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    Special Education As a Socioeconomic Weapon
    Special Education As a Socioeconomic Weapon
    Special Education As a Socioeconomic Weapon
    Ebook73 pages55 minutes

    Special Education As a Socioeconomic Weapon

    By Rick Wallace Ph.D, Psy.D.

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    About this ebook

    This book was commissioned by The Odyssey Project for the purpose of establishing an official position on an enigmatic issue that has been at the core of multitudinous conundrums within the black collective. For more nearly 40 years the special education system in the U.S. has been used as a mechanism to isolate and ostracized African American youth, especially young African American males. This book not only outlines this longstanding problem, but it also highlights the influence that institutional racism and cultural indifference play in the dynamic responsible for disproportionality in the special education system.

    There is a wealth of pragmatic and empirical evidence that suggests that the disproportionate representation of African Americans in the special education system is far from coincidental. The numbers that support the position established in this book are beyond bearing statistical significance — demanding the attention of all entities involved. The disproportionality outlined within this document identifies a number of fallible paradigms and processes that must be addressed in totality if African American students are ever to receive a reasonable opportunity within this system.

    To bring further elucidation to the official position of The Odyssey Project, it should be understood that we advocate a separate and independent system of education for African American Students — a system that is owned, funded and operated by African Americans. Our youth have unique racial, social and cultural needs that are not addressed within the Eurocentric public education system in the U.S. The deficiencies in these specific areas compound the proclivity of the public education system to assign special education labels to black youth in disproportionate numbers.

    The book further identified teacher attitudes and behaviors, the lack of teacher training, the cultural indifference between African American students and the institutions that they attend, the bias of school psychologists in their assessments of African American students and more.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRick Wallace Ph.D, Psy.D.
    Release dateMay 2, 2017
    ISBN9781370322428
    Special Education As a Socioeconomic Weapon
    Author

    Rick Wallace Ph.D, Psy.D.

    Born in the late 60's to a fifteen-year-old mother and an absent father, I was taken in at the age of nine months by my great grandparents. They adopted me when I was two. I was precocious as a child and I'm sure my grandmother would add, quite loquacious. My grandmother took advantage of my inherent ability to learn and my inexorable desire to talk. She sat me down at the age of two, switch in hand, and began to teach me the story of the creation as revealed in Geneses 1-3. Once I had it committed to memory, my grandmother taught me to recite it with passion. She then took me from church to church, put a microphone in my hand and made me recite it before the congregation. My grandmother said she was being obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in teaching me the Bible, thank God she did. My grandfather was the one who taught me how to be a man. Born in 1909, he had to stop schooling in the second grade to help his parents who sharecropped. Because of this he stressed education and achievement. Though he passed away at the age of 83 in 1992, he is still very much with me. My grandmother passed recently, in March 2010 at the age of 92. I am a proud father of seven ranging in age from 2 to 31. I consider each one a blessing from God. You will be introduced to each one individually through my writings. My children are a constant reminder of how much God loves me. Thanks to my grandparents, I had a wonderful childhood. I was given an immense appreciation for scholarship and carried the natural gift of athleticism. Throughout school, I put both to use. I have been blessed both in athletic achievement and in the attainment of academic knowledge. Both have contributed to my advancement in life. I feel it necessary to give honorable mention to four people who had an enormous impact on my life. Ms. Geraldine François, my 4th-6th grade teacher. Ms. François was an accelerated learning teacher who saw something special in me and refused to accept anything less than my best. This included my handwriting. She said no one would ever discern the depth of my intelligence if they were not able to decipher my handwriting. To this day, my handwriting is identical to hers and most women find it humorously unbefitting a man. Mr. Brewer was my seventh grade history teacher. He instilled the intrinsic value of self-discipline. Mr. Brewer was a former college instructor who discovered that man...

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      Book preview

      Special Education As a Socioeconomic Weapon - Rick Wallace Ph.D, Psy.D.

      Special Education as a Socioeconomic Weapon

      A Position Paper Commissioned by The Odyssey Project

      By:

      Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

      Published March 1, 2016

      © 2016 by The Odyssey Project

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retail site and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Content

      Executive Summary

      Introduction

      Statement of the Problem

      Consequences

      Contributing Factors

      The New Jim Crow

      Causes of Special Education Disproportionality

      Systematic Factors that Impact Racial Disproportionality

      Institutional Racism

      Ecological Context

      Teachers

      The Need for Increased Training for Teachers

      Cultural Insensitivity by Teachers

      The Presence of Teacher Bias

      School Psychologist

      Student and Family Factors

      Solutions

      Teachers

      School Psychologist

      Effective Schools

      Student Attitude and Behaviors

      Parental and Community Involvement

      The Need for System Remediation

      New Policy and Legislation

      African-Centered Think Tanks

      Conclusion

      Additional Resources

      Bibliography

      Executive Summary

      This book was commissioned by The Odyssey Project for the purpose of establishing an official position on an enigmatic issue that has been at the core of multitudinous conundrums within the black collective. For more nearly 40 years the special education system in the U.S. has been used as a mechanism to isolate and ostracized African American youth, especially young African American males. This book not only outlines this longstanding problem, but it also highlights the influence that institutional racism and cultural indifference play in the dynamic responsible for disproportionality in the special education system.

      There is a wealth of pragmatic and empirical evidence that suggests that the disproportionate representation of African Americans in the special education system is far from coincidental. The numbers that support the position established in this book are beyond bearing statistical significance — demanding the attention of all entities involved. The disproportionality outlined within this document identifies a number of fallible paradigms and processes that must be addressed in totality if African American students are ever to receive a reasonable opportunity within this system.

      To bring further elucidation to the official position of The Odyssey Project, it should be understood that we advocate a separate and independent system of education for African American Students — a system that is owned, funded and operated by African Americans. Our youth have unique racial, social and cultural needs that are not addressed within the Eurocentric public education system in the U.S. The deficiencies in these specific areas compound the proclivity of the public education system to assign special education labels to black youth in disproportionate numbers.

      The book further identified teacher attitudes and behaviors, the lack of teacher training, the cultural indifference between African American students and the institutions that they attend, the bias of school psychologists in their assessments of African American students and more.

      Although we advocate building a unique educational system that will be designed to meet the unique needs of African American youth, this paper does make specific suggestions as far as strategies that we believe will be efficacious in remediating the disproportionality involved in the misdiagnosis of African American youth as far as special education labels are concerned.

      Finally, it is our position that one area in which the black collective has failed to address many of its enigmatic issues, including special education and the mis-education of black youth, is the failure to create topic-specific think tanks that are dedicated to evaluating and addressing these issues. Therefore, we suggest that a significant amount of effort be invested in creating an African American Education Reform think tank. While fighting for change in the public education system, blacks must come to an erudite understanding that we are the only ones who can improve our situation.

      And, while this is not officially presented as an academic or

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