This website supports innovation and implementation of equitable learning environments that are grounded in research and the science of learning and development. The BELE Framework is a guide for transforming student experiences and outcomes, integrating across learning experiences, teaching and learning, schoolwide systems and structures, family, caregiver, and community partnerships, and district and state policies.
Building Equitable Learning Environments Network. https://belenetwork.org/. Website accessed June 14, 2021.
This groundbreaking book examines the root causes of persistent disproportionality, including systemic inequality, color blindness, deficit thinking, and poverty disciplining–all of which create barriers to success for marginalized students." The book includes:
An in-depth survey of race and racism in the American education system, its laws, and its policies, all of which perpetuate systemic inequality and harmful stereotypes
A practical framework for developing cross-cultural skills and dispositions that challenge our biases and promote educational equity
Concrete strategies for interrupting and replacing deficit-based thinking and prejudices
Powerful reflections based on survey data from over 4,000 educators, which vividly illustrate how our beliefs manifest in schools and in our treatment of students
Citation: Ferguson, Edward A. 2024 Desegregating Ourselves: Challenging the Biases That Perpetuate Inequities in Our Schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Due to bias within the education system (including within assessments and academic and other policies), students of color can be misidentified as needing special education, and are then placed in more restrictive settings and experience harsher discipline because of the intersectionality of race and special education. This brief summarizes the literature and latest research on disproportionality in special education and offers changes in policy and practice that can reduce significant disproportionality in schools.
Citation: National Center for Learning Disabilities. 2023. Significant Disproportionality in Special Education: Current Trends and Actions for Impact. Washington, DC: National Center for Learning Disabilities.
