Entry Testing and the Overrepresentation of Romani ... - UR Research

R36PITFALLS AND BIASPOLICY AND PRACTICE IN ASSESSMENTAfter D.H. and Others appealed to the ECHR, but before the Court’s decision, the Czech Republic amended itslegislation on education. Most notably, in Section 185 of the Education Act, the term “special schools” was abolished,placing the institutions previously so categorized in the category “basic schools.” Auxiliary schools, special schoolswhere pupils with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (and thus, Romani children who are so diagnosed)are placed, are now termed “special educational needs schools.” Ministerial Decree 73/2005 elaborates on this,establishing the forms that special education can take: individual integration, group integration, or education inseparate schools (§3.1.a-c) including special kindergartens, practical elementary schools (formerly auxiliaryschools), and special primary schools. Separate primary schools are established for pupils with visual, hearing,vision and hearing (deafblind), physical, speech, specific learning and behavioral, and health disabilities (§ 5), withSection 48 of the Education Act permitting their placement in special schools. The ECHR noted in its decisionthat “in many cases special schools had simply been renamed ‘remedial schools’ or ‘practical schools’ without anysubstantial change in the composition of their teaching staff or the content of their curriculum” (D.H. and Othersv. the Czech Republic judgment 2007, paragraph 145). Amnesty International (2010) and Bedard (2008) note thatthe name change has not brought about any substantive change in the way that pupils are taught or placed;pupils who are diagnosed as having special educational needs are still offered a reduced curriculum and have notbeen transferred to schools that offer a full curriculum. The Czech government recognizes this in the NationalAction Plan for Inclusive Education: in a 2010 study of 171 former special schools (out of a total of 398), the CzechSchool Inspection found that only seventeen percent of these schools were offering the Framework EducationProgram for Elementary Schools (the national curriculum) (5).The definition of special educational needs conflates disability and disadvantage. A disability is considered to bemental, physical, visual, auditory, language/speech, autism or another developmental disability (OECD Cross-National Category A), while a disadvantage is related to health or social status. A health disadvantage is defined asa chronic disease or a health impairment that affects a child’s learning or behavior in school (Education Act, §16.1-3,aligned with OECD Cross-National Category B). A social disadvantage is defined, inter alia, as “a family environmentwith a low social and cultural status, threat of pathological social phenomena” (Education Act, §16.4.a, alignedwith OECD Cross-National Category C). “Pathological social phenomena” are not defined in the law. As in othercountries of the region, socio-economic status is fused with disability, and pupils can be referred to a School AdvisoryFacility for psycho-educational testing based on their perceived “social disadvantage” and subsequently be placed ina practical school or classroom where they are denied participation in the whole curriculum, which limits theiropportunities for secondary education and ultimately, their participation in the labor market.Once a child enters mainstream school, there are many options for what will happen to that child. If a child hasspecial educational needs, it is the decision of the kindergarten director, considering the opinion of the School