Unit 2 Discourse Analysis

"Disproportionality The Disproportionate Representation of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Special Education." EMSTAC. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. .

Logsdon, Ann. "Diagnosing Minority Children - Ensuring Appropriate Diagnosis for Minority Children." Learning Disability - What is a Learning Disability?. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. .

Logsdon, Ann. "Disproportional Representation - Disproportionality in Special Education Programs." Learning Disability - What is a Learning Disability?. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. .

"Minority Disproportionality, Safe & Responsive Schools Project, Indiana Education Policy Center." Indiana University. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .

"Oklahoma Parents Center." Oklahoma Parents Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. .


Reading Writing Analytically and Wysocki's The Multimedia of Texts contributed to the writing of my discourse analysis mostly by helping to focus my thinking and judgments while I read my sources. Before reading these two texts I had little awareness of my own thought process of how and why I drew conclusions about my reading. Writing Analytically helped me to see different patterns and underlying formats within a text that the author was specifically using to address and manipulate, in a way, their message. At first everything about discourse analysis seemed abstract and very confusing, however as I continue to complicate my research and thinking process, the models provided in the two texts do help and make more sense. Wysocki's model I feel is going to be very beneficial with my website, which I will be starting soon in my course work. Overall addressing Wysocki's model for discourse analysis does still seem extremely vague when applied to an academic paper, or one that is formatted as a single screen with “typical” page format. I am trying harder to look at both the text and visual aspects of the work as both being “visual” in using Wysocki's model and this has help some. By in large the two readings in unit two has aided me in developing my thinking as a better writter.

To focus my research from the large topic of Minority Education and programs such as BSU HEP, I started to look into different aspects of Minority Education. One topic that jumped out at me was the argument over the disproportionality of racial and ethnic minorities in special education. I became concerned with this topic first because it was an issued that I had never thought about before. And second because its has lead me to ask the question if disproportionality is causing a negative educational disadvantage through the generations in the minority communities. Disproportionality, is defined by the Oklahoma Parents Center website as, “...the over or under representation of minority students in special education. In other words, there is a disproportionate number, either a significantly larger or smaller percentage, of students from a specific minority background receiving special education services than the percentage of that minority in the population generally. Typically, African Americans and Hispanics are over-represented and Asians are underrepresented. IDEA ’97 specified that disproportionality needs to be addressed by state and local districts.” (http://www.oklahomaparentscenter.org/Dictionary.html)

The advocates of Special Education have worked hard to address the concern of disproportional minorities in Special Education. The main concern with disproportionality is the over-representation of minorities in special educational programs. According to Ann Logsdon, a school psychologist and the current administrator for disability services at Kentucky State University, a minority group is considered over-represented and disproportional when there is a statistically greater number of special education students within this demographic than there is in the general population of the school. EMSTAC is a federally funded organization which helps to develop and implement new strategies to improve the outcomes of students in Special Educational programs. EMSTAC provided the chart below illustrating the statistical over-representation of minorities in special education.



(http://www.emstac.org/registered/topics/disproportionality/intro.htm#top)

What this chart shows, specifically with Black (non-hispanic) students, is that the percentage of black students in special education is 136 times greater than the general population of black (non-hispanic) students.

The academic community approaches disproportional demographics with two main schools of thought. One, disproportionality happens in minorities because there is inadequate testing oversight and placement procedures for special education programs that meet the cultural differences of minorities. Second, is a question of whether or not the growing number of diverse classrooms is skewing the statistical data, based on socioeconomic conditions. This second question is one that is harder to track and debate. It's being debated that socioeconomic situations, such as poverty, family educational background and family status, is a greater factor in over-representation of minorities in special education. However this is met with great opposition stating that the socioeconomic demographics that are being over-represented are also the same demographics that are being classified as minorities. This argument is taking place mostly between Administrators, Education boards and the Teachers to special education students.

Many times in my research I feel the author of a given text is trying to easy into the idea that our current assessment process for special education is on the boarder of being race bias, and thus risks being seen as racist. I believe this topic more than the two view points above are an area of greater concern. Neither group, schools nor the schools boards want to openly address the idea there may be a racists assessment happening in their schools. This tip-toe method of dealing with race in special education has made the climate of disproportionality a very political issue. In 1997 when the IDEA bill was reauthorized, it clearly mandated that State Departments of Education address and report on the issue of Disproportional programs in special education. There is an obvious concern shown in the Educational communities for this problem and many programs are being designed and changed to lessen disproportionality in special education.

Most documentation and discussion on this topic is happening within the schools and the Educational communities, then also in political circles while new legislation is being passed. The discussion specifically addresses the need to change current programs and assessment standards. Logsdon brings up a interesting point that many are not talking about, the idea that there is a lack of communication and responsiveness with families who represent the disproportional minorities. This lack of communication leads me back to my question of a generational cycle of disadvantaged minorities in the educational system. Logsdon states that disproportionality can, “...Result in a type of racial profiling that places minority students at a disadvantage throughout their school year; Result in lowered expectations among teachers, parents, and the students themselves;...” I believe this aspect alone is causing a generational continuance of poor educational statistics among minorities. Logsdon currently is my only source which clearly speaks to parents and the affected demographic. This disassociation between parents, the community, and schools I find can be a huge contributor to the continuing and growing number of disproportionated minorities in special education programs.