IBEA - Part 4 - School Systems Have Been There - Done That

My idea for the Individuals With Blackness Education Act (IBEA) follows the same thinking that public schools systems have toward the Individuals With Disabilities ACT (IDEA).



Check out the public comments on these two links.


Breakthrough-in-legal-dispute-over-black-students-in-pinellas



New Gibbs High principal vows to take the Pinellas school from an "F" to a "B" - St. Petersburg Times

Then, put on your comprehension hat and check out this link:
Over-Identification of Students of Color in Special Education:
A Critical Overview


Chew through the statistics and implications of same. Don't stop in the middle after assuming you get the gist of the opening pages. Since 1975, when our professional public school systems were forced to try to educate students with disabilities, some 20 years after they were forced to try to educate black students, school systems have over-identified students with blackness as special-ed students and under-identified students with blackness as gifted.

Think about the numbers of students who have been mislabled and "taught" on a false premise. How does one develop a specialized set of instructions designed to meet the individualized needs of a student with a disability when the disability does not exist. Yet, I dare say that the number of appropriate individualized education programs designed every year are deemed 100% appropriate.

What may be missing in the discussion about why the black population is not measuring up to current public education and standards may be based on the fact that the public education system does not know how to accurately evaluate, and therefore teach, black students.


What may be of more importance is that the prejudice of the system actually creates or fosters low expectations and creates or fosters low outcomes for black students. Thousands of parents yearly are told, by professional educators of exceptional ed students, that, when confronted with evaluation results that indicate the student's need for special education services, that the parents are "in denial" if they disagree with the findings. Few should doubt the arrogance of the public school system.

If the school system has been wrong for so long regarding special education and black students, what leaves us to believe that they are right regarding regular education for black students?