Special Education Vs. Gifted Programs: Study Reveals Racial Bias A Big Factor In Deciding Between Special Or Gifted Students

How do educators determine if a student is better suited for special education or a gifted program? A new study has revealed that racial bias could be a big factor. Unfortunately, it also highlights how education inequality is even more present in America's education system.

The study, which has been published in the Science Direct journal for Social Science Research, was undertaken by Rachel Fish of New York University. She was able to identify that teachers have a bias against a student's ethnic background in determining if a child is mentally gifted or has disabilities.

Fish said that she was interested in doing her research based on her experience as a special education professor. "I wondered if we were unintentionally treating children differently for different reasons," she said, according to Huffington Post.

Fish provided 70 teachers from different elementary public schools case studies of fictional male students with different ethnic and racial backgrounds, as well as academic and behavioral characteristics. She asked the teachers to recommend whether these male students were either meant for special education or gifted programs.

Fish's research showed that the teachers were likely to put Caucasian students in gifted classes. Black and Latino students, on the other hand, were usually recommended for special education classes, with emphasis on behavioral help.

The study also highlighted how teachers tend to believe a white student's low or academic performance is normal. But for black and Latinos, low performance in school could be associated with behavioral issues that should be addressed.

Referrals and recommendations are common among schools and educators. If this kind of thinking happens on a larger scale, then it does affect America's education system.

"This subjectivity has implications for inequalities in education by race and ethnicity," the study author noted, according to Science Daily. "Students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are perceived and treated differently in schools."