Project lead: a training program for minority educators in special education and educational leadership

College Student Journal, June, 2004 by Renitta L. Goldman, Jerry Aldridge, Lou Anne Worthington

During recent years, the U.S. Department of Education has funded several projects designed to develop and implement personnel preparation for special educators. Unfortunately, few special educators enter administrative positions. This article highlights the opportunities given to educators, the majority from minority backgrounds, to provide significant leadership in their urban communities while training them to become experts in the fields of special education, educational leadership, and literacy.

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Considerable shifts in the composition of the school-aged population have occurred during the past twenty-five years. Specifically, more students from culturally diverse backgrounds and who live in poverty are attending our national's schools (Winzer & Mazurek, 1998). These demographic shifts reflect an increased need for personnel preparation for all educators, and in particular, special educators, so that they can address the considerable range of needs that characterize today's diverse school populations.

The need for personnel preparation becomes even more critical among school personnel who work in urban areas (United States Department of Education [DOE], 1997). Students who live in inner-city areas are often among the most challenging in that many of these students bring with them complex health, education, and social needs (Lawson, 1994). Today and in the future, urban families, schools, and communities must develop programs, teaching methods, and resources to effectively reach an increasingly diverse student body, of whom almost 50 % are either disabled and/or "at risk" (Barr & Parrett, 1995; Winzer & Mazurek, 1998). Urban special educators, therefore, must be prepared to broaden their expertise to address the needs of not only students with a variety of disabilities, but also those who are at-risk. In urban areas, this focus must translate into the creation of innovative linkages between homes, schools, and community agencies to ensure that these urban students have access to a quality education and a "future with promise" (Lawson, (1994; Warger & Repect, 1998; Winzer & Maurek, 1998). Increasing the literacy of urban children, however, poses considerable challenges in that poverty, crime, alcohol and substance abuse, inadequate healthcare, and the lack of adequately prepared teachers often characterize the lives of students in these settings (US DOE, 1997),

Coupled with the challenges of urban children is the shortage of special education teachers, particularly those of African American descent (Brown, 2002). Although African American college graduates are being strategically positioned to rapidly enter the K-12 teaching profession in the next millennium, many more African-American teachers will be leaving the teaching profession (Brown, 2002).

Project LEAD (Leadership for Educators Amid Diversity) played a unique role in its ability to meet some of these challenges. In particular, Project LEAD sought after teachers in general education from diverse backgrounds. Among the 34 participants in the Project, 29 (85%) came from such backgrounds. In order to recruit participants, Project LEAD focused on the City of Birmingham, Alabama.. Among all American cities with a population of over 200,000, Birmingham has the largest concentration of African Americans (US Census Bureau, 1990). Additionally, Birmingham ranks 4th, 12th, and 14th among all American cities in terms of infant mortality, overall crime, and violent crime, respectively (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1995).

The Birmingham Public School System is the largest urban school district in Alabama (approximate enrollment: 39,500 students). More than 93% of the students enrolled in this system are African Americans. This figure ranks Birmingham as the third highest of all cities in the United States in terms of minority student concentration (Birmingham Public School Data Book, 1998). Data on educational attainment among African Americans living in Birmingham reported approximately 69% of the males and 30% of the females do not graduate from high school (Equal Employment Opportunity File, 1990). According to Child Count Data provided by the Birmingham Public School system, 5,721 students with disabilities were receiving special education and related services as of December 1, 1998. Of these students, over 90% were African American.

African American students with disabilities exceed their representation among the resident population (US DOE, 2001). The continued overrepresentation of minorities in Special Education is a major concern (McCabe, 1997).

As of Fall, 1998, over 65% of all teachers employed in the Birmingham Public School System were African American (Birmingham Public School Data Book, 1998). In that same year, 326 Special Education teachers were employed by the System. However, approximately 80 of those teachers were not certified in any area of Special Education. Approximately 10 Special Education positions were vacant (Birmingham Data File, 1998; Alabama Department of Education [AL DOE], 1997)