Academic And Cultural Bias In The Classroom: A Qualitative Examination of the Overrepresentation of African American Students in Special Education

Almost forty percent of African American students are in special education programs, though they constitute only 17% of the general education population (Kunjufu, 2005). A conclusive explanation has yet to be reached as to why this disproportion exists, but multiple suggestions have been made. The ideas that will be presented in this literature review focus on factors such as race, teacher perception and preparation, cultural differences, biases in norm-referenced testing and culturally unresponsive curricula. The purpose of this research review is to gain an understanding of why these issues continue to occur, and what professionals can do to rectify this phenomenon