Hopwood, Affirmative Action, and Deaf Education

Minority-deaf students constitute 43.5% of the deaf school-age population, yet only 11.7% of teachers and administrators in programs serving deaf students are persons of color. The ruling in Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996) banned the use of race as a major determinant in admissions to colleges and universities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. This ruling, along with the current backlash against affirmative action policies, has hindered college administrators' efforts to recruit minorities in deaf education. We discuss Hopwood, affirmative action policies, and how both affect deaf education teacher training today. We also present an eight-step action plan for teacher-training colleges and universities to meet the need to increase the number of minority teachers and leaders and encourage state educational agencies and schools for the Deaf to do likewise.