Quick Facts About Diversity and it's Influence on the Community and School

 From a teacher's perspective, the teacher wants their student to be able to absorb knowledge that is being taught.  But what happens when the student is just not getting it, what do you do?  Listed below are some factors that may be an influence in your school that prevent such open communication between the student and the teachers.  In addition, could your student/child be at risk for low school performances?  And is there a reason why your child may not be receiving early intervention that may be crucial to the beginning of their school years.  Listed below a few quick facts in these areas that you just might find interesting and can help you when making decision when it comes to a child from a different culture and what they may face.

• Disproportionate representation
• Student of color are disproportionate represented in mental retardation (MR), emotional disturbance (EB), and learning disabilities (LD) compared to hearing, visual and orthopedic impairments.  In addition, out of a population of students from ages six to twenty-one, only 14.8% are African American; however, 20% of kids in special education services are African American (Irvine, 2012).
• Similarities (and other important factors) among multi-cultural and special education
• English Language Learners receive delayed referrals for special education until they are English proficient.  This means they are exposed to disability assessments and interventions later in their schools years instead of as an early intervention (Hibel & Jasper, 2012).
• Immigrant children are less likely to receive special education services and are at high risk of poor school performance later in their school years (Hibel & Jasper, 2012).
• Schools contain a multicultural population of one third with eighty-seven percent of teachers being white females.  This can create a culture gap between schools and communities.  And in turn can cause a lack of connection among the students and the teachers, which can also cause misplacement in to special education services due to the lack of understanding of other culture’s behaviors, etc.   In addition, such misconnections can cause hostility, confrontations and alienation between the two bodies (Griner & Stewart, 2012; Irvine, 2012).  Cultural misunderstandings can make a child more than likely to be enrolled into special education services (Irvine, 2012).
• Students of color were more than likely to be referred for special education services based on behavioral reasons than academics compared to their white counterparts (Irvine, 2012)
• If high risk students (immigrant children, English language learners and low socioeconomic status) were placed in early intervention programs, they have a more than likely chance to perform well in school in addition to completing school (Farkas et. al, 2012)
• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
• Cultural Responsive Teaching  Should (Griner & Stewart, 2012; Irvine, 2012):
• Recognize different cultural attitudes and ways of learning.
• Connect the home experience to the school.
• Be versatile in learning styles.
• Teach students to be proud of theirs and other cultures.
• Make sure all skills and subjects taught in school have been integrated with cultural rich materials and resources.
• Remain positive with high expectation of the students in a caring environment.
• Engaged and motivated to learn the cultural rich content.
• Welcome and encourage community and school collaboration.

References

Farkas, G., Hillemeier, M. M., Maczuga, S., & Morgan, P. L., (2012).  Are minority children
disproportionately represented in early intervention and early childhood special education?  Educational Researcher, 41(9), 339-351.

Griner, A. C., Stewart, M. L., (2012).  Addressing the achievement gap and disproportionality through the use of culturally responsive teaching practices.  Urban Education, 48(4), 585-621.

Hibel, J. & Jasper, A. D., (2012). Delayed special education placement for learning disabilities among children of immigrants.  Social Forces, 91(2), 503-530.

Irvine, J. J., (2012).  Complex relationships between multicultural education and special education: An African American perspective.  Journal of Teacher Education, 63(4), 268-274.