User:Rchante/African-American Vernacular English and education

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African Americans have a reading deficiency compared to other races. According to the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 55% of White students were below the “basic” levels while 83% of African American fourth graders were under “basic” reading. The school environment is one larger factor hindering African American students' success in literacy. Nonetheless, the difference is rooted in the limitations and discrimination that African American children experienced in the start of being granted access to education. This achievement gap is growing a tenth of a standard deviation compared to their White counterparts as African American students progress through schooling every year. Many African American children are introduced into schooling speaking AAE fluently.

The potential factors of the achievement gap amongst African American students are largely impacted by the school's environment and curriculum. However, sociocultural factors beyond the school context are influential, where schools aren’t fully dependent on this gap. Poverty and low parental education levels negatively impact students' wellbeing and opportunities such as mental health, resources, food insecurity and unstable households. Historical context contributes to the sociocultural and economic impact of African Americans. It was illegal for Africans and African-American slaves to learn, to read, or write English, hence enabling them to access education. This limited their ability to learn the value of literacy. With that African American students relied on oral language to aid them in reading and comprehension. According to the National Reading Panel, children's oral and reading abilities are correlated. The unique and different oral language patterns in AAVE potentially relate to their reading difference.The school and external circumstances are potential factors,yet does not justify the disproportionate gap African American children achieve.

A lens to understand the reading deficiency is assessing the reading standards, difficulty, and curriculum in correlation, specifically language variation and special education eligibility. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 may be one cause of this discrepancy (PL 108-446). IDEA was intended to guarantee that all students with disabilities in U.S. schools have the chance to receive a free and appropriate public education in the setting with the fewest restrictions. It was enacted in 1975 and has since undergone numerous revisions. IDEA stipulates requirements for pupils to meet in order to be eligible for special education services at school. help specifically for learning difficulties, where environmental, cultural, economic adversities are not accounted for. Due to many African American students being of lower income, schools being of lower quality with less well prepared teachers and overall less instructional and academic resources, it increases their likelihood to be eligible in special education services leading to the potential misdiagnosis of a disorder in part of their academic difficulties. Misidentification causes African American children to receive insufficient reading assistance.