#WI1

Going through school I always thought that I was not as smart as the other kids in school. I was always telling myself that I needed to try harder so I could be at least at the level of learning that they were in. Because I thought that way I did not think that I would be able to go to college and get a degree. I am a minority here in Utah so in the schools eyes they automatically thought that I was a slow learner. So I was put in the ESL (English as a second language) program. Little did they know English along with Spanish were both learned that the same time.

My parents would talk to me in Spanish but I would learn the English language by watching cartoons and starting school early. At school I would talk English and at home it would be Spanish. If the school would have bothered to test me at what level I was learning they would have seen that I was learning at the same level that the other students were as well, but they had an automatic assumption and decided to just take the easy rout instead of the right steps to place me in the right learning level.

I feel that a lot of minority students feel thins way because they get stuck in lower level classes and get the stereotype that they are not as smart as the other students.

in Learn NC it is stated that 

"We can see from the US Department of Education figures that over-representation is occurring in schools across the country. No evidence exists to show that minority students have innately more exceptionalities than white students, so why is this happening? The answers lie in socioeconomic status and pre-conceived notions of race.

Teachers who lack experience with minorities or preconceived notions of how they learn also tend to refer minority students for special education services more often. Schools with high minority populations have lower risk indexes than schools with small minority populations. And districts with a high percentage of white teachers have higher minority risk indexes than districts with more minority teachers. Additionally, teachers who do not have experience with students who do not have English as a first language may refer an ELL student for special education if they are having difficulty instructing him, when really he needs ELL classes. Unfortunately, when it comes to recognizing the gifts and talents of minority students rather than their deficits, we have a long way to go".

Even teachers need that training to be able to tell the difference between a student that needs special education and students that just need English learning lessons.

Also in elementary and middle school technical assistance center states

"A child's race and ethnicity significantly influence the child's probability of being misidentified, misclassified, and inappropriately placed in special education programs. Research shows the relationship between race and ethnicity and other variables for students' placement in special education classes. Variables such as language, poverty, assessment practices, systemic inequities, and professional development opportunities for teachers have been cited as factors that play a role in disproportionate representation". 

So being a minority does not mean that we are not at the learning level that others are it just means that the schools just look at our ethnicity and automatically assume that we need special education programs. These assumptions are not fair, it puts the student in a position of that prevents them from moving up in their learning all because of assumptions, and teachers not knowing the difference between ESL and ELL.