Restructuring the participation of African-American parents in special education.

Restructuring the participation of African-American parents in special education. * This article is concerned with the balance of power betweenspecial education professionals and African-American parents. Althoughit is true that the question of power is central to any consideration ofparent-professional discourse in education (Gliedman & Roth, 1980),interactions with African-American parents are marked by certain crucialhistorical & dimensions. Further, the role of this group of parentsis particularly important because their children continue to bedesignated as students with disabilities in disproportionately highnumbers (U.S. Department of Education, 1989). The literature on parent participation in special education showsthat this group of parents exhibits a pattern of relatively lowparticipation and that teachers often interpret this pattern to meanthat such parents are uninterested in their children's educationalcareers (Lynch & Stein, 1987; Marion, 1981; Sullivan, 1980).However, despite the potentially undermining influence of poverty anddetrimental urban environments on traditional values Traditional values refer to those beliefs, moral codes, and mores that are passed down from generation to generation within a culture, subculture or community. Since the late 1970s in the U.S. , the belief thatmany parents do not care what happens to their children in school runscontrary to what is known about African-American family life and thevalues placed on education (Billingsley, 1968; Harry, Allen, &McLaughlin, 1992; Hill, 1971; Marion, 1981). First, I present an overview of what is known about specialeducation professionals' interaction with African-American parents;second, an examination of two sets of beliefs that underlie this form ofdiscourse; and, third, some proposals for changing the implicit andexplicit rules on which this discourse is structured. I posit that thestructure of African-American parents' participation reflects twodominant traditions in professional thought: first, the deficit view ofAfrican-American families on which compensatory education practices havebeen based, and, second, the medical model on which special education isbased and the resulting deficit view of African-American children thathas been promulgated by continued misassessment and miseducation. I use the term discourse to refer to the entire body ofcommunication practices between parents and special education systems.In this sense, the concept includes not only written and oralcommunication, but the metamessages conveyed by the way the process ofdiscourse is structured-how, when, where, by whom, and in what sequenceinformation is conveyed (Bowers & Flinders, 1990). This framing ofdiscourse reflects the power and value attributed to various parties andthus determines the type of social interaction that will occur. Two acknowledgments are important in focusing on African-Americanparents: first, the impact of the discourse described is likely to begreater for parents of low income or limited formal education, becausethese factors are known to limit parents' ability to be influentialin school systems (Lareau, 1989); second, many aspects of the discussionmay also apply to other people of color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks)people of colour, colour, colorrace - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important who have traditionally beenplaced in subordinate positions within the larger society (Ogbu, 1978).Indeed, in recognition of certain commonalities among cultural minoritygroups of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed.See also: Color in the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , I will extrapolate extrapolate - extrapolation from literatureon these groups wherever appropriate. AFRICAN-AMERICAN PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION It might be argued that African-American parents simply representone strand in a pattern of largely passive parental participation inspecial education generally (for a comprehensive review, see Turnbull& Turnbull, 1990). However, Lynch and Stein (1987) found thatAfrican-American and Mexican-American parents' levels ofinformation and participation were significantly lower than that oftheir white counterparts. Other studies, delineating specific factorsthat limit the involvement of low-income, African-American parents, haverevealed a picture of extreme alienation and markedly low awareness ofrights and procedures (Cassidy, 1988; Lowry, 1983; Sullivan, 1980).There are four common interpretations of these patterns: trust, parentalapathy, 1ogistical constraints or stressful life circumstances, andparents' disagreement with special education classifications. Theseinterpretations focus on difficulties seen as "belonging" tothe parents themselves. Attitudes and Behavior of Parents The question of trust is crucial. As a classic example of anindigenous minority group that has historically been ascribed castelikestatus (Ogbu, 1978), African Americans have an intense awareness of theconflict between the democratic norms of their society and the actualdistribution of power. Manon (1981) and Siddle-Walker ( 1991 ) haveemphasized that the trust of African-American parents, whose attitude toschools was traditionally very supportive, was substantially underminedby the rejecting ethos of desegregated, traditionally white schoolsafter the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board ofEducation Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka)(1954) U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. . This mistrust has been exacerbated by parents' awarenessof the overrepresentation of African-American youth in special educationprograms (Manon, 1981 ). The second interpretation is that African-American parents areapathetic ap��a��thet��icadj.Lacking interest or concern; indifferent.apa��thet . It is commonly heard in professional settings that"these parents just don't care about their children." Ina study by Lynch and Stein (1987), teachers cited parental apathy as asource of noninvolvement non��in��volve��ment?n.1. Lack of emotional involvement.2. Failure or refusal to become involved, especially in the affairs of another nation; nonintervention. . Can it be that African-American parents, orother minority parents similarly maligned ma��lign?tr.v. ma��ligned, ma��lign��ing, ma��lignsTo make evil, harmful, and often untrue statements about; speak evil of.adj.1. Evil in disposition, nature, or intent.2. , have somehow become theexceptions to a rule universally accepted as axiomatic ax��i��o��mat��ic? also ax��i��o��mat��i��caladj.Of, relating to, or resembling an axiom; self-evident: "It's axiomatic in politics that voters won't throw out a presidential incumbent unless they think his challenger will , that is, thatparents care about their children? Or perhaps those who exclaim ex��claim?v. ex��claimed, ex��claim��ing, ex��claimsv.intr.To cry out suddenly or vehemently, as from surprise or emotion: The children exclaimed with excitement.v. thusreally mean to say that they think poor parents of color do not valueeducation, a notion that was promoted by the literature on so-called"cultural deprivation" in the 1960s (Deutsch, 1967; Reissman,1962). Researchers must investigate the meaning behind behavior thatappears to suggest lack of parental interest. Qualitative methods, suchas informal, open-ended interviewing and participant observation participant observation,n a method of qualitative research in which the researcher understands the contex-tual meanings of an event or events through participating and observing as a subject in the research. , areparticularly well suited to this kind of inquiry. For example, in arecent study of another low-status group (low-income PuertoRican-American parents, the majority of whom also happened to be black),recurrent, unstructured interviews revealed that what was interpreted byprofessionals as disinterest or apathy was a mask for parents'mistrust and their consequent withdrawal from participation (Harry,1992). A third trend in the literature is the observation that 1ogisticalconstraints and stressful life circumstances act as a significantdeterrent to low-income African-American parents' participation inspecial education matters (Cassidy, 1988; Lowry, 1983; Lynch &Stein, 1987; Marion, 1981; Nazarro & Portundo, 1981). Lowry'sinvestigation of the barriers to participation among inner-city,low-income, black families documented an expressed sense of isolationand helplessness and concluded that parents "appeared to beapathetic and disinterested when in reality they were overwhelmed"(p. 58). Similarly, Cassidy (198 8) found that problems with scheduling,transportation, and knowledge of the individualized educational program(IEP IEPIn currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Irish Punt.Notes:The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) process were the three greatest deterrents to African-Americanparents' participation. A related finding was that African-Americanparents' low level of knowledge regarding their rights and specialeducation procedures may be yet another reason for their low involvement(Cassidy, 1988). Finally, African-American parents' disagreement with specialeducation classifications may contribute to communication difficultieswith professionals. It is a common professional comment that manyparents "deny" the validity of a diagnosis of disability, inparticular, mental retardation mental retardation,below average level of intellectual functioning, usually defined by an IQ of below 70 to 75, combined with limitations in the skills necessary for daily living. . Indeed, the literature on parents'views of labeling continues to show that milder, less stigmatizinglabels are more acceptable to parents (Barsch, 1961; Harry et al., 1992;Smith, Osborne, Crim, & Rhu, 1986; Wolfensberger & Kurtz, 1974). The objections of African-American families, however, have beenspecifically targeted at social and cultural biases in the assessmentprocess (Marion, 1981; Mercer, 1972). Moreover, low income,African-American parents' disagreement with school classificationsmay reflect a wider acceptance of divergent patterns of development thanis tolerated by schools. Even when parents agree that a child'sdevelopment is delayed relative to others in the family, they may notconsider this "disabling" if they do not expect it to preventthe child from achieving personal and economic independence. As a resultof the historically limited range of occupations available to AfricanAmericans, expectations for their children are likely to includeunskilled jobs, for which a high level of educational achievement is notdeemed necessary. Further, parents whose own success in school waslimited may not expect to send their children to school already preparedfor reading and writing; they may consider this the school's job.Thus, a judgment based on middle-class norms of earlier acquisition ofacademic skills would probably not be shared by parents. The concern about differential levels of preparation for school isnot merely a peculiarity of the parental perspective. Indeed, thisconcern is at the heart of the dilemma concerning assessment of studentsfrom cultural minority backgrounds. It is now widely acknowledged thatcurrent assessment approaches and tools are inadequate to the task ofaccurately evaluating the learning difficulties of students whose homesand communities differ substantially from school expectations (Cummins,1986; Neisser, 1986). The cultural heterogeneity, as well as thesocioeconomic inequities of U.S. society, make it impossible forresponsible professionals to rely solely on information from currentstandardized assessment approaches (Cummins, 1989; Ginsburg, 1986).Cummins (1989) and Harry (1992) have called for a recognition thatparents' input is as important as that of professionals--indeed, arecognition that poverty and limited format education are not equivalentto limited intelligence or common sense. The foregoing interpretations of African-American parents'low participation are all based on statements about parents. We must askwhat the role of professional behavior is in this pattern. Attitudes and Behavior of Professionals Three studies have investigated the actual detrimental patterns ofinappropriate professional interaction with parents from diversecultural backgrounds. Two studies focused on Hispanic populations, buttheir findings regarding the dynamics of parent-professional interactionare instructive in illustrating how professionals can "frame"(Bowers & Flinders, 1990) both the content and extent of discourseto exclude, rather than include, parents. In a survey of 355 students referred for psychological services inan urban school system, Tomlinson, Acker, Cantor, and Lindborg (1977)found that professionals initiated significantly fewer contacts withparents of minority students, the majority of whom were AfricanAmerican African AmericanMulticulture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.See Race. , and offered a narrower range of services to minority ascompared to majority parents. Bennett (1988), using a microethnographicanalysis of parent-professional discourse, demonstrated thatprofessional behavior succeeded in placing Hispanic parents "in astance of noninvolvement" (p. 127). For example, by defining whatwas and was not legitimate content to be included in a child's IEP,professionals excluded a mother's concern with the effects ofclassroom structure on her child's behavior. Harry (1992) foundthat the use of formal, impersonal channels of communication, with anemphasis on written materials, not only failed to inform, but actuallyalienated low-income Puerto Rican Puer��to Ri��co? Abbr. PR or P.R.A self-governing island commonwealth of the United States in the Caribbean Sea east of Hispaniola. parents. On the other hand,Harry's study also demonstrated the converse, that whenprofessionals framed discourse in terms of personal interactions andplaced parents at the center of the information sharing See data conferencing. process, parentsdemonstrated the ability to be effective advocates for their children. Perhaps most important to this discussion is that professionals andparents alike buy into a structure that reflects shared valuesdetrimental to parents and their children. Mehan, Hartwick, andMeihls' (1986) microethnographic analysis of decision making inspecial education makes the crucial point that the structure ofdiscourse in conferences reflects three essential assumptions of specialeducation theory and practice: (a) the superiority oftechnical/theoretical knowledge over common-sense knowledge; (b) thegreater importance accorded information given by higher rankingpersonnel in the school organization; and (c) the power of professionalsto define what may and may not be discussed (see also Bennett, 1988). This tacit negotiation of structures of discourse is no less than astatement of a shared ideology which, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Cherryholmes (1988),"intertwines with power as individuals accept, believe, andinternalize internalizeTo send a customer order from a brokerage firm to the firm's own specialist or market maker. Internalizing an order allows a broker to share in the profit (spread between the bid and ask) of executing the order. explanations and justifications for the asymmetries of theirsocial world" (p. 5). Though advocacy training aims to teachparents to reject rather than accept these asymmetrics. professionalshold the power to change such beliefs far more quickly and effectivelythan do low-income parents. However, professionals' unwillingnessto do so is the logical outcome of certain basic assumptions in Americaneducational philosophy and in the framework of special education itself. TRADITIONS INFLUENCING PROFESSIONAL INTERACTION WITHAFRICAN-AMERICAN PARENTS The issue underlying parent-participation patterns is power. Icontend that a combination of two traditions has disempowered manyAfrican-American parents: a tradition of cultural-deficit theoriesregarding African-American family life, and the medical model on whichthe Education for All Handicapped Children Act The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (sometimes referred to using the acronyms EAHCA or EHA, or Public Law (PL) 94-142) was enacted by the United States Congress in 1975. (EHA EHA European Hematology AssociationEHA Economic History AssociationEHA Emmanuel Hospital AssociationEHA Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975EHA Empty Homes AgencyEHA English Hockey AssociationEHA Electrohydrostatic Actuator ), Public Law 94-142,is based. Parent Education, Parent Participation, and Cultural-Deficit Theory Current mandates for parental participation in schools are alogical culmination of a century-old movement toward the improvement ofparenting practices and the growth of parental influence in schools(Schlossman, 1983). Parent education and parent participation tend to bepresented as a joint endeavor, proffering the betterment ofstudents' educational progress as a common goal. But parentaleducation and participation actually reflect opposite sides of the samecoin. The notion of parent education presumes the desirability ofimproving some weakness in existing parenting skills whereas the notionof parent participation assumes that parents have something positive tocontribute. Thus, educators have often linked the two, believing thatmany parents lack the knowledge and skills that are recognized andvalued by the school. Educators further assume that it is necessary toeducate parents in the needed practices, to enable them to make a usefulcontribution. This combination has had particular implications forAfrican-American families, since the notion of parent education took ona somewhat different meaning with the introduction of the federalantipoverty an��ti��pov��er��ty?adj.Created or intended to alleviate poverty: antipoverty programs.programs in the 1960s. Until that time, the movement hadbeen concerned primarily with the inculcation in��cul��cate?tr.v. in��cul��cat��ed, in��cul��cat��ing, in��cul��cates1. To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill: inculcating sound principles. by middle-class parents ofmodern child-rearing techniques derived from the behavioral sciences(Schlossman, 1983). The advent of the antipoverty movement, however,framed the notion of parent education in terms of remediating what wereseen as the cultural deficits inherent in poor, minority families(Haskins & Adams, 1983; Loasa, 1983). African-American families, inparticular, were the target of the"tangle of pathology" imageevoked by the much-quoted Moynihan report (U. S. Department of Labor,1965). The twin goals of parent education and parent participationbecame cornerstones of compensatory education programs such as HeadStart and Follow Through, which made funding contingent on Adj. 1. contingent on - determined by conditions or circumstances that follow; "arms sales contingent on the approval of congress"contingent upon, dependant on, dependant upon, dependent on, dependent upon, depending on, contingent unprecedentedlevels of parental participation in both policymaking pol��i��cy��mak��ingor pol��i��cy-mak��ing ?n.High-level development of policy, especially official government policy.adj.Of, relating to, or involving the making of high-level policy: and implementation(Haskins & Adams, 1983). My argument is that, as long as professionals believe thatlow-income, minority parents must be "trained" and"educated" in appropriate parenting before their participationcan be valued, attempts to alter the balance of power are undermined bylack of respect for differing parenting styles Parenting style is a psychological construct representing standard strategies parents use in raising their children.One of the best known theories of parenting style was developed by Diana Baumrind. . It is not that parenteducation is never appropriate or helpful, but that it must be offeredin culturally appropriate ways (Linn linn?n. Scots1. A waterfall.2. A steep ravine.[Scottish Gaelic linne, pool, waterfall.] , 1990) and that professionals mustbe willing to negotiate with parents from a posture of culturalreciprocity (Harry & Kalyanpur, 1991). Parent Education, Parent Participation, and Disability Theory For parents of children with disabilities, the need for both parenteducation and participation is expected to be even greater. Yet, despitean explicit mandate for parental participation under P.L. 94142,participation rates in special education are much lower than thosereported for Head Start and other compensatory education programs. Thisbrings us to the tradition most directly impacting parent-professionalinteraction in special education--the tradition of a pathological modelof disability. The mandate for parental participation in special education differsfrom compensatory education in that the former is cast within theframework of a medical model in which children with presumed deficitsare identified, assessed, and treated by experts who are, in the courseof their duties, required to gain the consent and participation ofparents. This is a very different milieu than that of a compensatoryeducation program, in which children are voluntarily enrolled, andparents are afforded a variety of influential roles. Indeed, there is an inherent conflict between themedical-model/expert-treatment framework within which P.L. 94-142operates and its mandate for consultation with parents. The positivistic pos��i��tiv��ism?n.1. Philosophya. A doctrine contending that sense perceptions are the only admissible basis of human knowledge and precise thought.b. assumptions of the law, driven by the charge to classify children bytheir deficits, results in the categorical framing ofparent-professional discourse: It is the job of professionals todetermine whether students have, or do not have, disabilities; and it isthe job of parents to agree or disagree with Verb 1. disagree with - not be very easily digestible; "Spicy food disagrees with some people"hurt - give trouble or pain to; "This exercise will hurt your back" professionals'findings and recommendations. When an educational system imbued witha deficit view of African-American families is combined with a deficitview of students with learning difficulties, the low involvement of theparents should come as no surprise. Parents' mistrust,disagreement, and competing priorities outlined earlier in this articleare only one side of the picture. It might be argued that the view of African-American families aspathological has been rejected by social scientists (Ginsburg, 1986;Wright, Saleeby, Watts, & Lecca, 1983), but it is common knowledgethat such beliefs are still alive and well in the world of mainstreamAmerica. A widespread view of low-income, African-American families asentrenched in destructive forms of ghetto life has been promoted andperpetuated by the media and offers school personnel a further excusenot to interact with families from such neighborhoods. Many mainstreamteachers reflect the society's pervasive fears of African-Americanneighborhoods and culture generally. Notwithstanding the existence ofsome crime-ridden areas in large urban centers, most African Americansknow that their homes and families are not only safe but loving. How canmainstream professionals be brought to share this knowledge ? TOWARDS A RESTRUCTURING OF POWER I have argued that the framework for parental participation isinextricably in��ex��tri��ca��ble?adj.1. a. So intricate or entangled as to make escape impossible: an inextricable maze; an inextricable web of deceit.b. bound to two sets of attitudes that accord African-Americanparents particularly' low status in the decision-making process.What we need is a restructuring of discourse to radically alter thebalance of power between African-American parents and professionals. The word power is used here in the sense defined by Cherryholmes(1988), "to refer to relations among individuals or groups based onsocial, political, and material asymmetries by which some people areindulged and rewarded and others negatively sanctioned anddeprived" (p. 5). The current state of discourse in specialeducation reflects an imbalance of power: The difficulties that seem to"belong" to parents, as well as the attitudes and behavior ofprofessionals, combine to produce a form of discourse in which power isloaded on the side of professionals. Professionals must ask whether participation is cast mainly in aframework of mere consent or whether it is conceived in terms of adialogue whose purpose is to discern the true nature of children'slearning difficulties in school. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , do professionals reallybelieve that low income, African-American parents have something tocontribute to the school's understanding of children who are havingdifficulty? Or do we assume that professional efforts constitute theonly legitimate source of opinion, and that the role of parents is togive permission for professional activities and automatic approval toprofessional decisions? Unless parent-professional interactions are based on dialogue,professionals may view themselves or the system as the source oftruth--and they may cast parents' interaction within an adversarialframework. In this atmosphere, parents find that they must eitherpassively cooperate or take a stance of confrontation. Indeed, thelegalistic le��gal��ism?n.1. Strict, literal adherence to the law or to a particular code, as of religion or morality.2. A legal word, expression, or rule. framing of parent-professional discourse in specialeducation, with its many documents and rituals, is known to beparticularly intimidating to African-American parents (Marion, 1979).Many parents, rather than engage in challenging the school system, reactby withdrawing from interaction, creating informal avenues forcommunication, or limiting their areas of interaction to those wherethey are more comfortable (Harry et al., 1992). Developing New Roles For Parents At present, essentially two roles are offered to parents:consent-giver and educational planner. The first of these is actuallyall that is required for legal compliance with RL. 94-142. To be incompliance, most professionals make some attempt to see that parents areinformed about processes and placement in order to ensure their consent.The second role occurs, in theory at least, when parents collaboratewith the teacher in planning a child's IEP; and the regulationsrequire that parents be invited to a conference for this purpose.Despite numerous exhortations to professionals regarding informedconsent (e.g., Marion, 1979; Shevin, 1983; Turnbull & Turnbull,1990), all attempts in the research to ascertain minority parents'level of awareness of this procedure have revealed exceedingly lowawareness of either the planning event or the document that records it(Connery, 1987; Harry, 1992; Lynch & Stein, 1987; Sharp, 1983). Iwould conclude that the only role consistently applied to parents isthat of consent-giver. The following are new parental roles that need tobe developed. Parents as Assessors. Parental participation in the actualassessment procedure should constitute the first step in a restructuringof communication. One possible reason for parents' lowparticipation in and awareness of the IEP planning process may be thelateness of the invitation. By the time the IEP is to be developed,professionals have already established power and legitimacy by excludingparents from the assessment process. It is true that a thoroughassessment is expected to include a social history given by the parent,and that state-of-the-art theory strongly recommends preevaluation,family-focused assessment. However, in practice, this is often eitherignored, or implemented in such a way as to require parents simply torespond to constructs predetermined pre��de��ter��mine?v. pre��de��ter��mined, pre��de��ter��min��ing, pre��de��ter��minesv.tr.1. To determine, decide, or establish in advance: and presented by professionals. One of the earliest and best known parent accounts, Park's TheSiege (1967), tells of a parent's frustration at not being allowedto engage her autistic autistic/au��tis��tic/ (aw-tis��tik) characterized by or pertaining to autism. daughter in play that she knew would havedemonstrated a much wider range of the child's behavior than couldpossibly be elicited by strangers, no matter how skilled. More than 20years later, low-income, African-American parents are telling the samestory (Harry et al., 1992). The exclusion of parents from the assessmentprocess can be particularly devastating for such populations because ofmisunderstandings of children's behavior, which can result from thetraditional deficit views held by many professionals. Further, mostpsychologists and speech and language therapists are unlikely to befamiliar with African-American culture and, therefore, have difficultyinterpreting the meaning of children's nonverbal non��ver��bal?adj.1. Being other than verbal; not involving words: nonverbal communication.2. Involving little use of language: a nonverbal intelligence test. , linguistic, andsocial behavior In biology, psychology and sociology social behavior is behavior directed towards, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social. . Precedent for such inclusion of parents has been documented inseveral exemplary projects funded by the Handicapped Children'sEarly Education Program (HCEEP HCEEP Handicapped Children's Early Education Program ), (Karnes, Limemeyer, & Myles, 1983).By designating parents as part of the official assessment team,professional special educators can go a long way in altering---or eveneradicating--the assumption that professionals have a monopoly onknowledge. Parents as Presenters of Reports. At the time of the placementconference, parents, already members of the team, would be expected topresent a report. This report would constitute an official document, tobe entered into the record and taken into account in decision making,along with the professional reports. This official parental role wouldnot only increase the value that professionals place on parental input,but this role would signal to parents that their input is not onlyvalued but needed. To include parental input as valued--and necessary-in the placementprocess would constitute radically different practice from the currentsituation, where parents may be told that it is "OK" if theycannot come to a conference since the decisions will be sent to them inthe mail (Harry et al., 1992). If parents do attend placementconferences where it is evident that their presence is not influential,why should they continue to attend, especially if attending may meanfeeling uncomfortable or intimidated, or, on a more practical level,losing a morning's pay or a day's leave? The latter point brings us to a much-quoted concern in theliterature: the difficulties low-income parents have with scheduling ofconferences. Is it too much to ask that, where necessary, conferences beheld after working hours, and that parents be polled well beforehandregarding the best times for the scheduling of conferences? Once more,although the latter suggestions have been made in parent-communicationmodels (see Marion, 1981; Turnbull & Turnbull, 1990), it is doubtfulthat they are widely practiced. The same applies to concerns about childcare and transportation. Such concerns are examples of the"material asymmetries" referred to by Cherryholmes (1988),which affect the balance of power. Parents as Palicymakers. Under the EHA, the only policymaking roleprovided by parents is membership on Parent Advisory Committees (PACs).These are usually advisory to the local educational agency (LEA), andtherefore tend to be concerned with matters considerably removed fromindividual schools or communities. I strongly recommend school-based,advisory parent bodies for special education programs, as well as activerecruitment of parents as teachers' aides. These roles are wellestablished in compensatory education programs such as Follow Through.In these programs, particularly high parental involvement has beenattributed to the requirements that (a) more than 50% of the PAC below-income parents; (b) these members be elected by their peers, ratherthan appointed; and (c) parental involvement be carefully monitored anddocumented (Keesling & Melaragno, 1983). These observations should serve as guidelines for the developmentof PACs in special education. If each school with a special educationprogram had an active parent group that elected its own representativeson a school-based advisory committee, professionals would be forced toshare power with parents. Such a group could also support professionalsby taking responsibility for following up parent contacts, providingparents with support at IEP conferences, and generally boosting parentparticipation in special education events. Parents as Advocates and Peer Supports. Parent groups servingwithin schools in both policymaking and support roles can also initiateparent-to-parent advocacy activities, such as those supported by federalfunds Federal FundsFunds deposited to regional Federal Reserve Banks by commercial banks, including funds in excess of reserve requirements.Notes:These non-interest bearing deposits are lent out at the Fed funds rate to other banks unable to meet overnight reserve under P.L. 98-199 (Ziegler, 1988). These could be promotedthrough existing Chapter 1 liaison activities in individual schools.Professionals may fear that such efforts would become yet another oftheir responsibilities, but this need not be so. Were schools toreconstruct parents' roles to offer parents meaningful input in theassessment, placement, and remediation of their children, parents wouldmost likely develop a sense of competence and would want to share theirlearning with other parents. Research Needs We need more research regarding parent-professional discourse,particularly for special education settings. Further delineation of howthe structure of discourse serves to disempower dis��em��pow��er?tr.v. dis��em��pow��ered, dis��em��pow��er��ing, dis��em��pow��ersTo deprive of power or influence.dis African-American parentswill strengthen the case for radical alteration of these patterns. Whatwe need the most, however, is documentation of genuine attempts ategalitarian forms of discourse with African-American parents. Theprocess of parental empowerment has been documented with low-income,Spanish-speaking families, who, like African Americans, are at aconsiderable disadvantage in dealing with school systems (Ada, 1988;Delgado-Gaitan, 1990; Harry, 1992). In Delgado-Gaitan's study, theresearcher combined the role of ethnographic researcher with that ofcatalyst in the empowerment of families. We need qualitative, intervention-oriented research thatinvestigates ways to alter the discourse of power between professionalsand lowincome, African-American families. Many professionals in thefield genuinely want to contribute to the empowerment ofAfrican-American parents, but are constrained by deep-seated andpervasive myths about the nature of African-American family andcommunity life and about the presumed cognitive, linguistic, and socialdeficits of African-American children. Researchers should seek outprofessionals who are willing to engage in constructive investigationsof how their practice can be changed. 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Some CECs, such as IBM's Multiprise 2000 and 3000, include data storage devices as well. MD Federation) is an Assistant Professor in theDepartment of Special Education at the University of Maryland, CollegePark The University of Maryland, College Park (also known as UM, UMD, or UMCP) is a public university located in the city of College Park, in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., in the United States. .