Civic Equity for Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Background/Context: In its pursuit for equal opportunity for all students, the field of civic education has largely ignored a significant segment of the school population: students with disabilities (SWD). While numerous studies have documented the benefits of high-quality civic learning for youth, these benefits are not equally distributed among students. Indeed, White students, economically advantaged students, and students in higher tracked classes are the most likely to participate in high-quality civic learning opportunities. Meanwhile, little is known about the high-quality civic learning opportunities provided to SWD because they are routinely absent from research and policy discussions. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Any meaningful commitment to respecting SWD as competent, contributing citizens in a democratic society requires preparing them to advocate for themselves and for others as fully as possible, which in turn requires high-quality civic learning opportunities in our schools. Moreover, we need to better understand which students are included in civic education and in what ways because these efforts communicate important lessons about who is a valued member of “we the people” and the school community. As such, this study explores the current landscape of civic education for SWD by examining the extent to which they receive equitable exposure to high-quality civic learning opportunities and engage civically within their communities. Research Design: Drawing on more than 48,000 survey responses from high school students in Chicago Public Schools, a quantitative analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between four demographic variables (disability status, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender) and seven outcome variables attending to both traditional and digital forms of civic education. Notably, this appears to be the first large-scale empirical study to examine these indicators for SWD. Conclusions/Recommendations: There are statistically significant differences between the civic education experiences provided to SWD and students without disabilities, even when controlling for socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender. In particular, SWD are more likely to be excluded from discussion-based experiences than service-based experiences. Moreover, the magnitude of the differences based on disability status was equal to or greater than that of the differences explained by other demographic variables in the majority of cases. These findings demonstrate that disability status is a factor that deserves greater attention in civic education research and pedagogy.