Why Are There so Many Black Males in Special Education?

¶ … mixed research solution to help explain just why there are so many black males in special education. The researcher supported the research questions by utilizing article, journals, observational researches, and statistical data to greatly assisted in demonstrating the final resulst of the study. The articles and journals can give a reason of the quantitative variables - for example learning styles, referral process; I.Q. testing, cultural diversity, insufficient early intervention plan, and poverty are influential in the classification of young black males as special education candidates. Participants who will remain active in the research will undoubtedly be students who range from grades K-12. Statistical data is going to be used to exhibit how African-American males signify nearly all students in the special education structure understanding the fact that they're half the normal commission of the student populace. The information will exhibit how African-American males are plagued with racial inequality and racially culturally basis test. The paper focused on the results of different studies and compared findings from these studies to compare the amount of blacks in addition to minorities in special education as opposed to the white students in the United States.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Cultural standards and expectations are forever entrenched within the American social, political as well as economic structures and have thus led to the African-American male being labeled and treated as one of the "endangered" races in the country (Piert, 2006). It is important to note here that this is in no way related to the "lynching debates" of the initial 20th century years where the black youth received plenty of negative attention and legal concern. Despite the fact that the black community has numerous positive role models, such as Michael Jordan, Mohammed Ali, Colin Powell, and the greatest role model of all -- President Barack Obama -- there are still many African-American males, especially those in urban centers, who are consistently classified and stereotyped within the five established Ds: dumb, deprived, dangerous, deviant, and disturbed. Even though these associations are rarely documented or openly proclaimed, they are usually the foundations behind the formation of the social policy and practice within the urban and rural centers especially when it comes to education. Whether it's collapse in the employment industry or failure in academic endeavors, African-American males are indirectly trained to see themselves as significantly less than, instead of up to par with, their peers (Sherman, 2007).

Purpose of the research

The purpose of this study thus is to provide the backdrop and cause behind the reason why the blacks are so predominantly enrolled in the special education sector as opposed to the normal educational standards.

Research questions/Hypothesis

Q. What are the social factors that impact the high enrollment of black males in special education sectors?

Q. What are the educational standards that the black males find difficult to meet?

Q. How is the special education structure holding them back?

Q. What are the factors from the following that cause the most difficulty for the black males?

- Attendance

- Admission criteria

- Fee structures / scholarships

Q. What makes the minorities eligible for the special education structure?

Q. How can the educational standards be improved to have a more inclusive structure?

Limitation of the proposed research

Some of the basic limitations of this study include the following aspects:

It is conducted within the United States, hence all laws and educational standards are those observed within America and cannot be expanded on the global front

The study is focused primarily on black males and does not include factors for the black females in the community

The viewpoint assumed is that the black males form a majority of the student population in the special education structure

The research questions formulated have a biased approach based on the viewpoint assumed

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Cultural Problems: African-Americans in Special Education

Numerous studies, like the study that had been conducted by the Committee to review the overall stature and academic standing of the African-American male student in the public schools at the state of New Orleans (cited in Toldson et al., 2009), make sure African-American males are excessively and unfavorably suffering from the general public educational system before they jump to suggesting an educational reform structure. Based on the results of the study, African-American students were victims to minimal promotions, highest rate of suspensions expulsions, increasing dropout rates as well as leaving or dropping out of high schools without any intention of furthering their academic pursuits (Toldson et al., 2009).

Finding similar results and statistics, numerous institutions at the board and state level are now coordinating with many practitioners and academic policy makers to recognize added resources and ensuring the redesigning of reform strategies and techniques targeted at breaking the expected sequence of failure for African-American males in academic institutions.

It is due to this reason that numerous researchers continue to argue that very little difference and reformation can be achieved within the framework of the present educational system, a few innovative all-male institutions have already been established in an effort to bring about a necessary positive change. These academies offer an African-centered prospectus to the African-American community that not only addresses the initial requirements of urban black youth but also adheres to the needs of the adolescent African-American males and aims to serve as the middleman between the growth of their abilities and good opportunities for them to employ these scales in a constructive way (Epstein et al., 2009). Even though this tactic has proven controversial, a few Afro-centric all-male academies have already been created in the past decade, from the Milwaukee school district and expanding to numerous districts all through the country. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is no substantial record of the short-term or long-term achievement of African-American male recorded in the academic structures, in fact the problem still exists as the stats do not show improvement and enough attention is not being give to the problem of managing the process of self-selection existent in the educational structure and of discovering the sufficient comparisons of academic results between black/minorities and white in the regular public school structures (Archibald, 2006).

Moreover, when numerically analyzing the situation, most African-American males continue steadily to have higher attendance in the regular public schools. In fact this attendance is a higher rate than the combined attendance recorded on the alternative, magnet, charter, religious, or private schools (Sanders and Jordan, 2009). Hence, it becomes imperative that to enhance the situation of public sector education for African-American males in the United States that systemic changes occur that directly and indirectly affect the standard community schools. Care has to be taken that the huge financial expenses on the capital as well as social expenditures, are tackled in relation to the success or failure of the institution. Furthermore, especially at the senior high school level, greater attention has been paid to high schools that end up serving those adolescents who're deemed probably the most prone to school failure. School failure at the senior high school level means a number of unconstructive and negative circumstances in the long-term which could include aspects like: increased drop-out levels, teenage pregnancy, misdemeanors, delinquency as well as alcohol or drug abuse, all of which have serious implications for the foundation of the standard of living for the individual in the long run (Sanders and Jordan, 2009).

Minorities in Special Education

Dr. Matthew Ladner, in his analysis, asserted that the concentration when dealing with minorities in the special education must be on the initial testing structures and the consistent academic remediation, instead of continuing the present "wait to fail" strategy. Student, teacher, and administrator responsibility and delegation must be increased so that the resources can be limited for the use of only those people who absolutely need them. He stated further that the resource placement into categories should be objectively decided as opposed to subjectively. He concluded that the viewpoint whereby the responsibility and role of the parents roles needs to be increased was absolutely acute and added that this should be done with increased choices made available to them to deal with their customized situations (Ladner, 2007).

Dr. Dan Reschly first addressed statistics predicated on IDEA data. He asserted that African-American males who were categorized as mentally disable primarily made up a total of 33% and thus they are put into special education, even though in reality the African-American students who were really mentally disable made up only 15%, i.e. less than half of those recorded, out of the overall student populace that made up the K-12 populace i.e. between the ages of six to twenty-one. At exactly the same time, he indicated that the entire percentage of black male students was classified as mentally retarded while in reality this was only true for less than two percent (1. 7%) of African-American male students who were regularly attending school (Reschly, 2007).

He further stated these differing stats primarily shock the educators and academic policy makers due to the simple fact that the risk statistics in many cases are intermingled and mixed with the composition statistics. Risk statistics supply the probability that the certain student is going to be classified under a particular domain or personality type inside his/her respective group. On the other hand, the aim of the composition statistics is to recognize and highlight the probability that the certain student inside a certain classification (as indicated in the risk analysis) - e.g., mentally retarded-- will be of a particular race or ethnicity. He claimed this confusion results in the regrettable stereotype that the large proportion of African-Americans have been in special education. This isn't the case, he asserts, as nearly all African-Americans have been in general education structure (Reschly, 2007).

In majority of the stats, the white and Asian schools, however, have managed to provide special education services that prove to be much more appropriate in recognizing the right kind of student type, their needs as well as how to fulfill them. Dr. Reschly contended this disparity makes up the main reason parents in a majority of the white and Asian nations push very strongly and positively that their kids to get special education, and conversely parents within the black and minority nations or masses take the whole situation difficultly i.e. have their kids enrolled and enlisted within the special education structures (Reschly, 2007).

Dr. Reschly further stated that lots of errors are created by the IEP commissions and committees to the same extent, no matter the racial and ethnic status. He says that this is mainly because of the subjective nature of a lot of the procedures that causes them to be susceptible to many errors (Reschly, 2007).

Chapter 3: Methodology

The study process

This section serves two main purposes; firstly it'll present the methodology used to handle this study; secondly, justifications for choosing this methodology will undoubtedly be given. This section is split into the next five subsections;

1. Data collection techniques;

2. Participants;

3. Procedure;

4. Instrumentation; and,

5. Data Analysis.

The goal of dividing the methodology section in to subsections would be to present problems and challenges that have to be addressed to ensure that this research becomes practical, feasible and effective at being completed. Moreover, by dividing this section in to subsections the overall aims of the research could be changed into a practical and investigative topic as described in the "research process onion" model introduced by Saunders et al. (2009, p. 83) (Figure 4).

FIGURE 1:

Research Proc

ess Onion (Saunders et al., 2009

Data Collection Techniques

The qualitative structure, as described by Bouma et al. (2009) in his study, is principally made to understand the faculties of a social setting as well the norms, beliefs, thoughts and axioms which exist within that social setting (Bouma et al., 2009). Saunders et al. (2009), within their study, highlight that the qualitative approach of the study allows the researcher to suppose a few of the more prevalent and informal links between the different facets. They further explain that the qualitative approach might help the researcher understand the circumstances in order to find the foundation of preferences, outlooks and judgments of the sample (Saunders et al., 2009).

Other researchers also have stated a few of the benefits of the qualitative type of research. Bouma et al. (2009) in his research explains that the researcher has got the flexibility to constantly evaluate and analyze the information that he or she has collected while he or she is collecting it and change or amend whatever he or she feels necessary throughout the process. Moreover, the researcher includes a closer connection with the sample/respondents and has the capacity to better comprehend their reasons and he has the opportunity to investigate deeper in to newer relevant problems that hadn't caught his/her attention before beginning the study process (Bouma et al., 2009).

Yin (2009) highlights that the significance of the qualitative format is even more for the newer social setups since the overall approaches, inclinations and decisions produced by institution can't merely be comprehended through quantitative or statistical data (Yin, 2009).

This paper and study also discusses the strategies and theories that were developed and confirmed by previous researches which were done with regards to the study topic. This is done to ensure that we are able to attain a definite pathway on which would be the most useful collection process and follow-up by having an efficient and thorough evaluation of the conclusions which will be made through the survey.

The standardized and exploratory format of interviews will undoubtedly be used as the main basis for collecting all of the necessary information required to achieve the aims of the research. All of the more information that'll be needed is going to be gathered by using the questionnaires. All previous researches have explained that the interview format was probably the best way if the researcher wanted to get step-by-step and profound information. Also, interviews are thought to obtain a fully guaranteed honest response whereas other styles of surveys are bound to get stale or low responses because of insufficient personalized interaction.

Easterby-Smith et al. (2011), within their study, also have supported the structured and semi-structured interview formats in three different research types are most efficient: 1) the study where in fact the possible assembling or judgment behind the question will vary from individual to individual, 2) the study type where in fact the nature of the question is open-ended or intricate and 3) the study type where there's a large array or group of questions (also see, Saunders et al., 2009).

Yin (2009) concludes that the main benefit of the interview format is that it allows focused interactions between the interviewer and the respondent and that it allows the researcher to concentrate chiefly on the categories and topics within the central topic. Likewise the interview format provides the researcher more sensitivity or intuition on the backdrop of the respondents and therefore helps for making more concrete suppositions which can't be achieved in virtually any other type of research method. The disadvantage, however, with the interview format is that it may be prejudiced in the manner that it's formatted or the answers of the respondents could be prejudicial. Also, there's a chance that respondents might be impelled to answer in a particular way by the researcher through the designing of his questions or the respondent will answer in the manner they think the researcher wants rather than obviously and honestly expression their standpoint. The entire imprecision of the information can also be a threat if the responses aren't recorded throughout the process and the researcher needs to recall the majority of the exchange (Yin, 2009).

Participants

This study will select a small sample size to handle both questionnaire and interviews. The reason being Saunders et al. (2009) reveals that the smaller sample size can be viewed as appropriate than the usual larger one when studying the context and back ground of a specific situation and/or phenomenon.

Since qualitative scientific tests mainly cope with the comprehension and knowledge of what happens in a specific setting, the study is definitely restricted to the character of sampling processes adopted (Bouma et al., 2009). Consistent with Saunders et al. (2009) the majority of the studies, within the context of social research, use non-probability sampling. The reason being non-probability sampling offers an array of techniques founded on subjective reasoning. In the context of the research, to be able to fulfill the objectives of the study and answer the study questions, the researcher will require a detailed exploration focusing primarily on a little sample size which is opted for purposively.

Consequently the study will utilize "purposive" or "judgmental" sampling technique that will permit the researcher to find the most suitable subjects which could most useful help in solving the study questions and aims of the study (Saunders et al., 2009). This sort of sampling, additionally, assists for making sure that the cases are diverse and high in information, and, consequently, the arrangement of the sample will undoubtedly be decided only after the researcher has entered the field. However, consistent with Saunders et al. (2009) the whole populace can't be regarded as a statistical representative of the sample.

Additionally, because the survey (both interviews and questionnaire) would have been a fundamental supply of the confirmation/verification which is required for accurately analyzing human affairs; they'll be recorded and comprehended with tremendous care and experienced respondents who are able to offer vital insights to the phenomenon is going to be of enormous value to the research. Moreover, the aims and objectives of the interviews and questionnaire is to provide a descriptive outline of what's "typical" in context of the increasing number of black males in the special education structures and it maybe not be definitive. Because of this the interviewees are going to be selected from distinctive cases in order to be good representatives of the occurrence being studied.

Considering the issues of pinpointing the relevant sample applicants for the research who'll show willingness to be surveyed by the researcher combined with the time and budget restraints, a non-random sample might be selected. The subjects will undoubtedly be identified by personal connections through the societal enclave and the interviews are going to be organized unofficially with the help of societal networks.