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Ajayi Jones talks about the importance of being the first domino and the responsibility of speaking the truth.

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Ajayi Jones talks about the importance of being the first domino and the responsibility of speaking the truth.

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Comfortability maintains the status quo - it is a leader's job to address the uncomfortable and face common fears.

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Get comfortable with being uncomfortable | Luvvie Ajayi Jones | TED

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Bridget R. Cooks discusses the importance of visual inclusion in media, in the public, and on major brands.

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Bridget R. Cooks discusses the importance of visual inclusion in media, in the public, and on major brands.

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While major companies like Disney try their best to increase inclusivity, they are not always helping. It is important to reflect on actions and listen to criticism. It is important to be open to difficult realizations.

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UCI Podcast: The cultural significance of visual representation by University of California, Irvine

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Major consumer brands across the country, from Disneyland to Quaker Oats, have announced plans to retire, evolve or review images used for marketing purposes, in response to complaints they perpetuate racial stereotypes. In today’s climate of heightened public awareness of the impact and legacy of images, Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of African American studies and art history at UCI, speaks to the need for comprehensive, widespread change.

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Amanda Armstrong discusses the demographics of educational materials and how to approach this in the classroom.

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Amanda Armstrong discusses the demographics of educational materials and how to approach this in the classroom.

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"Affirm that students are part of learning environments and communities by including U.S. demographic subgroups in American history curricula and educational materials generally. Educators should ensure that materials reflect American people, history, current events, and society and provide a balance of windows and mirrors."

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Mirrors and Windows

When describing children's experiences with literature, Rudine Sims Bishop developed the concepts of "mirrors" and "windows," which researchers and educators still apply. Mirrors refer to materials that make connections with students' daily experiences, whereas windows expose students to and help them acknowledge and appreciate different contexts and cultures.

Students may identify with characters based on familiar circumstances and life experiences, similar personalities, shared hobbies, common heritages, and social identity such as race, ethnicity, and gender. When materials are mirrors, students are more positively engaged in their learning process (i.e., asking questions and completing assignments).

Culturally responsive materials can enhance students' engagement, improve their academic achievement, and support their written and oral language development and reading comprehension. Materials that are mirrors can serve as bridges to materials that are windows. Students also value learning about people who have different circumstances, perspectives, and cultures.

Some researchers define educational materials as "societal curriculum" because they indirectly teach students about cultures, languages, attitudes, behaviors, and society's expectations of and values attributed to them and different people based on social identity markers. Characters also influence children's racial/ethnic and gender identity development and their understanding of different racial, ethnic, and gender groups.

Representation of Social Groups

When examining windows and mirrors available for different racial, ethnic, and gender groups, research indicates an underrepresentation and patterns of limited and narrow portrayals of characters from certain social groups, even with some progress.

Studies of children's books indicate that most of the characters within the sample are White, ranging from half to 90 percent of the illustrations. Characters who represent Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities are about 10 percent of the illustrations or fewer, with some ethnic and racial groups featured at 1 percent. Textbook analyses indicate that European White Americans are featured in half or more of pictorials and illustrations (in some cases more than 80 percent), and people of BIPOC communities are featured less frequently, with some groups featured as low as 1 percent. Both cases differ from U.S. Census demographics.

Research typically examines gender from a female/male binary perspective. Studies from the 20th century to the present indicate a fluctuation of representation, with some periods featuring males more than females (sometimes twice as much), and other times there is a balance. One study that examined gender representation in award-winning books found no nonbinary characters, whereas a study that focused on LGBTQ-themed books found transgender characters represented.

Educational software also reveals a similar gender disparity, with males in some cases presented twice as much or more than females. One study highlighted a gradual decrease in female character representation between pre-K and 12th grade. When examining the intersection of racial/ethnic and gender identities, findings in children's books reveal that characters of color are often males, and female characters are often White.

Researchers identified patterns of narrow and problematic portrayals, and also promising and positive depictions that may vary with each racial and ethnic group, such as mixing elements of tribal groups when presenting Native Americans or Asian Americans in lifestyles from several centuries in the past.

Educational texts may use a "heroes and holiday" approach in recognizing different heritages, focusing on celebrations and historical figures. In some cases, texts portray members of certain communities in the United States as not American. Other studies note inaccurate and/or incomplete information regarding the portrayal of people, events, and cultures.

Female characters are often presented as passive, dependent, and submissive, and engaged in activities that include shopping, cooking, and caretaking. However, there is a shift toward portraying females as more active and engaged in a variety of roles. Nonbinary and transgender characters are rarely portrayed, and those characters of intersectional racial/ethnic and gender identities may be presented in limiting and problematic portrayals, with occasional affirming depictions.

Applying Findings to Educational Settings

The report concluded with three takeaways that can inform educators of strategies to implement in their settings.

Create a sense of belonging: A fuller story of the United States, its people, and demographic subgroups is needed. Affirm that students are part of learning environments and communities by including U.S. demographic subgroups in American history curricula and educational materials generally. Educators should ensure that materials reflect American people, history, current events, and society and provide a balance of windows and mirrors.

Develop cultural authenticity: Scholars noted the cultural background of content creators and if they shared the same background as the primary characters. When choosing and developing educational materials, examine the characters, their activities, and the creator's ability to authentically represent complex depictions. This could mean creating a vetting system for materials and curricula to ensure that they are authentic and accurate.

Recognize nuanced identity: Details of stories and characters, such as interactions and relationships between characters, names, clothing, and variation within groups, are important and can support students in identifying, relating, and connecting to a variety of careers, disciplines, and hobbies. Educators can curate a list of culturally responsive materials that offer opportunities to connect and identify with characters.

Culturally responsive education, when done well with intention, makes all students feel they are a part of the educational community.

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A Troubling Lack of Diversity in Educational Materials

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When describing children's experiences with literature, Rudine Sims Bishop developed the concepts of "mirrors" and "windows," which researchers and educators still apply. Mirrors refer to materials that make connections with students' daily experiences, whereas windows expose students to and help them acknowledge and appreciate different contexts and cultures.

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Jocelynn Hubbard discusses ways to use culturally relevant and responsive teaching in the classroom. A teacher's most important resource: their students.

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Jocelynn Hubbard discusses ways to use culturally relevant and responsive teaching in the classroom. A teacher's most important resource: their students.

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Listen in for details about each:

Consider the filters and lenses through which you were taught to be a teacher and the impact that has on the way you teach.
Get to know your students authentically.
Intentionally audit and revamp lessons that you have already created.
Remember to incorporate the four types of resources - window, mirror, map, and sliding glass doors
Ask the three anchor questions

In the episode I mention:

Resource Promo Code for website https://customteachingsolutions.com - podcastcts

"Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Asking a Different Question" by Dr. Gloria Ladson Billings

"Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice" by Dr. Geneva Gay

"Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy" by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

"Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain" by Zaretta Hammond

"Choosing to See" by Kyndall Brown & Pamela Seda

Grade Level Book Recommendations - Click HERE to access the GOOGLE FOLDER.

Lesson Plan Coaching Call - Click HERE to schedule

Activities for creating a welcoming and inclusive class - Buy resources in my TEACHER SHOP

Culture-Centered Teacher WORKSHOPS - Click HERE for more information

Ready to take action?

Grab your FREE "The Ultimate Classroom Diversity Checklist" at https://customteachingsolutions.com/thechecklist
Schedule a free DISCOVERY CALL at https://calendly.com/customteachingsolutions/35min
Check out The Culture-Centered Teacher Workshops HERE!

CONNECT WITH ME:

Email - Jocelynn@customteachingsolutions.com

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Website - https://customteachingsolutions.com

**Custom Teaching Solutions is a affiliate for the Amazon Associates Program, which means we receive a commission on every sale that comes through our link.**

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Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jocelynn-hubbard/support

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s2.e8 - 5 ways to use culturally relevant and responsive teaching in your classroom

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‎The Culture-Centered Classroom: S2.E8 - 5 ways to use culturally relevant and responsive teaching in your classroom on Apple Podcasts

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Listen in for details about each: Consider the filters and lenses through which you were taught to be a teacher and the impact that has on the way you teach. Get to know your students authentically. Intentionally audit and revamp lessons that you have already created. Remember to incorporat...

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2022's Teacher of the Year: Kurt Russel... and the importance of a diverse teaching force.

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2022's Teacher of the Year: Kurt Russel... and the importance of a diverse teaching force.

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Kurt Russell, a veteran high school history teacher in Oberlin, Ohio, was named the 2022 National Teacher of the Year on Tuesday by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

"Kurt is a powerful advocate who always puts students at the center of his work," the selection committee said in a statement. "With more than two decades in the classroom and strong connections to his community, he speaks with warmth and honesty on how schools can best meet students' needs. Kurt will be a passionate and authentic voice for teachers and students as 2022 National Teacher of the Year."

Now in his 25th year as a teacher, Russell emphasizes cultural relevance and diverse representation in the curriculum of classes he teaches, including African American history; U.S. history; International Baccalaureate History of the Americas; and Race, Gender and Oppression. "Through these courses," he said, "I provide an inclusive and safe environment for studying the histories of diverse groups and encouraging all students' voices to be heard."

Russell, a member of the Ohio Education Association, also serves as a lead teacher for the school, advisor to the Black Student Union (BSU), and head coach of the varsity basketball team.

"On behalf of the NEA's more than three million members," said National Education Association President Becky Pringle, "we congratulate Kurt for creating an environment where every student feels welcome, no matter their race, background, or ability...He is building a community of young critical thinkers who will enter the world more curious, open-minded, and knowledgeable - who will be able to see the world as it truly is - and demand more."

Empowering Students

Russell was born and raised in Oberlin and attended the same school where he now teaches. He was inspired to become a teacher by Larry Thomas, the first Black teacher he ever had. It was a revelation, he recalled, to actually see a teacher who looked like him. Thomas regularly attended student events, always dressed well, and was respected in school and in the community-a model Russell has successfully emulated throughout his career.

Russell's classroom has been a space for students to confront and examine difficult issues around race and injustice that directly impact their lives. In the wake of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders in 2020, that work took on more urgency. As advisor to the Black Student Union that he helped organize at Oberlin, Russell has been instrumental in fostering a school-wide conversation around racial injustice. Furthermore, he helped organize a restorative justice agenda that has helped cut suspensions and behavior referrals at the school.

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Meet Kurt Russell, the 2022 National Teacher of the Year | NEA

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Kurt Russell, a veteran high school history teacher in Oberlin, Ohio, was named the 2022 National Teacher of the Year on Tuesday by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). "Kurt is a powerful advocate who always puts students at the center of his work," the selection committee said in a statement.

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"One way to measure this impact is by involving students in conversation circles and listening to what they say."

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"One way to measure this impact is by involving students in conversation circles and listening to what they say."

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Cultural diversity should be student-led. Students can be the experts in an inclusive environment.

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This story initially appeared in the Hechinger Report on Sept. 19, 2022.
There's a new look to history classes in New York City schools: a curriculum in Asian American and Pacific Islander history. Its creators say they've felt a a surge of support, in part because the idea could provide long-term solutions to help combat the extraordinary rise in hate crimes targeting all Asian Americans seen since the beginning of the pandemic. It could also help resolve the internal conflicts that many Asian Americans experience when dealing with their sense of identity.

New York City's Department of Education is the latest public school system to require that U.S. history instruction include an Asian American and Pacific Islander K-12 curriculum. The program will be piloted this fall at selected schools and fully rolled-out in over 1,800 schools by the spring. The curriculum is part of the Hidden Voices Project, initiated by the New York City Department of Education's Social Studies Department and the Museum of the City of New York.

New York City Schools join seven states that now require Asian American and Pacific Islander studies and 15 states that have recently introduced legislation creating these requirements, according to a recent study by The Committee of 100, a nonpartisan group promoting the full participation of Chinese Americans in U.S. society. But many hurdles must still be overcome by lawmakers and policymakers, before they can assess the effectiveness of the curriculum and its impact, if any, on healing societal wounds.

One way to measure this impact is by involving students in conversation circles and listening to what they say.

To get a sense of how students in New York feel about these changes, The Hechinger Report spoke with six public school students, representing four of the city's five boroughs, whose heritage is Asian American or Pacific Islander. Despite living in neighborhoods that are predominantly Asian, or associating primarily with other Asian Americans at school, the students said they were taught little - if anything - about their history at school.

These students want more than good intentions from the new program; they want to hold the education system accountable for producing measurable results.

For many of today's students, the new program's ideas and approaches to rethinking history and how it is taught are not radical. This generation is hyper-aware of the way that history has been framed - what is included and what is left out. In the absence of detailed information about Asian American history at school, they're teaching themselves through social media - such as videos on Tik Tok and infographics on Instagram - and their networks of friends. They have witnessed firsthand the misrepresentation of that history, in interactions in which Asian Americans are held to often harmful stereotypes

Now, they say, it's time for their history classes, educators and textbooks to catch up.

Kellen Zeng

There was something about the way history was taught at Staten Island Technical High School that disturbed Kellen Zeng, 18, of Staten Island. The students were asked to role-play during class. She presented her "witness testimony" as a Chinese war victim, accusing her classmate, who played Genghis Khan, of crimes against humanity. She couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong with it. It felt silly. She felt incredibly uncomfortable.

Although students seemed to enjoy the school-wide production, Zeng was embarrassed. "It was hilarious because some students actually dressed up and brought in Chinese hairpins and clothing from their heritage - the whole school got really into it," Zeng said. Years later, as a rising sophomore in college, she began to understand why the spectacle was so problematic.

"At the time we all thought it was funny, but looking back on it, it was a very questionable way to teach history - we were graded based on our performances," Zeng said.

Zeng grew up in the Bensonhurst area of New York - commonly referred to as "Brooklyn's Chinatown" - with a supportive community of Asian American family members, neighbors, and friends. When she moved to and went to high school in Staten Island, where the population is less than 10 percent Asian American, her school remained more than half Asian. Zeng and her friends never really ventured outside their Asian American bubble.

For Zeng, it was clear that the problems with the way world history was taught at her school bled through into the teaching of U.S. history.

"We can undo our idea of the perpetual foreigner by teaching and talking about Asian American accomplishments and contributions to the growth of the United States, but we must also acknowledge the United States' own role in shaping the harmful, dominant narrative that has been created," Zeng said.

To change the way this history is taught, instruction must place Eurocentric perspectives of world history under a critical lens, Zeng said. A more inclusive U.S. history curriculum will help Asian American students find strength within their own dual identities. They will no longer be made to feel like they don't belong, she said.

"This new Asian American curriculum will only be helpful if it gets taught 'right'," Zeng said.

Humayra Nasita

"I want people to stop telling me 'You're not Asian'. I want people to stop assuming that I'm Indian," said Humayra Nasita, 17, who is from Bangladesh. "I just want to be recognized and feel seen by my classmates."

Nasita said there are many facets to her identity: She is Asian American, South Asian American, Bengali, brown-skinned and Muslim. She is a high school senior, a Queens native, and a K-drama fan. But she has always felt the most marginalized of her identities is being Bengali.

Although she lives in Jackson Heights, a diverse neighborhood in Queens, and attends Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, where white students make up just 11 percent of the population, Nasita finds her identity excluded. Bangladesh's existence wasn't even acknowledged in her history classes.

In 2019, 53,291 Bangladeshis made up just 6.3 percent of the population of Asian American and Pacific Islander immigrants living in New York City. Nationwide, Bangladeshis comprise a much smaller share of the Asian American population; almost 40 percent of all Bangladeshis in the U.S. live in New York City."

Nasita wishes she had been taught about the history of Bengal, the province that later became Bangladesh. In particular, she wished she had been taught about the Partition of India in 1947, when India and Pakistan were divided into two countries, and Indian Bengal - and many of its Bengali people - was assigned to distant Pakistan. Decades later it became an independent nation. To Nasita, these events in world history must be covered first, to understand how and why Bangladeshis immigrated to America.

Although the new curriculum will include Bengali representation for the first time, Nasita remains skeptical. Recently, she was enraged by broken promises made by politicians purporting to fight for educational funding. Members of her community had supported Shahana Hanif, a city council member who was one among many who voted in favor of Mayor Eric Adams' budget, with its cuts to educational programs.

"Yes, we need representation - but we actually need much more than that," Nasita said. "We need funding."

Karen Kong

Karen Kong, 16, has unwavering pride in her Chinese American heritage, rooted in her sense of family and honor. Relying heavily on her parents and maintaining strong connections with her family is how she feels the most "Asian."

Kong's father immigrated from Hong Kong over 40 years ago and settled in Manhattan. He started working as a truck driver - a job that he holds currently. After marrying her father, Karen's mother came later from Jiangmen, China, and took a job as a home health-care provider. While her father is fluent in English, her mother experienced some difficulties with the language. The couple moved to Sunset Park, and moved again to Dyker Heights when Kong was 10 years old.

In the last two years, Kong has learned that Asian American issues are very real and that they need actionable solutions. As Asian Americans have increasingly become a target for hate crimes during the pandemic - blamed for the allegedly "Chinese" virus - she worries about commuting on subways. But she's more concerned for her parents' safety than her own.

To Kong, the new history curriculum will be effective only if instruction on Asian Americans and their histories becomes more explicit. Avoiding conflict and dancing around traumatic topics would result in stagnant perceptions, she said.

Kong will be a junior taking U.S. history next year, where she hopes Asian American history will be taken seriously for the first time. "In order for history to not repeat itself, the tone is very important in the way that history is taught," said Kong. "We need to bring heaviness and severity to these topics, so they are no longer taken lightly."

Raylan Li

Raylan Li, 15, is excited to become a co-president of the Asian Culture Club this fall. A student at the N.Y.C. Lab High School for Collaborative Studies, Li sees a noticeable difference between the predominantly Asian elementary school he attended in Manhattan's Chinatown, and middle school and high school, where the student population is predominantly white.

As he got older, fewer history classes highlighted Asian Americans.

"I went from visiting the Museum of Chinese in America ( MoCA) to learning mostly about the Civil War," he said.

At his high school, he recalled how the lack of diversity in staff and teachers influenced him.

One day, a substitute teacher came up to his desk, asking him if he had completed his work. When he explained that he had already finished next week's, she began to go on about "how much he loved math." He wasn't even in math class - he was in Spanish. Then she praised the book "American Born Chinese".

He stared at her blankly.

"Yeah, I actually haven't read it," he said.

She didn't stop. She tried to bring a Chinese girl who was sitting at Li's table into the conversation.

"It was so awkward," Li said.

While Li didn't think the substitute's intentions were hostile, he thought the school should do better. But he doesn't necessarily blame her - he understands that teachers are constantly learning too.

Because of this, Li agrees it is important to retrain teachers and offer professional development classes on changing attitudes towards people of color.

"I haven't really had the space to talk about what it means to be Asian. But I think this initiative could help eliminate Asian American erasure from the education system, by giving us more visibility," said Li.

Katie Chen

"If you see something, say something" sing the overhead speaker announcements, which are New York City subway commuter gospel. But Katie Chen, 21, is more familiar with, "If you see something, keep your head down, and say nothing" - an adage her parents have passed down to her.

Chen believes that any person of color can relate to this message. The security afforded most white people is in stark contrast to the experiences of people of color, who, like her, are told to be cautious, and not take safety for granted.

Chen favors a focus on inter-relationships as a method of approaching the history curriculum, an approach identified as 'intersectionality' by groups such as the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families ( CACF).

Members of CACF's Asian American Student Advocacy Project ( ASAP), were some of the first students to get the attention of the New York City Department of Education and start the process toward reinventing the curriculum. Currently, ASAP members are working with department of education officials, offering student feedback on the curriculum.

"Addressing intersectionality means learning about how communities have come together to support one another, in addition to how communities have been historically divided," said, Kaveri Sengupta, CACF's Senior Policy Coordinator for Education.

There are many opportunities for intersectionality to be applied to the curriculum, said Sengupta. It can mean discussing the shared experiences of American immigrant communities, as well as how these experiences differed. Or it can mean covering the solidarity between marginalized groups, as when Asian Americans supported Black activists and were simultaneously influenced by Black activism to pursue their own civil rights movement in the 1960s and '70s.

"The harmful impact of not including intersectionality and only talking about Asian American accomplishments in the curriculum is that this will only reinforce the model minority myth," Sengupta said.
This story about Asian American history was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Chen stressed the importance of understanding the issues faced by other communities. "All people of color - Black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, Indigenous people - we need to support one another to build allyship and understanding," Chen said.

"It's about my connection with family members and my culture. As a first-generation American-born Asian in my family, the language barrier between me and my grandparents makes it very difficult for me to communicate with them. As I grow older and lose part of my mother tongue, I find it harder to express my emotions. I connect this to time because I feel like the family bond and the culture I'm carrying to the next generation is all going to fade away in the future. I'm in a position where I'm stuck with either relearning my language or moving on with my life. In the painting, the person sitting on the hourglass is me staring into the darkness in a clock tower. Though I'm guilty of losing my mother tongue, I'm in a place where I don't know how I'm going to reclaim my culture"

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We asked Asian American students what they wanted from history instruction. They say including their voices is not enough.

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This story initially appeared in the Hechinger Report on Sept. 19, 2022. There's a new look to history classes in New York City schools: a curriculum in Asian American and Pacific Islander history.

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"Michigan and California are both known for highly rated schools that receive thousands of applications from across the country. With admissions extremely competitive, applicants from underrepresented groups face higher obstacles to enrollment."

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"Michigan and California are both known for highly rated schools that receive thousands of applications from across the country. With admissions extremely competitive, applicants from underrepresented groups face higher obstacles to enrollment."

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Underrepresentation can affect enrollment and the policies that play a role in this situation are diverse.

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Affirmative Action Was Banned at Two Top Universities. They Say They Need It. (Published 2022)

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As a Supreme Court case on college admissions nears, the California and Michigan university systems say their efforts to build diverse classes have hardly worked.

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"I also love that reading teaches me about people who are different from me. So it is really confusing when I hear about books I love that are on banned books lists because they discuss racism or have gay characters..."

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"I also love that reading teaches me about people who are different from me. So it is really confusing when I hear about books I love that are on banned books lists because they discuss racism or have gay characters..."

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Student voices are the most powerful for educators. This student speaks the truth about the importance of access to controversial topics in literature.

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I still remember the time in elementary school when my mom and I were sorting books on my bookshelf. We would choose which ones to keep and which to give away so we could make room for new ones.

Sometimes, my mom would place books that I had put in the giveaway pile back on my shelves - books like "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters," "Amazing Grace," and "Lily Brown's Paintings." When I asked her why, she said she didn't remember having picture books with Black characters when she was a kid and wanted me to make sure my library always had books with characters who looked like me.

Ever since then, I sometimes have trouble trading out books with Black and Asian characters because those are the books I sometimes relate to the most.

When I was 9, I started Elena Reads, a blog to share my love of reading with others and introduce people to diverse books they might not have known existed. For example, on my blog, I reviewed "Loretta Little Looks Back" by Andrea Davis Pinkney (about a Black family living when slavery and segregation were legal) and "The War That Saved My Life" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (about a girl who has a disability and faces abuse). I want to make sure these books are accessible to everyone.

From a young age, I've loved books. Sometimes, reading gives me the feeling of escaping this world and going into another one. I love playing the scenes of the story in my head. It's like a movie, but better. I also love that reading teaches me about people who are different from me. So it is really confusing when I hear about books I love that are on banned books lists because they discuss racism or have gay characters, for instance.

Why would parents and educators want to take amazing books with diverse characters out of schools and off library shelves?

Jerry Craft's Newberry award-winning "New Kid," a funny graphic novel about a Black boy attending a mostly white middle school, tackles racism and stereotypes, and it shows how hurtful they can be. I can't understand why a school district in Texas banned this book, which is based on the author's life.

When I interviewed Craft recently, he told me he didn't really get why people were so upset about his book. He said one parent didn't like how the white characters were depicted and worried that it would make her white child feel bad about real things happening in the world. He said if that parent had taken the time to read the book, she would have seen that many of the white characters aren't depicted as bad or evil. And, when complaining parents say that everyone is "equal," they dismiss injustices and experiences that happened to many people of color, the LGBTQ community, and those with disabilities.

It's particularly upsetting to see diverse books banned because it makes it harder for students who are Black and brown or who are gay to see themselves in what they are reading. When we read about characters whose experiences correlate with our own, it makes us realize that our stories matter. And these books also help other readers open their eyes to people who are different from them.

For example, I think kids can learn about what it is like to be an immigrant family in this country if they read "Front Desk," by the award-winning author Kelly Yang. It is a story about a Chinese family who immigrates to America. The book details their lives here and how they struggle, like when the main character is bullied because she is Asian. This is another book that some school districts have banned for being "racially divisive." When Yang heard about one such ban in a small Long Island district, she tweeted that she was "heartbroken," writing: "Books about the immigrant experience are valid. Books about POC are valid. We are valid!"

A book I read in English class, "Mexican WhiteBoy" by Matt De La Pena, also appears on some schools' banned books lists. It is about a biracial teen named Danny who finds his identity through baseball and family. Those who oppose teaching the book say it promotes "critical race theory," and white students might feel uncomfortable reading it.

But it works both ways. Sometimes it's uncomfortable for Black students to read about race. When my mom and I read "Addy" books from the American Girl series, I learned about slavery for the first time. Reading about it made me really uneasy. I was a little sad and scared, but my mom and I had conversations after every chapter, and I became more educated about racism.

This could be the answer to banning books: open conversations with parents, teachers, and others about what is being read. If we do this, we will become more understanding of what we are reading and each other, even if it is hard and uncomfortable at first.
Elena Recinto is a Michigan middle school student who reviews diverse children's books on her blog, Elena Reads. She would like to be an author one day. She usually has her nose in a book, but she has many other interests. She runs cross country, plays piano and violin, and recently played Charlie Bucket in her school musical, Willy Wonka Jr.

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First Person: Diverse books remind readers that their stories matter.

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I still remember the time in elementary school when my mom and I were sorting books on my bookshelf. We would choose which ones to keep and which to give away so we could make room for new ones.

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"... parents like Goodwin have been forced to learn how to navigate a complicated system, discovering access to special education services can vary greatly depending on their state’s eligibility criteria."

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"... parents like Goodwin have been forced to learn how to navigate a complicated system, discovering access to special education services can vary greatly depending on their state’s eligibility criteria."

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With federal policies in play, there are still vast differences in access to special education across the country.

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Portland, Ore. (InvestigateTV) - As the mother of three young boys, life for Oregon mom Edith Goodwin is always unpredictable.

Her children, she said, have unique personalities that require different skills to manage. That's not just true with how they play, but also how they learn.

For Goodwin and her oldest son, Joseph, it hasn't been easy. She's spent most of her life fighting to get him special education services through the public education system.

Goodwin's struggles happen because of disparate policies across the nation, an InvestigateTV analysis found.

As a toddler, Joseph was diagnosed with a speech delay in Colorado where the family was living at the time. Goodwin tried to get him services at a local preschool, and although he qualified, she wasn't satisfied with the process and opted for private speech therapy instead.

Diagnoses for ADHD and autism soon followed for Joseph, as the family moved for work. But the family's challenges with the special education system were just beginning.

When they later moved to New Mexico, Goodwin quickly realized eligibility for special education in that state was different.

"They looked at the records and they just looked at the bottom line, at the scores, and said he wouldn't qualify," Goodwin said.

The scores that once qualified Joseph for services in Colorado were no longer acceptable in New Mexico. The school, Goodwin said, told her there wasn't a need to put him in special education because of his performance on the assessment.

"He was very intelligent. He was a leader," Goodwin said. "He was well-liked in school, so they didn't recognize a need with him, but he was struggling and falling behind in reading."

When the family moved yet again to Idaho, Goodwin's struggle continued. Seeking advice, she turned to Facebook groups to ask how other families navigated the state's system.

"They recommended getting in touch with an outside person that could teach me how to communicate with the school," Goodwin said. "They couldn't go with me to the classroom or ask or advocate for me, but they taught me how to advocate."

Using those skills, Goodwin requested an evaluation for Joseph, but was ultimately denied.

"I did it by the book, and they still refused," Goodwin said. "And so, then I took it to the next level by filing a complaint with the state."

That complaint resulted in mediation, with Joseph eventually getting a full evaluation by different specialists.

In the end, it took Goodwin six months to get her son the services he qualified for under the state's special education policy. That battle is among the many documented in a binder she's used for years to track her efforts to obtain services for Joseph from state to state.

In Oregon, following yet another move, Joseph qualified for services with ease. But in Colorado again, the state required a repeat evaluation because it wouldn't accept the one done previously in another state by Joseph's doctor.

That was all before the family returned to Oregon once more.

"If they could have just used the information they already had and applied it, they would have been just fine. It was a lot of time that was wasted that could have helped my son," Goodwin said. "I felt like at times maybe I was failing them as a parent because I was trying to advocate for them. I was trying to do it. And yet no matter how hard I tried, it still wasn't helping."

VIDEO: Funding Special Education
Policy breakdown
The Department of Education has long watchdogged special education programs across the country.

In the 2020-2021 school year, data from the National Center for Education Statistics showed more than 7.2 million students between the ages of 3-21 received special education services under a federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Those stats show California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania were the states with the highest number of special education students enrolled as of the 2020-2021 school year.

In those states, and others, parents like Goodwin have been forced to learn how to navigate a complicated system, discovering access to special education services can vary greatly depending on their state's eligibility criteria.

Eligibility for services is largely dictated by specific disabilities outlined in the law. IDEA guarantees that students with one of 13 disabilities have access to free public education with appropriate accommodations.

Those disability categories identified by the federal government under IDEA are: Autism, deafness-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, and developmental delay.

The law allows states to create their own special education policies based on the federal IDEA framework. As a result, states can determine their own processes for identifying children for services and the evaluation criteria to meet those requirements.

To understand the variations between special education policies across the country, InvestigateTV and the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University did our own audit, requesting and analyzing the special education eligibility and evaluation policies from all 50 states.

Our analysis found major disparities from state to state, with each one determining its policies through a series of classifications: disability, age, maximum evaluation time and implementation time, and whether a medical assessment, school assessment, or both qualify as support to eligibility.

Among the findings:

In South Dakota, there are specific measurements that qualify individuals with deafness or hearing loss for services. But just across the border, Nebraska's policy has "flexibility" and states that any child with hearing loss of any degree might be eligible for services.

In Michigan, children can get special education services up until age 25.

In Connecticut, a parent only has to wait a maximum of 45 days to get their child evaluated and placed with an IEP (individualized education program). In West Virginia that process can take a maximum of 110 days, nearly four months.

While parents wait for a team formulated by the school to decide whether their child qualifies for services, states can also determine whether additional material can be used to make final decisions -- that includes medical assessments.

InvestigateTV looked closely at the differences in which material is deemed acceptable for evaluation and found:

Eighteen states don't accept a medical assessment done by a physician. The remaining states may use those assessments as part of the final decision process, but isn't guaranteed.

At least 25 states accept both medical and school assessments to help with student evaluation, including Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina.

In a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, the government watchdog looked into the variation of services offered in different states and found many examples.

"In Maryland, a child must have at least a 25 percent delay in one or more developmental areas to be eligible for Early Intervention services, while in Arizona, a child must demonstrate a 50 percent delay in one or more developmental areas to be eligible," the GAO report said.

For parents like Goodwin, who have navigated the special education system, the patchwork of policies from state to state was surprising.

"You shouldn't have to go, move from county to county and fight each school system," Goodwin said. "It's supposed to be a federal program. It's supposed to be uniform. It's supposed to be services that they are entitled to have nationwide."
Department of Education perspective
Katy Neas, deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, said the differences we uncovered are a reflection of the intent of IDEA, which was designed as a framework for states, which can then meet their obligation to provide special education in ways that work most effectively for them.

Neas emphasized that children in special education have complex and unique needs that should be addressed with individual approaches. That, she explained, takes a commitment to serving children in special education that hasn't been universal.

"If we could change attitudes that would be by far the most important thing we could do. And you only do that when you can show people what success really is," Neas said. "You can talk about it in lofty terms but until you take somebody by the hand and show them, see this child, see the progress this child has made, see the people who have come together to support this child. Once you show them what it looks like, they think, 'Oh, I can do that too.' And so I just really think we need to show people what's possible."

Neas was clear, uniformity when it comes to implementation of IDEA isn't the goal. But in some areas, including wait times for evaluation, Neas said there shouldn't be vast differences. The delays we uncovered, she said, are concerning, telling InvestigateTV states should have a sense of urgency when it comes to identifying students who need special education.

"The thought of making a child and a family wait in order to get the services their child needs that's going to influence the rest of their lives, it's just not acceptable," Neas said.
Implementation of IEPs
Ana Brannan has been studying special education for years.

As an associate professor in the Special Education program at Indiana University's School of Education, she has specialized in children's mental health services.

Brannan's interest in the special education field developed from her childhood. Having family members with special needs, she found an appreciation for helping educate people who may require services at an early age.

"I am the middle [child] of seven children so from as soon as I could walk, I was helping other little babies walk. I knew by the time I was 12, I was going to do something with kids," Brannan said. "Over the years I just met more people who had disabilities and there's a fair few in my family."

But Brannan's experience extends beyond her family. She's seen firsthand how state formulas determine special education eligibility for children. She says some states start with basic screenings, while others use an IQ test.

"There's a lot of variability across states," Brannan said. "There's also variability within states, and one of the reasons is because of resources."

The variability also extends to compliance with meeting the requirements of IDEA. Although the law has been in place for more than 40 years, many states still fall short of the government's expectations.

In a report to Congress last year, the Department of Education put more than 20 states and Washington D.C. on a list noting they "needed assistance" meeting IDEA for two or more consecutive years.

Two additional states, New York and Vermont, were classified as "needing intervention".

Brannan said the states that struggle to meet special education requirements do so because of myriad factors including a lack of funding, teacher shortages and a culture that doesn't always acknowledge the importance of providing special education services.

"Across the country, there are not enough resources in schools for kids. For kids with disabilities, even more so," Brannan said. "I think that is a challenge for all of us."

Families' experiences receiving special education services

Discovering that a child has challenges in the classroom may happen as a result of close communication with teachers.

That's one of the reasons that schools across the country implement the "Child Find" initiative, which gives teachers a pathway to highlight students that might need special education assistance. Parents can then give approval to have their children evaluated for services.

Phoenix mom Melissa Grant says her son was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia in the fourth grade. He was in kindergarten at Deer Valley Unified School District when his teacher recognized he might benefit from special education.

"I thought it was really an interesting start to the whole process because his kindergarten teacher was the one who was raising the flag, saying, 'There's something going on here'," Grant said.

Another Deer Valley parent, Jillian Jones, had a positive experience with the teachers working with her son, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school.

She now partners with faculty at DVUSD to create those positive experiences for other families who may need services.

Jones leads the Parents of DVUSD Students with Special Needs, a Facebook support group, which has 336 members.

The group offers general information and advocacy support for parents in special education and holds fundraising events for children with learning difficulties. It's similar to the group Edith Goodwin joined when seeking assistance securing services for her son, Joseph.
Rising Special Education Teacher Shortage and Implementation
Nearly half of all public schools reported part-time and full-time teaching vacancies in 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Those numbers also impact special education teachers.

"Many teachers experience burnout and stress trying to meet the needs of their students in special education," said Terry McDaniel, an Indiana State University professor and supervisor of the annual survey of Hoosier school superintendents.

McDaniel said that the COVID-19 pandemic and virtual learning only exacerbated that trend.

"In Indiana, despite the efforts of the states' DOE and the legislature to encourage people to pursue special education, the shortage only continued to increase," McDaniel said.

McDaniel said 2021 had the highest teacher shortage rate in seven years in Indiana, with 96.5 percent of the districts surveyed reporting that they had trouble finding teachers.

"Trying to find special education teachers is very, very difficult," McDaniel said.

Kelly Myers, a special education teacher at Greater Clark County Schools in southern Indiana, which is among the state's largest districts, reported that more students are being put into co-taught classes than desired.

"Due to the lack of staff, more students from general education are being placed into the resource group with around 15 to 16 students instead of the usual 10 to 12," Myers said. "Larger classes make it more difficult for teachers to meet the needs of all their pupils."

VIDEO: Understanding Special Education Challenges
Funding special education
Experts and the federal government itself recognize the lack of funding is problematic for special education.

When the government enacted IDEA in 1975, the legislation came with a commitment to fund 40% of the average cost per special education student, but that promise hasn't been kept.

As of 2020, only 13.2% of the cost of special education has been covered according to the National Education Association (NAE), a labor union. In Washington, D.C. alone, the NEA says the funding needed to fully cover special education falls short by more than $61 billion.

Neas, with the Department of Education, said states have an obligation to cover the majority of the cost of special education. But she insists Congress also needs to step up to the plate in a more significant way. "We're going to pay for the needs of these individuals one way or the other. And if we give kids more opportunities in school, they're going to be independent adults. They're going to need less support throughout the rest of their lives," she said. "I kind of feel like, pay me now or pay me later. The investments we make in education for students with disabilities, we will reap the benefits of that for decades to come."

Some members of Congress are already trying to answer that call to provide more funding. Last year Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, and Congressman Jared Huffman, D-Calif., introduced the IDEA Full Funding Act.

The legislation would offer permanent and mandatory funding to grant programs to help states and other underlying areas for special education and related services for children with disabilities.

"I think that the fact that the federal government has shortchanged schools and not met this commitment, has meant the local schools throughout the country also are shortchanging students in their budgets," said Van Hollen. "And the impact is felt by kids with disabilities."

Van Hollen said the bill would mean more special education teachers and significantly more resources in the classroom to help children with disabilities. The bill currently sits in the House.

If the legislation passes, it would alleviate some of the burdens. But challenges remain in the special education system, with training for educators among some of the most pressing issues.

Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, a mom and a special education advocate in Texas, said she thinks all teachers should have some sort of special education training regardless of their discipline.

Without that, she says parents have to figure out the system on their own. For Giwa Onaiwu, she faced her own hardships as an adoptive and biological parent of children on the spectrum.

"Trying to navigate special education was just so overwhelming," Giwa Onaiwu said. "It felt like some kind of game of whack a mole."

She often felt like she had to Google terms and find the information herself.

"I felt like I spent more time looking things up to make sure they weren't getting something over on me for my kids than anything else and I said 'Wow, I don't want anybody else to go through this," Giwa Onaiwu said.

She now uses her experience to help advocate for less isolation among special education students and help create a more inclusive environment.

After spending years navigating the special education system, mom Edith Goodwin believes more needs to be done to help families whose children may experience learning difficulties. And she'd like to see more uniformity in the process of obtaining services, so geography isn't a factor.

Her son, Joseph, is once again enrolled in programs she firmly believes are helping him achieve his educational goals. But she worries about what will happen if the family has to move again.

"They're getting a great education here in Oregon," Goodwin said. "But if you go to another state, we'll have to do the process all over again, just because they were in school and just because there is special education that doesn't guarantee an education."
Additional reporting by Hali Tauxe, Ryley Ober and Kayan Tara.

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Unequal Education: Special education policies differ from state to state

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Portland, Ore. (InvestigateTV) - As the mother of three young boys, life for Oregon mom Edith Goodwin is always unpredictable. Her children, she said, have unique personalities that require different skills to manage. That's not just true with how they play, but also how they learn.

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"... these patterns are produced, in part, through how teachers notice students’ academic and behavioral difficulties and how they interpret those difficulties."

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"... these patterns are produced, in part, through how teachers notice students’ academic and behavioral difficulties and how they interpret those difficulties."

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It is important to reflect on one's own culture and beliefs and make sure it does not negatively impact one's view of their students.

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White students in Wisconsin public schools are more likely to receive special education for higher-status disabilities than are Black, Latinx, and Asian students, shows a new study of more than 2,000 schools in the state. Conversely, Black and Indigenous students are more likely to receive special education services for lower-status disabilities compared to white students. Additionally, boys are more likely to receive special education than girls, regardless of race.

The research shows that these patterns are produced, in part, through how teachers notice students' academic and behavioral difficulties and how they interpret those difficulties.

According to NYU Steinhardt Professor of Special Education Rachel Fish, the author of the study, some categories of educational disability have higher social status and are associated with more beneficial services than others. She identifies higher-status disabilities as having a medicalized explanation of underperformance and being associated with intelligence, such as learning disabilities, autism, and ADHD. Lower-status disabilities include emotional behavioral disorder.

"Teachers' decisions to refer children for disability testing involve some subjectivity," says Fish. "In general, teachers are trying to find the best way they can to support their students, but racism and sexism shape these decisions. For example, if a child has behavioral difficulty during reading, teachers have to first, notice the difficulty, and second, interpret that difficulty. Is it a disciplinary issue, a motivation issue, boredom due to potential giftedness, or might the child have dyslexia? This study sought to understand how race and gender matter to this kind of decision-making."

Fish analyzed data from the Wisconsin Department of Instruction that identified whether or not a sample of 429,488 students in 2,214 Wisconsin schools had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), meaning they received special education services. She then created a predictive analytical model using the IEP data to determine the probability of students receiving special education services across race and gender, controlling for variables such as socioeconomic status. Her research team also conducted interviews with 27 teachers regarding 200 students in Wisconsin public elementary schools to understand teachers' perception of students' needs.

Fish determined that boys are more likely to receive special education than girls. She also found that white children are more likely to receive education for higher-status disabilities and Black and Indigenous students are more likely to receive special education services for lower-status disabilities. Her findings are published in Social Science & Medicine.

In her article, Fish notes that while a student's educational disability diagnosis is a multi-step process with input from many individuals, teachers are the primary source of referrals for special education testing, and their referrals are largely confirmed by the diagnostic process. As a result, teachers' subjective assessments of students, including those informed by biases, play a prominent role in students' disability diagnoses.

From the study's interviews, teachers revealed low academic expectations for their students of color and girls, either failing to notice academic difficulties or perceiving these difficulties as "normal" for children of color and girls across race, especially if they were well-behaved. However, teachers focused on disruptive behavior in children of color. Teachers often interpreted academic and behavioral difficulties as "choices" for children of color, or as caused by racial inequality rather than disability.

According to Fish, most of the teachers were aware of racial inequality in schooling, and of racial inequality in special education. Some felt that the best way to support equity was to resist referring children of color to disability testing, and that this was one way to hold them to higher expectations. Other teachers felt that recognizing difficulty, and diagnosing disability, was the best way to work for equity, by helping struggling students of color.

"Teachers were stuck with two imperfect options for struggling children of color. They could medicalize the difficulty as disability, which allocates services but has some harmful effects, or they could resist referral for testing, thereby reframing the difficulty as an obstacle to overcome with grit," says Fish.

This study was funded by the National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation.

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New Study Shows Racial, Gender Discrepancies in Special Education Services

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Findings due to differences in how teachers observe and interpret student difficulties