Special Needs
Chapter 5
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
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2. Timeline of Events: Equality of Educational Opportunity
Naturalization Law
Fourteenth Amendment
Plessy v. Ferguson
U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind
Native Americans granted citizenship
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Civil Rights Act
National Organization for Women (NOW) formed
Title IX Higher Education Act
Federal regulations end gender discrimination in athletics
Public Law Education for All Handicapped Children Act
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Amendments to IDEA
President’s Commission Report: Revitalizing Special Education for Children and Their Families
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3. Definition of Race Race is a social and legal construction.
Courts have struggled to define race.
Takao Ozawa v. United States
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
The U.S. Census Bureau uses personal self-identification, making race a matter of personal choice.
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4. Takao Ozawa v. United States, 1922
“The test afforded by the mere color of the skin of each individual is impracticable, as that differs greatly among persons of the same race, even among Anglo-Saxons, ranging by imperceptible gradations from the fair blond to the swarthy brunette, the later being darker than many of the lighter hued persons of the brown and yellow races.”
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5. U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 1923
“It may be true that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them today.”
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6. Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 1868
“No state shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
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7. Plessy v. Ferguson:
The 1895 U.S. Supreme Court decision which determined that “equal protection” could also mean “separate but equal”
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8. Oliver v. Michigan State Board of Education, 1974
“A presumption of segregative purpose arises when plaintiffs establish that the natural, probable and foreseeable result of public officials’ action or inaction was an increase or perpetuation of public school segregation.”
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9. Reasons for recent increased segregation:
Recent court decisions outlawing race as a main factor in student assignment
Increased residential segregation
Increased role of private schools in contributing to segregation
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10. Second-Generation Segregation
Second-generation segregation refers to forms of racial segregation that are the result of school practices, such as:
Tracking
Ability Grouping
Misplacement in special education classes
Unequal treatment among races in integrated schools
Subtle forms of segregation
Rigid racial boundaries
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11. During its first years of activism, NOW focused on:
Eliminating discriminatory quotas against women in college and professional school admissions
Urging parents, counselors, and teachers to encourage women to pursue higher education and professional education
Eliminating discriminatory practices against women in the awarding of fellowships and loans
Investigating the problem of female dropouts
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12. Achievements in providing equality of educational opportunity for women:
1972: Legal action against school systems with segregated courses in home economics and industrial arts
1974: More than 1,000 women’s studies departments created on college campuses
1975: Federal regulations to end sex discrimination in athletics
1976: Lawsuits regarding female participation in athletics and gender-biased hiring in school administration
1976: Educational Equality Act
1983: Last all-male school in Ivy League, Columbia University, becomes co-educational
1986: FairTest organized to counter sex bias in high-stakes testing
1996: Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel become coeducational.
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13. Anti-discriminatory changes in educational programs:
The number of female medical school graduates increased from 8.4 percent in 1969 to 34.5 percent in 1990.
The percentage of doctoral and professional degrees awarded women increased from 14.4 percent in 1971 to 36.8 percent in 1991.
Most discrimination in vocational programs ended.
Female participation in high school athletics increased from 7 percent in 1972 to 37 percent in 1992 and in college athletics from 15.6 percent in 1972 to 34.8 percent in 1993.
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14. Students With Disabilities
The political movement for federal legislation to aid students with disabilities followed a similar path to rest of the civil rights movement.
In Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the court enjoined the state from excluding children with disabilities from public education and required that every child be allowed access to an education.
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15. Disability Categories
Autism
Deaf-Blindness
Developmental Delay
Emotional Disturbance
Hearing Impairment
Mental Retardation
Multiple Disabilities
Orthopedic Impairment
Specific Learning Disability
Speech or Language Impairment
Traumatic Brain Injury
Visual Impairment
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16. An Individual Education Plan (IEP) includes the following:
A statement of the present levels of educational performance of the child;
A statement of annual goals, including short-term instructional objectives;
A statement of the specific educational services to be provided to the child, and the extent to which the child will be able to participate in regular educational programs;
The projected date for initiation and anticipated duration of such services;
Appropriate objectives criteria and evaluation procedures and schedules for determining, on at least an annual basis, whether instructional objectives are being achieved.
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17. Inclusion
The 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act called for integration of children with disabilities into regular classes.
Isolation deprives disabled students from contact with other students
Denies access to equipment found in regular classrooms
Inclusion is believed to improve educational achievement and social development
It is hoped that bias will decrease with increased interaction
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18. Inclusion and No Child Left Behind
2003 regulations to the No Child Left Behind Act required that children with disabilities be included in state test systems
Reasoning:
Positive benefits to students when included in accountability systems
Fear that more students would be labeled disabled in order to raise test scores
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19. Teachers’ objections to inclusion programs:
Disabled students are moved into regular classrooms without any support services.
Experienced teachers have never received training in teaching students with disabilities or in teaching in an inclusive classroom.
School districts implementing inclusion policies do not provide adequate training for general education teachers.
Education schools do not provide prospective teachers with a basic knowledge of learning disabilities or situations they are likely to confront in inclusive classrooms.
General education teachers are often excluded from the individualized education plan (IEP) team.
Parents of nondisabled students worry that their children’s education will be compromised in inclusive classrooms.
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20. Solutions for Inclusion Issues
More education and training for experienced and future teachers
Adequate support services for teachers in inclusive classrooms
Teacher participation on the individualized planning team
Education of parents about inclusive classrooms
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