Cultural Biases of Placement in Special Education
Key educational and life decisions, such as placement in special education
classes, are based on the results of standardized tests (Gopaul-McNicol & Ar- mour-Thomas, 2002). Unjustifiable reliance on IQ and other evaluation tools (Losen & Orfield, 2002) has been cited as one of the factors contributing to the over-representation of minority children in special education classes. A central is- sue is administering assessments in English to non-native speakers (Padilla, 1988). Several lawsuits have centered on this issue, the most notable of which is Diana v. California State Board of Education (1970). This case was favorably settled for the student, however the ruling had little impact on professional practice (Padilla, 1988). Hispanic students who are non-native English speakers are still dispro- portionally represented in special education (Artiles, Rueda, Salazar, & Higareda, 2002). The unfortunate outcome of this might be that such students are likely to drop out of school at higher rates than their peers not labeled as “disabled” (Ferri & Connor, 2005).