The OSEP Symposium on Significant Disproportionality explored why this is an important topic for all of us as we work to ensure that children with disabilities, regardless of race or ethnicity, are provided educational services and accommodations that enable and prepare them for post-school education and career opportunities. The Symposium presentations highlighted the key topics from a national perspective, framed the importance of this issue for all OSEP grantees, and provided some examples of practices and strategies that help address significant disproportionality. In addition to the live event, numerous resources related to significant disproportionality have been posted for participants to use as they prepared for the event and as resources to improve services and conditions for children with disabilities in States, districts, schools, and programs.
This study examines how student and school-level socioeconomic status (SES) measures predict students’ odds of being identified for special education, particularly for high-incidence disabilities.
Kincaid, Alesksis P., and Amanda L. Sullivan. 2017. “Parsing the Relations of Race and Socioeconomic Status in Special Education Disproportionality.” Remedial and Special Education 38 (3): 159–170.
Practitioner brief written for parents and teachers of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students; discusses culturally and linguistically responsive prereferral interventions for preventing the disproportionate representation of CLD students in special education.
Shernaz B. García and Alba A. Ortiz (2006) The Equity Alliance at Arizona State University.
In an effort to reconceptualize how disproportionality should be addressed to impart organizational transformation, Fergus, Kramarczuk, and Voulgarides suggest moving beyond a focus on technical interventions.
Fergus, Edward, Kramarczuk Voulgarides, and King-Thorius, Kathleen. 2017. “Pursuing Equity: Disproportionality in Special Education and the Reframing of Technical Solutions to Address Systemic Inequities.” Review of Research in Education 41, 61-87.
The book explores how race is often not explicitly talked about in schools yet has a profound effect on how schools are organized, how students and teachers interact and how implicit lessons of race are taught. The book is an important tool for practitioners who seek to become more reflective on how their everyday interactions in schools are embedded within the historical and racial fabric of America.
Lewis, A. Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003
Lewis, A. Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003
The article explores how the No Child Left Behind Act, a well intentioned law, has led to unintended consequences that have further marginalized the students it intended to help. The article is relevant to practice because it provides insight into how broad educational reforms can be perverted in practice and offers practitioners a bird’s eye view of how policy can perpetuate, rather than mitigate, inequalities.
Darling-Hammond, L. “Race, Inequality and Educational Accountability: The Irony of "No Child Left Behind". Race, Ethnicity and Education, 10(3), 2007: 245-260.
The article explores existing research on educational inequities. The article offers practitioners a comprehensive understanding of when, where and how educational inequity manifests and how it has been understood in research.
Farkas, George. "Racial Disparities and Discrimination in Education: What Do We Know, How Do We Know It, and What Do We Need to Know?" Teachers College Record 105(6), 2003.
The book explores the implications of disproportionality on educational outcomes and equity. It is an important for practitioners because it offers a broad overview of findings and issues associated with inequity in special education.
Losen and Orfield. Racial Inequity in Special Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University; Harvard Education Press, 2005.
The resource highlights how racial segregation in schools is still a relevant and consequential issue in America. The resource provides practitioners with a critical lens as they think about the demographic trends in the districts they work in.
Orfield, G., and Lee, C. “Racial Transformation and the Changing Nature of Segregation.” Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. Cambridge, MA., 2006.
In this keynote presentation, Dr. Gregory Peters addresses the question, "What radical discourse is necessary to interrupt and transform disproportionality in our schools?" Dr. Peters spoke at the Equity Symposium presented by the State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project that was funded by the California Department of Education, Special Education Division, and co-hosted by Student Involvement and the Chicano and Latino Studies departments at Sonoma State University. The Equity Symposium was held October 18, 2018.
Peters, Gregory. 2018. "Radical Discourse: Interrupting Inequities." State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project.
