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This mess we're in Other History
LessonsBeth A. FerriSyracuse University
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Reading Resistance Discourses of Exclusion in
Desegregation and Inclusion Debates Ferri, BA
Connor, DJ Peter Lang Publisher 2006 Original
cover design by David J. Connor
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Anniversariesa time for reflection

• 50th anniversary of Brown
• 30th anniversary of IDEA
• Yet, schools are as segregated as they ever
  were, with white students remaining the most
  segregated of all student groups and students
  with disabilities continuing to be educated in
  segregated classrooms.

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Separate and Unequal

• Separation on the basis of disability is apt to
  leave an enduring imprint on the hearts and minds
  of disabled young people
• - Harlan Hahn

• Segregating Black students creates a feeling of
  inferiority as to their status in the community
  that may affect their hearts and minds in a way
  very unlikely ever to be undone - Justice Warren

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Troubling Origin stories

• Brown v. Board of Education, is also listed in
  most of the leading special education textsas
  the first major special education law
• -Zirkel, 2005

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Ability Profiling -Collins, 2003

• The Office of Civil Rights has reported
  persistent overrepresentation of students of
  color in special education since the 1970s.

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Checking the facts

• Black students are
• 3 times as likely to be labeled MR
• 2 times as likely to be labeled ED and,
• 1.5 times as likely to be labeled LD as white
  students.

• Once labeled students of color are more likely to
  be placed in more restrictive placements than
  their white peers.
• -Losen, D.J. Orfield, G. (2000)

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To the Editor of the NYT

• I have read the recent decision of the Supreme
  CourtIt is every childs Magna Chartaensuring
  every childs right to learn and to relate
  himself to this world.
• In addition to Black students, there are
  close to five million other children who will be
  directly affected by this decision. I am not
  speaking ofwhite children, many of whom have
  been injured spiritually by the philosophy and
  practice of segregation

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• I am speaking of disabled children, who are
  different, not because of color, but because of
  blindness, deafnessor are what we call
  retarded. These children we have also
  segregatedand kept out of school.
• And yetacceptance by others and a natural
  relationship with the worldare necessary for
  the disabled child if he is to make a good life
  for himself.
• And in the doing of it we adults may grow, too,
  in wisdom and gentleness.
• Lillian Smith, author of Strange Fruit
• May 31, 1954

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So, the question remains

• Is inclusion one civil rights struggle
  building upon another?
• Or, is the relationship between special
  education and desegregation more complicated???

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Data Collection

• Atlanta Daily World
• Richmond Afro-American
• Philadelphia Tribune
• Chicago Defender

• Desegregation, 1953-56
• New York Times
• Atlanta (Journal ) Constitution
• Washington Post
• Southern School News

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Why editorial pages?

• Interested in everyday discourse rather than
• Academic or professional debates
• Legal discussions
• Range of opinions circulating at the time

• editorials
• Op-eds
• letters to the editor
• editorial cartoons

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Lessons Learned

• Science is always inside culture
• Need for intersectional policy practice
• Futility of incremental change

• 4. When challenging normalcy, expect a struggle
• 5. Importance of dialogue across difference
• 6. Power re-circulates

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Incremental change

• The case-by-case approach has been
  particularly ineffective in changing deeply
  entrenched school system procedures and
  practices (Soltman Moore, 2002)

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Ability profiling

• draws on cultural narratives and deficit
  discourses regarding students of color and Black
  males in particular (Collins, 2003, p. 192)

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From different to deficient

• Most AA students are low average or below
  average (Missouri, 1955).
• The scholastic differences are justdreadful
  (Missouri, 1955).

• The majority of Negro pupilsare slow learners,
  need special attention, and may ultimately
  affect the quality of education (Second year,
  1956)

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inherently unequal

• It is difficult to find a more clearly racist
  outcome of than the disproportionate segregation
  of minority students from the gen.ed. system
  (Beratan, 2006)
• has the law IDEA become a convenient
  mechanism for sorting individuals based on their
  perceived abilities and their racial or ethnic
  identity? (Fierros, 2006).

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Expect a struggle

• Many forecasted that integrated schools would
  bring violence and bloodshed (SSN, 1956, June)
• Expect a counter-attack and bloody results
  (Hancock, 1954).

• Inclusion would bring disruption and chaos
  (Lewin, 1997).
• Students might lash out in frustration
  (Maushard, 1994).
• It would lead to juvenile delinquency (Kent,
  1998).

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Need for intersectional educational reform

• Brown failed to predict how special education
  would be used as a mechanism to re-segregate
  students within otherwise desegregated schools

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Recommendations (Harry Klinger, 2006 Soltman
Moore, 2002)

• Eliminate labeling sp.ed. As service to all
• Reallocate resources
• Stop comparing dissimilar schools and publishing
  scores
• All tests (inc. high stakes) in primary language
  with appropriate A/M

• Address school-based risk (class size,
  under-funded schools, unprepared/unqualified
  teachers
• Redefine regular ed classroom as no more than 30
  identified or included students

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Recommendations(Darling-Hammond, 2004 Ferri
Connor, 2006)

• Focus on inaccessible classroom structures
• Differentiate Instruction for all students
• Accountability is a two-way street (need
  opportunity to learn standards)

• De-track
• Diversify the teaching force and the curriculum
• Anti-racist
• Anti-ableist

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Thank you

• Questions?