children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

tempt made to find out where the kid fits, but also
a lot of times you hide behind the cultural deprivation
and it's like an incurable disease which explains
why the kid doesn't get XYZ. A lot of times, the
teacher just doesn't know what to do about it."62
The former director of the Taylor School in
Davenport had a different response. She admitted
that a disproportionate number of children at the
special school are black. She said, "disciplinarywise,"
teachers might try to refer "those kids if they
are black, even if a white child is lower academically."
And though she hated to tell us this, "IQ
tests results are the sole criteria for determining
whether a child is EMR or TMR."68 Other school
districts like Sumter County, South Carolina and
Canton, Mississippi completely rejected arguments
of cultural bias and continue to rely mainly on IQ
tests for classification and placement of children.
62 Interview with Karen DeRario, School Psychologist,
Davenport, Iowa, 11 /7/73.
68 Interview with Mrs. Betsy Schellenger, ex-Director, Taylor
School, Davenport, Iowa, 9/14/73.
106
Subjective Evaluation
Classroom teachers evaluate their students continuously
by observing their behavior, and they have
a great deal of discretionary power to have children
removed from their class and placed in special education
classes. Often their assessments of students
are based on subjective judgments and are not
bolstered by other measures and opinions. Misinterpretation
of behavior, equating symptoms with
problems, and unfamiliarity with racially and culturally
different children may result in misclassification.
The head social worker in Cambridge, Massachusetts'
Children's Developmental Clinic reported
that: "Learning disability is a whole new thing.
Many teachers refuse to believe that a bright kid has
anything wrong with him. . . . What happens with
so many of these bright kids with LD problems is
the teachers will get very impatient. . . . They just
label them off as lazy. "64 Another school official in
Cambridge claimed that special education classes
"... consist of kids that don't react normally to
regular classroom situations rather than strictly retarded
and emotionally disturbed kids. "65 A Davenport
official said, "Teachers who feel 'low functioning'
kids are too much trouble wish that special
education would take them all away. Especially at
the junior and senior high school level, the staff has
often made a decision about placing a child in special
education or kicking him out of school."66 In
Davenport, the Director of Special Education said
they have made good progress in keeping special education
from becoming a dumping ground for children
teachers don't want to handle. He added however,
that "a teacher trying to differentiate among the 70+
IQs says 'I can handle the one who says "good
morning," "good bye" and erases the blackboards
but not the hellion.' "67 A former Springfield, Massa-
64 Interview with Mrs. Ruth Young, Head Social Worker,
Children's Developmental Clinic, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
1/17/74.
65 Interview with Howard Hughes, former Coordinator,
Donnie Harding, Coordinator, Roberts Community School,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 7/30/73.
66 Interview with an official in Davenport, Iowa, who asked
to remain anonymous.
67 Interview with Donald Tupper, Director, Special Education
and Pupil Services, Davenport, Iowa, 11/6/73.