Brown v Board of Education Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Brown v Board of Education - Research Paper Example Thus, public schools could achieve only limited success in integration of white and black students in desegregated schools. A study involving six communities and schools reveals that educators tried to convince the middle class white parents and students for desegregation so as to prevent them from moving out which would make the public schools economically unviable. At the same time, black students were often asked to leave their community schools by offering them bus facilities and such actions resulted in the closure of those black schools. (Wells, Holmes and Revilla). The policy makers tried to bring about color blindness in toto. It was to some extent achieved as stated by the authors â€Å"†¦.when several of the districts and schools we studied had seen a great deal of racial tension and even â€Å"rioting†. By the late 70s, a degree of clam had returned; not talking about race seemed the best way to â€Å"keep the peace† and â€Å"to keep the lid on things † (Wells, Holmes and Revilla 13). Major Claim   A Prejudice and unequal treatment Although schools were desegregated and students of color and whites started attending the same public schools, the administration put the black students in separate class rooms within the same schools. Their needs were often ignored (Wells, Holmes and Revilla). African Americans are over represented in special education The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)3 provides for free public education to students with disabilities. This special education efforts call for initiatives on the part of schools to have appropriate procedures to ensure that a child referred for special education is actually a child with... The paper tells that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for free public education to students with disabilities. This special education efforts call for initiatives on the part of schools to have appropriate procedures to ensure that a child referred for special education is actually a child with disability requiring special education. It is often the case that wrong cases of children are referred for special education. It is especially the case with African American students in many districts of the country. This results in a disproportionate representation of group membership for special education. Overrepresentation in special education is said to occur when the membership of a particular group, say African Americans is found to be larger than the percentage of that group in the overall educational system or within a given disability group. Such a variance is a cause for concern (Council For Exceptional Children and Black School Education). It has been contended that disproportionate representation of African American students in special education results due to inadequate/wrong allocation of educational resources, wrongful curriculum and pedagogy, and insufficient teacher preparation. The White privilege and racism is charged with referring disproportionate number of African American students for special education categories such as mental retardation and learning disabilities. Such students once labeled as such tend to show results in achievement gains and come out of special education at rates much higher than those of their counterparts in White students with disabilities.