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RESEARCH ROUNDUP
The Role of Implicit Bias: Dyslexia Diagnosis and Race
By Resha Conroy, Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children Founder
Across school districts in the United States, parents of children with dyslexia share an eerily similar narrative of the barriers faced when seeking a diagnosis. The stories echo language, often voiced by public school administrators and educators, that takes a “wait to fail” approach or that blames students and families for academic difficulties. Likewise, families of Black children with dyslexia echo the same story, with the added layer of language rooted in historical and systemic racism: the language of low expectations, misinterpretation of developmentally appropriate behaviors, and the exclusion of families as partners in educational decisions. The consistent nature of these narratives, supported by quantitative data demonstrating disproportionate adverse outcomes, highlights the impact of systemic racism for Black children with dyslexia.
With the prohibitively expensive nature of private evaluations, the public education system’s ability to identify students remains the most likely access to diagnosis. However, the public education system's failure to identify dyslexia disproportionately impacts students of color (Hettleman, 2003). Unfortunately, unremediated dyslexia leads to decreased self-esteem, increased frustration, and stress for students. Perhaps even without knowing the statistics, many families intuitively realize the protective factors of literacy. Protective factors are typically defined as characteristics of an individual or environment that reduce the negative effect of adversities (Mastern & Reed, 2002). Families with resources resort to private and costly evaluations, making dyslexia seemingly a diagnosis of privilege. Yet, literacy is not a privilege; it is a human right. The United Nations includes education, including literacy, as a human right, acknowledging that lack of literacy negatively impacts life outcomes (UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). McKinsey & Company’s The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools states, “The perpetuation of illiteracy leads to ‘heavy and often tragic consequences, via lower earnings, poorer health and higher rates of incarceration’” (Auguste et al., 2009).
According to The Nation’s Report Card, an alarming 82% of Black fourth graders were not reading at proficient levels compared to 65% of all fourth graders (NAEP, 2019). A study conducted in 2016 sought to determine how the public perceived differences in test scores by race. When asked, “How much of the difference in test scores between White students and Black students can be explained by discrimination against Black individuals or injustices in society?” Nearly half (44%) of respondents chose “None.” Only 10% chose “A great deal” (Valant & Newark, 2016). The results reflect a lack of understanding of historical factors and the effects of systemic racism and fuel implicit bias. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability (Peterson & Pennington, 2015) and is reported to affect 5-17% of the population (Butterworth & Kovas, 2013; Shaywitz, 1998). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 4.5% of students in public schools
The examination of implicit bias are diagnosed with "specific language disorders," which include must not be confused with a dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia game of blame, but rather a move (Hanford, 2017). The diagnosis is even less for Black children, who are towards professional excellence underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed. It circles back to the question, honoring and serving all students. "Why?" Why are Black children less likely to be identified with dyslexia? Although many causal factors must be considered, implicit bias appears to contribute to the underdiagnosis of dyslexia in Black individuals. What is Implicit Bias? The examination of implicit bias must not be confused with a game of blame, but rather a move towards professional excellence honoring and serving all students. Implicit bias is a term coined by psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald, where they suggested that social behavior is influenced by unconscious associations and judgments (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). Since 1995, psychologists have extensively researched implicit biases and found that we all possess implicit biases (Ruhl, 2020). Implicit bias related to race and ethnicity is the psychological residue of persistent structural racism (Dhaliwal, et.al., 2020).
82% 65% 11% 23%
82% of Black or AfricanAmerican fourth graders scored below proficient reading level compared to 65% of all fourth graders. Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is a key predictor of high school graduation. Among 4th graders, only 11% of AfricanAmerican boys living below the poverty line, scored at or above 4thgrade proficiency level. This level only increased to 23% for African American boys not living below the poverty line
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2019 Reading Assessment; KIDS COUNT.).
Researchers have hypothesized that implicit bias contributes to racial disparities in educational outcomes, suggesting that teachers’ unconscious racial beliefs could produce biased evaluations of students’ academic performance (Dhaliwal et al., 2020). While studies have explored various causal factors, there is limited research on the factors that influence the chances of a dyslexia diagnosis. A consideration of the impact of implicit bias on dyslexia identification in traditional public and private schools is warranted. “Unexpected” Requires High Expectations Our definitions and tools must hold up to the pressure tests of structural racism and the resulting implicit bias. In the absence of universal dyslexia screening or a parent’s request for an evaluation, an educator would be expected to recognize the symptoms of dyslexia. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) defines dyslexia “... as a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin… unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.”
For an educator to suspect dyslexia, the educator must first expect that a child can be taught to read. Given the research on implicit bias and lower teacher expectations, the reliance on unexpected difficulties negatively affects Black children with dyslexia. When
educators are unaware of their bias, there is no internal check to selfmonitor, which increases the likelihood of perpetuating bias when applying the definition of dyslexia as “unexpected.” Synthesis of teacher expectations studies from 2008 to 2018 showed that teacher expectations are associated with students’ longterm academic pathways (Johnston, Wildly, Strand, 2019). Specifically, studies also found that White teachers have lower For Black students with dyslexia, expectations for Black students and the lowest for Black boys their difficulty acquiring reading (Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge, 2016). Furthermore, Odegardraises no alarms due to found that if Black students these low expectations attended school with a greater population of Black and Brown and, therefore, excludes them children, the child was less likely to be identified with dyslexia or from a dyslexia diagnosis. special education needs, which further creates a disparity (2020). For Black students with dyslexia, their difficulty acquiring reading raises no alarms due to these low expectations and, therefore, excludes them from a dyslexia diagnosis. Implicit Bias and Behavioral Expectations Implicit bias may impact diagnosis based not only on academic expectations but also on the way behavior is interpreted. A Black student’s misbehavior often occurs and is related to the subjective perception that Black students are defiant (Stanford et al., 2018). Implicit bias shapes how we perceive behavior and react to it. It
makes it easy to dismiss the child’s needs and instead hyper focus on the behavioral manifestations, while ignoring root-cause issues such as dyslexia.
Black students are more likely to be labeled as intellectually disabled or emotionally disturbed. In NYC, Black children are two times more likely to be identified in the category of emotional disturbance than White children (Fancsali et al., 2021). In addition, individuals with unaddressed dyslexia have an increased risk of mental health issues related to anxiety and depression (MacDonald et al., 2016). This increases the likelihood that unaddressed dyslexia may be misdiagnosed as a behavioral or emotional disturbance or that cooccurring dyslexia is missed.
This is potentially devastating for Black children with dyslexia because it is met with harsher punishment for similar behaviors as their White peers, despite research confirming that Black students do not misbehave at a higher rate (Whittenberg, 2021). Research documents that academic underachievement and over-discipline correlate with the school-to-prison pipeline (Stanford et al., 2018). Implicit bias fuels the dyslexia-to-prison pipeline at a disproportionate rate. Excluding and Undervaluing Black families The voices of parents and caregivers matter when advocating for their child and as part of a larger movement towards equity. However, implicit bias also contributes to the way schools engage with Black families and inhibits equitable parent participation (Brion, 2020). Implicit bias creates notions that Black parents are less engaged with their children’s academics (Bridges et al., 2012).
While grassroots parent-led dyslexia advocacy has had an undeniable impact on dyslexia legislation, a glance at the membership in most dyslexia advocacy groups will reveal a gross underrepresentation of Black families and an increased amount of contentious debate around the necessity of a focus on Black literacy. Let us not forget that advancements in both racial equity and disability rights in public
Literacy is not the great education stem from the efforts, equalizer when it exists marches, and sit-ins of Black families and allies leading to Brown v. Board of in the shadows of implicit bias Education, thus laying the foundation for disability cases that followed. To fueled by systemic racism. exclude Black families is to ignore their cultural assets and victorious legacy in the fight for educational equity. Exploring Solutions This discussion focused on implicit bias as just one possible barrier to dyslexia identification and diagnosis. As we explore solutions, the first step is to approach this subject with a degree of intellectual and cultural humility. There is a lot we do not know about dyslexia in Black communities, mainly because we have not asked or looked, and we have not engaged Black families as stakeholders. We have not acknowledged the duality of existence and the lived experiences of Black children with dyslexia. And as outlined in this brief article, we have not accepted that the effects of systemic racism shape our beliefs, practices, and actions. Let the fight for literacy continue, but be warned, literacy is not the great equalizer when it exists in the shadows of implicit bias fueled by systemic racism.
About the Author
Resha Conroy is the founder of the Dyslexia Alliance for Black Children, a non-profit organization working to eliminate the amplified inequities for Black children experiencing unaddressed dyslexia and related learning disabilities.
A mother of two children with learning disabilities, including a son with dyslexia, Ms. Conroy is motivated by her family's journey to pursue her lifelong passion for education reform. She has over a decade of experience in education and non-profit management, serving on school leadership teams and as a consultant for charter schools in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Ms. Conroy has shifted her career to a clinical and direct service role; she is currently a speech-language pathologist and an executive functioning coach with a strong interest in language, literacy, and culture.
She is a proud lifelong New Yorker and graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. She has a BA in economics from Smith College, an MPA in non-profit management, and an MS in communicative sciences and disorders from New York University.
