Minority Overrepresentation In Special Education Research Articles

Are Schools in the U.S. South Using Special Education to Segregate Students by Race?

Whether students of color are more or less likely to be identified as having disabilities than similarly situated students who are White in U.S. states with histories of de jure and de facto racial segregation is currently unknown. Unadjusted analyses of large samples of students attending elementary and middle schools in the U.S. South yielded little evidence of minority overrepresentation in special education. In analyses adjusted for strong confounds (e.g., family income, student-level achievement), students of color were less likely than White students to be identified as having disabilities. Underidentification was evident (a) for the U.S. South in aggregate, (b) across 11 Southern states that we separately examined, (c) in cross-sectional samples assessed in 2003 and 2015, and (d) for specific disability conditions. Black and Hispanic students attending schools in the U.S. South have been and continue to be less likely to be identified as having disabilities than otherwise similar White students.

Replicated Evidence of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Disability Identification in U.S. Schools

Federal legislation and policy increasingly seek to address minority overrepresentation in special education due to concerns that U.S. schools are misidentifying children as disabled based on their race or ethnicity. Yet whether and to what extent this is occurring is currently in dispute. We estimated racial disparities in disability identification using very large (e.g., Ns = 183,570, 165,540, and 48,560) student-level, nationally representative data sets and multivariate logistic regression including school fixed effects models along with tabulations of percentage with a disability among racial or ethnic groups across academic achievement deciles. Among children who were otherwise similar in their academic achievement, poverty exposure, gender, and English language learner status, racial or ethnic minority children were consistently less likely than White children to be identified as having disabilities. Minority children’s disability underidentification was evident (a) in elementary, middle, and high school; (b) across racially diverse groups and specific disability conditions; and (c) throughout the achievement distribution. Contrary to federal regulatory and policy efforts, minority children have been less likely than otherwise similarly achieving White children to receive special education services in the United States since at least 2003.

Risks and Consequences of Oversimplifying Educational Inequities

In this technical comment, we argue that Morgan et al.’s claim that there is no minority overrepresentation in special education is in error due to (a) sampling considerations, (b) inadequate support from previous and current analyses, and (c) their failure to consider the complexities of special education disproportionality.

<em>Overcoming Obstacles: African American Students with Disabilities Achieving Academic Success</em>

The purpose of this study was to investigate African American high school students with high incidence disabilities who academically successful. This article tells their story, how they overcame obstacles to reach their academic potential. It includes a discussion of* the overrepresentation of minorities in special education,* African Americans and special education,* teacher beliefs and expectations,* parent and family involvement,* student perceptions, and* a description of the study and its findings.THE OVERREPRESENTATION OFMINORITIES IN SPECIAL EDUCATIONDigging the educational graves of many racially and/or economically disadvantaged children . . . (Dunn, 1968, p. 9) the words used by Lloyd Dunn to express his concern that far too many children from minority and underprivileged backgrounds were being labeled as mentally retarded or emotionally disturbed on the basis of cursory identification procedures and inappropriate use of intelligence testing. Concerns about the overrepresentation of minority groups, mainly African Americans, in special education date back many years and the topic has gained significant attention more recently (e.g., Harry & Klingner, 2006). While some argue that identification of disabilities is important to the acquisition of assistance and accommodations, there is often a stigma, lowered expectations, and inadequate education associated with special education (Harry & Klingner, 2006; Shifrer, 2013).African Americans and students with disabilities (SWDs) both recognized as groups explicitly and historically denied opportunity for education (Blanchett, 2009). Many believed neither group had the right nor the capacity to participate in formal education. The two have run what some would see as a parallel course in the fight for integration and equality, while others argue their movements for equality have not run a parallel course, but instead have converged and collided, resulting in the segregation of many African American students in special education programs (Harry & Klingner, 2006). Critical race theorists in education contend African American schoolchildren are systematically marginalized and miseducated in an educational system that seeks only to highlight what they lack and disregards the cultural wealth they bring to bear (Lynn et al., 2010, p. 291). Critical disability theory argues that traditionally, the response to persons with disabilities is one of either pity or welfarism (Devlin & Pothier, 2006) and that people with disabilities often experience a system of deep structural, economic, social, political, legal, and cultural inequality. Therefore, African Americans with disabilities members of not just one, but two groups that have historically been oppressed and discriminated against.Currently, practices such as culturally responsive teaching and response to intervention (RtI) have been implemented to address the issue of minority overrepresentation in special education (Klingner & Edwards, 2006). Reasons for these practices include an attempt to decrease erroneous placement of students in special education, and to increase learning gains using evidence-based interventions and regular progress monitoring in general education settings (Gersten et al., 2008; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, 2004). However, an important focus that remains is the academic progress and postsecondary outcomes for African American SWDs in special education. Individuals with disabilities from minority groups continue to be at high risk for poor school performance, high unemployment, low wages, limited access to postsecondary education and training, and fewer opportunities for living independently and participating fully in their communities (Simon, 2001). Although there African American SWDs who have been able to demonstrate academic success, the special education literature is fraught with negativity regarding this particular group (e. …

Minorities are Disproportionately Underrepresented in Special Education: Longitudinal Evidence Across Five Disability Conditions.

We investigated whether and to what extent minority children attending elementary and middle schools in the U.S. are over- or under-identified as disabled and so disproportionately represented in special education. To address existing limitations in the field's knowledge base, we (a) analyzed multi-year longitudinal data, (b) used hazard modeling to estimate over-time dynamics of disability identification across five specific conditions, and (c) extensively corrected for child-, family-, and school-level potential confounding variables (e.g., child-level academic achievement and behavior, family-level socioeconomic status, school-level state location). Despite long-standing and on-going federal legislative and policy efforts to reduce minority over-representation in special education, our analyses indicated that this has not been occurring in the U.S. Instead, minority children are less likely than otherwise similar White, English-speaking children to be identified as disabled and so receive special education services. From kindergarten entry to at least the end of middle school, racial and ethnic minority children are less likely than otherwise similar White children to be identified as having (a) learning disabilities, (b) speech or language impairments, (c) intellectual disabilities, (d) health impairments, or (d) emotional disturbances. Language minority children are less likely to be identified as having (a) specific learning disabilities or (b) speech or language impairments.

The Paradox of Majority Underrepresentation in Special Education in India

In contrast to the phenomenon of minority overrepresentation in special education in developed countries such as the United States, a paradoxical situation occurs in many developing countries, whereby majority populations are underrepresented in the educational system. The author examines some of the prevailing and traditional societal and political-economic factors specific to India that contribute to this underrepresentation, such as a paucity of resources that affects children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, gender differences in child rearing and educational expectations that affect girls, and negative attitudes toward disability.

The Context of Minority Disproportionality: Practitioner Perspectives on Special Education Referral

Although there is extensive documentation of minority overrepresentation in special education, knowledge of the factors that create the context within which disproportionality occurs is limited. To gain an understanding of the local processes that may contribute to special education disproportionality, we interviewed 66 educators about their perspectives on urban education, special education, available and needed resources, and the specific topics of diversity and disproportionality. A number of clear themes emerged. Teachers and schools feel unprepared to meet the needs of economically disadvantaged students. Classroom behavior appears to be an especially challenging issue for many teachers, and cultural gaps and misunderstandings may intensify behavioral challenges. Special education is perceived by many teachers as the only resource available for helping students who are not succeeding. Finally, there was a surprising reticence among many respondents to discuss issues of race. These results paint a surprisingly complex picture of the factors that may cause and maintain minority disproportionality in special education. Together, they suggest that successful remediation efforts will avoid simplistic or linear solutions, increase resources to address learning and behavior problems in general education, and seek methods to use data on racial disparity as a stimulus toward reflection and action.

The Context of Minority Disproportionality: Practitioner Perspectives on Special Education Referral

Although there is extensive documentation of minority overrepresentation in special education, knowledge of the factors that create the context within which disproportionality occurs is limited. To gain an understanding of the local processes that may contribute to special education disproportionality, we interviewed 66 educators about their perspectives on urban education, special education, available and needed resources, and the specific topics of diversity and disproportionality. A number of clear themes emerged. Teachers and schools feel unprepared to meet the needs of economically disadvantaged students. Classroom behavior appears to be an especially challenging issue for many teachers, and cultural gaps and misunderstandings may intensify behavioral challenges. Special education is perceived by many teachers as the only resource available for helping students who are not succeeding. Finally, there was a surprising reticence among many respondents to discuss issues of race. These results paint a surprisingly complex picture of the factors that may cause and maintain minority disproportionality in special education. Together, they suggest that successful remediation efforts will avoid simplistic or linear solutions, increase resources to address learning and behavior problems in general education, and seek methods to use data on racial disparity as a stimulus toward reflection and action.

Minority Overrepresentation in Special Education:

Minority overrepresentation refers to the recurrent finding that many more minority students are being served in special education programs for the mildly handicapped than would be expected based solely upon their representation in the general school population. Such findings have frequently touched off heated and seemingly endless debates in the professional literature regarding the cause(s) of this phenomenon and have more often than not resulted in recommendations calling for additions, deletions, or modifications to existing psychoeducational assessment practices. For the most part, these recommended changes reflect only cosmetic solutions to a conceptually-deficient assessment model. This model assumes that academic failure is primarily the result of inherent problems within the learner and proceeds to search for pathology through the routine administration of standard test batteries. This article suggests that many academic difficulties may be directly attributable to deficiencies in students' learning environments, and suggests procedures for examining and ruling out such possibilities before beginning a comprehensive evaluation of the learner. A functional assessment perspective is proposed and potential roadblocks to implementation are discussed.