HISD Thinks Too Many African American Kids May Be in Special Ed

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Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier has reason to believe his district has tagged too many African American students with mental retardation and emotional disturbance labels, and that it may be underserving limited English proficiency Hispanic kids at the elementary level. Oh, and that HISD isn't doing such a hot job identifying all the kids who need help with their dyslexia. Grier and his administration's positions are based upon statistical comparisons of HISD to other school districts with similar demographics in an audit done by a Boston firm, he said at a media roundtable Wednesday. In an attempt to learn whether what they suspect is true, there will be more testing and analysis of students who attend regular classes, but have been identified as needing special ed, he said. Also, there will be more effort on HISD's part to make sure the special ed assessment testing the district does is not culturally biased.