Students of color, especially Black males identified as having emotional behavior disorders (EBD), are overrepresented in exclusionary practices. Exclusionary practices, such as in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, and expulsion, negatively impact academic and social–emotional–behavioral outcomes for all students, especially students with EBD. This article identifies the overlapping principles of culturally responsive teaching and culturally responsive pedagogy as theorized by Gay and Ladson-Billings so that teachers of students of color identified with EBD can better support the specific learning needs of their students. These principles are explicitly applied to behavior-specific praise and error corrections, two evidence-based classroom behavioral management practices.
Power, M. E., Kelley, M. H., Selders, K. J., & Green, A. L. (2023). Culturally Responsive Evidence-Based Practices for Black Males with Emotional Behavioral Disorders. Intervention in School and Clinic, 0(0
The book presents well researched theories and examples of culturally relevant pedagogy in action. The book is useful to practitioners because it provides suggestions and tools for teachers to apply CR practices to their classrooms.
Gay, G. Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2000.
This research study found that teachers gave African American students significantly higher statistical ratings for hyperactive behaviors than did the children’s mother or the children themselves.
Linton, Kristen F. 2015. “Differential Ratings of Specific Behaviors of African Americans Children in Special Education.” Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 32 (3): 229–235.
This article examines how a focus on the achievement gap has overshadowed ways in which school systems constrain student achievement through trends of racial disproportionality in areas such as school discipline, special education assignment, and juvenile justice; the article considers these racial disparities as issues of institutionalized racism.
Annamma, Subini, Morrison, Deb, and Jackson, Darrell. 2014. “Disproportionality Fills in the Gaps: Connections Between Achievement, Discipline and Special Education in the School-to-Prison Pipeline.” Berkeley Review of Education 5 (1).
This research study synthesizes literature on special education disproportionality in international contexts and identifies trends across student groups and countries, including the ways in which scholars have examined this topic. Results show that studies focused mainly on the overrepresentation of ethnic minority, immigrant, and Indigenous populations in European or English-speaking nations.
Cooc, North, and Elizabeth W. Kiru. 2018. “Disproportionality in Special Education: A Synthesis of International Research and Trends.” The Journal of Special Education 52 (3): 163–173.
This article provides an overview of restorative justice (RJ) in US K-12 schools, discusses implementation challenges, and summarizes the most recent two decades of quantitative studies regarding the effectiveness of RJ at achieving a range of outcomes. While RJ has become increasingly popular, there is still relatively little quantitative research regarding its effectiveness. Still, available evidence suggests that RJ programs can improve school climates and reduce student misbehavior and school discipline. Results are more mixed regarding RJ’s impact on bullying, student absenteeism, and academic performance.
Darling-Hammond, Sean, Trevor Fronius, Hannah Sutherland, Sarah Guckenburg, Anthony Petrosino, and Nancy Hurely. 2020. “Effectiveness of Restorative Justice in US K-12 Schools: a Review of Quantitative Research.” Contemporary School Psychology 24, 295–308, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-020-00290-0 (accessed January 30, 2023).
This exploratory study occurred in Title 1 schools located within a large urban area. The sample included 23 general educators and 551 students in second through fifth grade, with 57 students identified as at risk for an emotional or behavioral disorder. The purpose of this study was to determine (a) to what extent general education teachers used evidence-based practices—specifically, opportunities to respond, positive specific feedback, and precorrections—during classroom instruction, and (b) if those practices occurred at different rates across demographic groups (i.e., race and disability risk). The results indicated that teachers used higher rates of opportunities to respond and positive specific feedback with students not at risk compared with at-risk students. We did not find main effects of race or race-by-disability risk interaction effects. These findings support the need to continue examining teachers’ differing uses of evidence-based practices.
Green, A. L., Lewis, T. J., & Olsen, A. A. (2020). General Education Teachers’ Use of Evidence-Based Practices: Examining the Role of Student Race and Risk Status. Behavioral Disorders, 45(3), 183–192
This study examines a set of seven “positive outlier” districts in California in which students across racial/ethnic groups are consistently outperforming students of similar racial/ethnic backgrounds from families of similar income and education levels in most other California districts. In addition, these districts are achieving more equitable opportunities and outcomes across a range of measures. This cross-case study consolidates lessons learned from these seven districts in California during the early implementation of new standards in California.
Burns, Dion, Linda Darling-Hammond, Caitlin Scott. 2020. How positive outlier districts create a strong and stable teaching force (research brief). Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/media/463/download?inline&file=Positive_Outlier_Districts_Strong_Stable_Teachers_BRIEF.pdf (accessed January 30, 2023).
This brief distills key lessons from the pilot phase of the Scaling Up MTSS Statewide Initiative and found that educators’ experiences with other tiered intervention programs fundamentally shaped how MTSS implementation unfolded at school sites. This was due in large part to the MTSS framework being too broad in scope to provide schools with clarity and guidance; too narrow in how student behaviors are assessed and addressed to facilitate innovation; and silent on issues of race and culture.
Chong, S., Ortiz-Gonzalez, I., Koon, D., Winn, L. (2023). Lessons from the Pilot of MTSS School-Site Implementation. California MTSS Research Consortium, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Accessed September 5, 2023. https://transformschools.ucla.edu/research/ca-multi-tiered-system-of-support-ca-mtss-pilot-program/
This report highlights how post-COVID suspensions in 2021–2022 have added to the pandemic’s harmful impact of instructional loss, especially for students from “high-needs” groups, who were most harmed by the pandemic. In addition, the analysis of district level data demonstrated that many districts have bucked the overarching statewide trend showing a slight reduction in rates of lost instruction due to OSS in comparison to the pre-COVID years. The report also describes evidence of extreme differences in how some districts responded to student misconduct in 2021–2022. This report uses the data on student enrollment and the raw count of days lost due to OSS to establish a baseline measure for calculating comparable rates of lost instruction for every group in every district in California.
Flores, R.T. and Daniel J. Losen (2023). Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-Pandemic Punitive Suspensions. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, University of California Los Angeles. Accessed March 25, 2024.
