Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality and Special Education Assessment: Policy Analysis and Recommendations for Practice

Abstract

The overrepresentation of racially/ethnically diverse students in special education is a well-established malady of public education in the United States with dire consequences for both students and school districts. This manuscript provides a review of federal statutes and pertinent case law, as well as guidance offered by the Office of Special Education Programs that elucidates the need of school districts to check for the overrepresentation of racially/ethnically diverse students in their special education programming. Further, the review indicates that school districts must ensure that students receive a nondiscriminatory special education evaluation. A discussion is presented that offers districts with recommendations for tracking the presence of overrepresentation through the calculation of risk ratios. Strategies for ensuring the delivery of nondiscriminatory special education evaluations are provided including ensuring the fidelity of test administration, norm over-sampling, use of local norms, examination of test invariance, and multi-method/multi-informant assessment process.