Annual Survey: Race and Ethnic Background in the Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Youth

Annual Survey m Race and Ethnic Background in the Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Youth Arthur N. Schildroth and Sue A. Hotto The issue of race/ethnic background has been a troubling one within the United States, often involving different languages, different cultures, different customs. Ramifications of the race issue permeate many other areas of the country's life — employment, education , immigration, fertility, and poverty, to name just a few. A recent book, The Bell Curve, by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, has ignited further controversy in its linkage of race with intelligence. (See, for example, Education Week, January 11, 1995, pp. 29-32, for various reactions , mostly critical, to the book, and the "responses to the responses" in the February 1 issue.) After changes in the enrollment and school placement of deaf children over the last 20 years, perhaps no other demographic or educational variable has shifted more dramatically in the Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children and Youth than that of race or ethnic background . The tables and the notes accompanying them in this article summarize various aspects of this shift. Within the limitations mentioned in the following paragraphs, these tables present data reported to the Annual Survey, largely from the 1993-94 school year. Although the concept of race is not as clear as is sometimes assumed, in the Annual Survey the term "race/ethnic background" has been used in a fairly traditional manner. "White" and "Black" (African-American) are somewhat easy to categorize, though recent studies on race have made it clear that there is much variation, and also many similarities , within these two "easily identifiable" groups and that the term "race" itself is an arbitrary category. For the designation "Hispanic," which can refer to individuals of different races, schools are asked to base their survey response on the surname of the child or the language spoken in the home. This, of course, does not resolve all difficulties arising from use of the term "Hispanic," but the data collected on this variable in the survey appear comparable to data reported by other agencies and organizations — for example, the growing numbers of Hispanic children in the U.S. reported by the Bureau of the Census. Although space limitations to the questionnaire restrict the survey from collecting more specific information about variations within the Hispanic group — for example, differences among Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans — the state and regional distribution of Hispanic children in the survey would seem to indicate a majority is of Mexican origin or background. (Dissimilarities among deaf children of Asian descent — for example, the differences among Chinese, Laotians, and Vietnamese — are also not reflected in the Annual Survey data.) The Annual Survey has not collected information on another critical variable affecting education, the socio-economic status of the families of children reported to the survey ; such information is either not available to the school or is considered confidential, and therefore unreportable. Often family resources are more important in their impact on education than race or ethnic background. The language used in the child's home is still another important variable in the education of the deaf child; this information is collected on an occasional basis in the Annual Survey. A question is often asked about the coverage of the Annual Survey. One approach to this question involves a comparison of Annual Survey data to information reported to the federal government by the states under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (formerly the Education of the Handicapped Act). The overall comparability of the federal "child count" numbers and the Annual Survey data is complicated by certain differences in definitions and age categories between the two data compilations; for example, the "child count" does not include children under age 6, and the 1993-94 Annual Survey includes almost 6,000 children in this age group. However, if the numbers reported by the states to the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) are accurate, then the Annual Survey collects information on approximately 60% to 65% of all deaf and hard of hearing children receiving special education in the United States. Table 1 highlights changes in student race/ethnic background...