Racial Disparities In ADHD Research

Bioethics research studies are defined as studies that focus on the ethics and philosophical implications in medicine (Dictionary).   The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is a prime example of a bioethical research that was ongoing from 1932 until 1972 at the Tuskegee Institute in Macon, Alabama.   The United States Public Health Services (USPHS) and the Tuskegee Institute were responsible for carrying out the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.   The sole purpose of the study was to monitor the effects syphilis has on the human body when allowed to go untreated.  

One teacher Kozol interviewed at a school where 95 percent of the students were either black, asian, hispanic or native american, told him “not with bitterness but wistfully--of seeing clusters of white parents and their children each morning on the corner of a street close to the school, waiting for a bus that took the children to a predominately white school”. (p.203)

Discrimination and are problematic parts of our culture tangled within the American history. For the majority of U.S. citizens these parts of our culture die out after the civil rights movement, but for the ethnic minorities this is far from the truth. These ugly aspects of our culture that once thrived in the shadows praying poor and minorities, has recently had light shed on it with event of the few years. The racial tension being made worst with statements being made by republican presidential front Donald Trump, saying we should ban Muslims from the country. These open discriminatory statements can have devastating effect the Muslim communities and our country as a whole.

Meanwhile, white and Asian American students are more likely to attend middle-class schools. Similarly, another study shows that the years between 1993 and 2011, the number of African Americans in schools where ninety percent or more of the student population were minorities increased from 2.3 million to over 2.9 million. Undoubtedly, segregation still exists in our generation and has recently increased over the

More so, the social features of early racial basis in preschool children are supported in the evaluation of preschool children in black urban neighborhoods: “A large proportion of parents reported that they and their friends and family had experienced racism” (Caughy et al , 2004). These peer-reviewed findings suggest that children in the 3-5 age group can learn racism in the classroom, but more importantly it suggests that children learn many of these racial biases in their neighborhoods and in the home. In this context, it is evident that teachers need to adjust their evaluation criterion for preschool children, which suggests that racial biases are occurring within the preschool classroom. Sadler (2007) provides evidence of the necessity of improving these requirements for teaching instruction as a multi-racial method of reform in this new perspective (p.3). Qian et al’s (2016) article provides the foundation for reforming the presumption that preschool children do not have racial biases at this early stage of childhood

A generation that played by the rules and see progress, fall out the middle class. This shrinking middle class harms people of color more than whites. For example, “the unemployment rate among black Americans is roughly twice that the population, whites, and black people earn, on average, between twelve through twenty-two per cent less than Caucasian people with similar education and experience are on top of the racial hierarchy, while variously shaded African Americans are below caucasian (Siaiecki). Thus Caucasians in socioeconomic position (class) and prestige (status)” (Gans).

The model minority myth describes Asian Americans as the ideal racial minority based on their perceived achievement as a group – high incomes, good education, and low crime rates. While the model minority myth may seem positive at surface level, it can create many problems for Asian American students. These students may be overlooked for receiving individual assistance, may be unfairly stereotyped, and may resist seeking help when they need it. The model minority myth also creates tension between Asian Americans and other minority groups – who may feel that Asian Americans receive significant advantages over their own group. Educators can work to create supportive and inclusive school environments by educating themselves about the model minority myth and working to eradicate their own biases.

Sources define the term health disparities as differences between different communities and their health care, as well as the health differences that are linked to disadvantages in communities including age, gender, racial or ethnic group, and geographic locations. Health disparities are directly related to the distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources. The CDC explains multiple factors health disparities are caused by including poverty, environmental threats, inadequate access to health care, individual and behavioral factors, and educational inequalities (William, 2011). Inequities in education have a key relationship with health disparities. Adolescents associated with social and health problems tend to drop out of school.

affecting the student academically. The article "Educational Equity Demands Empathy" described the inequality in education that school created between White students and low-income families. The achievement gap limits the low-income family students potential to learn in school and unprepared to advance to college. The article "The Challenge of Diverse Public Schools", explained how a school adjustment in racial balance can affect many low-income families and creating more obstacle for student academic. While the strategy decreases the racial gaps and increases student achievement, many low-income parents find it's difficult to make time to help their children's school assignments.

***Musu-Gilette, L., De Brey, C., McFarland, J., Hussar, W., Sonnenberg, W., & Wilkinson-Flicker, S. (2017). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups 2017 (NCES 2017-051). U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D. C. Retrieved from

In 2014, the overall number of Latino, African-American, and Asian students in public K-12 classrooms were

This can create the idea that educators are purposely leaving minority students out of praise and only praising the work of students their race. This can confirm for some students that education has a color line for both educators and students that are being praised. As a result, in early education students are being exposed to race learning the dominant race in society and

As pointed out in the article, “Culture-Fair Cognitive Ability Assessment: Informative Processing and Psychophysiological Approaches” more ethnic students are placed in special education programs and a very low number of ethnic students are placed in gifted programs. Caucasian American students usually score higher on standardized intelligence tests compared to both African American and Mexican American students which questions a bias in said testing. The article goes on to test this bias by

One issue that is prevalent in the educational institution is the concept of the academic achievement gap bet between minority students and the majority. The issue is expanded upon the concept of how and why minority students are not achieving academically at the same rate of majority students. There are multiple reasons as to why this gap is so prevalent in today’s schools. Some of those reasons include language and cultural barriers, also the idea of how the minority culture views academic performance. These is also a disconnection between students and school that is impacting the way students learn and how much they ultimately learn within the classroom.

Racial discrimination has been an ongoing issue in the U.S. education system and there has been little done to change this since the desegregation of schools. Since day one the United States educational system has been unbalanced and no one has been able to attain equal learning with their other racial counterparts for a number of reasons such as racial discrimination. The problem isn’t necessarily prominent in one institution in particular, but rather the entire system a whole. The level of education received is not based on academic ability, but more so on economic standing and racial demographics.