What are three factors that contribute to the disproportionate representation of diverse learners in special education?

Research indicates that factors such as test bias, poverty, poor general education instruction, and insufficient professional development for working with diverse students can cause this overrepresentation.

What are some of the factors that contribute to racial disproportionality in special education?

For example, research has shown that the following influence disproportionate outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education: (1) discipline policies and practices, (2) interventions and referrals, (3) instruction and assessment, (4) differential access to educational opportunity, (5) ...

What is disproportionate representation of culturally diverse students in special education?

Disproportionate Representation in Special Education

Disproportionality in special education refers to the idea that racist and discriminatory practices have resulted in a high number of students from certain racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups being placed in special education.

What are the three components of disproportionality?

“Significant disproportionality” refers to three separate but related trends that impact a student's educational experience: (1) identification for special education (also called eligibility); (2) educational placement (once identified as eligible for special education); and (3) discipline.

Why do you think that some groups of students are disproportionately represented in special education?

Possible causes of disproportionate special education representation are psychometric test bias, socio- demographic factors, unequal opportunity in general education (the most consistent findings in education research is that students achieve in direct proportion to their opportunity to learn), teacher ethnicity (as ...

Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

What is significant disproportionality in special education?

If your local educational agency (LEA) was identified as Significantly Disproportionate in the Annual Determination Letter, your LEA has overidentified a specific race and/or ethnicity in one or more of the following special education categories: Disciplinary Action (Suspension and Expulsion)

What is the idea of disproportionality in special education?

Within the context of this training session, disproportionality refers to situations when the percentage of students from a specific racial or ethnic group in special education programs or specific special education categories is noticeably greater than (or markedly less than) the percentage of their enrollment in a ...

What contributes to disproportionality?

Factors contributing to disproportionality include cultural bias, a fearful agency climate, communication barriers, ineffective service delivery, and workforce issues.

What causes disproportionality?

There are higher numbers of children of Black/African-American or Hispanic/Latino descent in the child welfare system nationwide. This disproportionality is due to a number of systemic issues surrounding the rates of reports to Child Protective Services (CPS), poverty and access to services.

What is disproportionate identification of minorities in some special education categories?

Disproportionality in special education placement and school discipline are issues that need to be addressed by educators and policymakers, as students of color—especially students of color with disabilities—are disproportionately subjected to exclusionary discipline and may more often be placed in segregated settings ...

Why are minorities disproportionately diagnosed with learning disabilities?

Many researchers are concerned that disproportionate identification of racial/ethnic minorities with learning disabilities is part of the long history of racism and stratification within education (Patton 1998; Skiba et al. 2008). Some attribute disproportionality to blatant educator racism (Anderson 1997; Skiba et al.

What accounts for the disproportionately high representation of Ells in ESS special education?

EAL students enter school with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that are different from their mainstream peers. This diversity can be misunderstood in the classroom context, resulting in disproportionate placement numbers in Special Education.

Which groups of students are overrepresented in special education?

Minority groups are overrepresented in special education. However, in gifted programs, Asian and Pacific Islanders are overrepresented while other minority groups, such as African American, Native American, and Hispanic/Latinos are underrepresented(page 89).

How can we reduce disproportionality in special education?

One strategy for preventing disproportionality is to bolster prevention efforts by ensuring provision of high- quality, rigorous curriculum and behavioral supports, conducting universal academic and social-emotional screening to identify students at risk for difficulties, and providing evidence-based interventions ...

What is an example of racial inequality in education?

Schools serving more students of Color are less likely to offer advanced courses and GATE programs than schools serving mostly White populations. Additonally, students of Color are less likely than their White peers to be enrolled in those courses and programs within schools that have those offerings.

Are black children disproportionately overrepresented in special education?

The debate over over representation in special education

The most credible studies allow researchers to control for a rich set of student-level characteristics, rather than using data aggregated to the district level, and firmly establish that blacks are disproportionately under-represented.

What does disproportionately mean in education?

This term refers to significantly discrepant data, by race and ethnicity, in any of the following areas - identification, placement, or discipline.

What is disproportionality and why is it a problem?

Disproportionality is the over- and under-representation of culturally and linguistically diverse children (CLD) in special education and gifted and/or talented programs.

What are the factors that cause a school district to be identified as having significant disproportionality?

We understand that overrepresentation of one racial or ethnic group that rises to the level of significant disproportionality may occur for a variety of reasons, including over-identification of that racial or ethnic group, under-identification of another racial or ethnic group or groups, or appropriate identification, ...

Why is disproportionality important?

Disproportionality is important because, in some cases, it may signal the presence of bias in the identification of children with disabilities; and inappropriately identifying children as disabled is harmful.

How do you determine disproportionality?

What is racial and ethnic disproportionality in education?

Disciplinary disproportionality encompasses the disproportionately high rates at which students from certain racial/ethnic groups are subjected to office discipline referrals, suspensions, school arrests, and expulsion.

What is the difference between disparity and disproportionality?

While disproportionality refers to the state of being out of proportion, disparity refers to a state of being unequal. Disparity occurs when the ratio of one racial or ethnic group in an event is not equal to the ratio of another racial or ethnic group who experienced the same event.

Which student groups are disproportionately represented in special education and non academic classes?

Children from minority groups are often disproportionately represented in special education programs.

Which group has disproportionately high representation in gifted and talented programs?

Overall, gifted and talented programs do disproportionately enroll more white and Asian students and fewer Black and Hispanic students. However, they have only a minor impact on racial segregation, in part because they enroll relatively small numbers of American schoolchildren.