Special Education’s Assessment Process: Its Variables and Its Subjectivity.

Special education is, without a doubt, an essential service. But, it has its problems. This article will highlight how variable special education’s assessment process can be and how its variability affects BIPOC students. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), all students with special needs must be alloted appropriate instruction to meet their abilities so that they are able to stay on grade level (Lee). There are 13 different categorizations under IDEA legislation, but in this article, we will focus on the categorizations of Educable Mental Retardation (EMR), Emotional/Behavioral Disorder (EBD), and Specific Learning Disability (SLD/LD).

Specific learning disabilities are conditions that directly impede a student’s ability to read, write, listen, speak, reason, or do math (Lee). Dyslexia and dyscalculia are examples of these. Specific learning disabilities are much easier to identify as there are objective, clinical assessments that can identify what a student is struggling with (Losen, 2002). The classifications of educable mental retardation and emotional/behavioral disorder, however, entail much more subjective diagnosis (Cramer et. al, 2007). An example of EBD is bipolar disorder. EMR is less specific in that it is based on if a student’s academic progress is noticeably low and not necessarily caused by a specific, labeled disorder (Cramer et. al, 2007). The identifications of EMD and EMR require a teacher’s referral, an assessment with a phycologist, and coordination with the parent/guardian of the student. After assessment, a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) - a legally binding contract between the school and the parent/guardian - is developed to plan how the school will help a student within its special education program (Cramer et. al, 2007). Here are a few main variables that influence the identification and assessment of EMR and EBD students, framed by a multi-year case study from Columbia University’s Teachers College:

1. A student may behave differently with one teacher than another.

2. The student’s behavior deemed intolerable by one teacher may not be a problem for another.

3. The teacher and/or the school psychologist in charge of referral and assessment may make assumptions about a student or their family which may skew the placement decision.

4. The assessment process may not work for the student. Special education and its labeling carry a stigma which may cause the student unnecessary stress and present a lack of cooperation during assessment. As a result, the answers a student gives during testing may come out wrong. The questions that are asked may also trigger an emotional reaction or even a personal response that taints a student’s performance.

5. The IEP may not be the right fit for a student, but rather than alter the program to fit a student’s needs, administrators may choose to keep them on the track of the original IEP. This seems reasonable as IEPs are legally-binding documents, but an inflexible approach is not always in the student’s best interest.

6. Parents may not be given all the information gathered in referral and placement decisions. Parents have rights in their child’s placement, but if they are not presented with the information in a comprehensive way or asked to provide their perspective of their child’s behavior, the assessment may be inaccurate which may lead to a misplacement of the student.

These assessment issues are not uncommon, and for BIPOC students, misplacement based on these contradictions happens at a much higher rate than for their white counterparts (Losen, 2002). As was observed by the researchers of the aforementioned study, BIPOC students are overrepresented in special education. In this series of essays, we will see why this overrepresentation is so prevalent and how its long-term effects have influenced students’ well-being and altered the purpose of special education.

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References

Cramer, Elizabeth et al. Case Studies of Minority Student Placement in Special Education. Teachers College Press. 2007.

Lee, Andrew. The 13 disability categories under IDEA. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2020, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/special-education-basics/conditions-covered-under-idea.

Losen, Daniel J. and Gary Orfield. Racial Inequity in Special Education. Harvard Education Press. 2002.