Standing Out and Sorting In: Exploring the Role of Racial Composition in Racial Disparities in Special Education

Fish, Rachel

doi:10.3102/0002831219847966

Cited by 90 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 84 publications

(162 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Controlling for achievement, students of color were on average less likely to be identified than students who are White. This finding has been observed using different data sets and statistical methods (Morgan et al, 2012(Morgan et al, , 2015(Morgan et al, , 2018, 2018 as well as by other researchers analyzing other databases (Cooc, 2019;Fish, 2019;Shifrer et al, 2011). In general, student-level data with controls for achievement indicate that, on average, students of color are underidentified as having disabilities relative to similarly situated students who are White.…”

Section: How Can District Racial Risk Ratios Be Adjusted For Differensupporting

confidence: 62%

District-Level Achievement Gaps Explain Black and Hispanic Overrepresentation in Special Education

Farkas

Morgan

Hillemeier

et al. 2020

Exceptional Children

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To examine whether special education racial risk ratios reported by U.S. school districts are explained by district-level confounds, particularly, racial achievement gaps, we analyzed merged data ( N = 1,952 districts for Black–White comparisons; N = 2,571 districts for Hispanic–White comparisons) from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, Stanford Educational Data Archive, and Common Core data sets. Regression analysis results indicated that Black– and Hispanic–White district risk ratios were strongly related to Black– and Hispanic–White district achievement gaps. These results reconcile findings from district-level data with those from student-level data and support the finding that, when compared to otherwise similar White students by controlling for group differences in achievement, non-White students are on average underrepresented in special education. That is, non-White overrepresentation in special education in most districts is explained by racial achievement gaps in these districts. Residuals from the regressions provide a more accurate way to monitor for outlier districts than the current practice required in federal regulations of using unadjusted risk ratios.

show abstract

Section: How Can District Racial Risk Ratios Be Adjusted For Differensupporting

confidence: 62%

District-Level Achievement Gaps Explain Black and Hispanic Overrepresentation in Special Education

Farkas

Morgan

Hillemeier

et al. 2020

Exceptional Children

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…An audit study of teachers finds that White male students are suspected of having exceptionalities when they exhibit academic challenges, whereas Black male students are suspected of having exceptionalities when they exhibit behavioral challenges (Fish, 2017). Furthermore, Black students are more likely to be classified as having ''lower-status disabilities,'' such as intellectual disabilities, in schools with larger concentrations of White students, suggesting the effect that racial isolation has on classification decisions (Fish, 2019). Proponents of the underrepresentation hypothesis argue that Black and White students should be matched according to socioeconomic status, test scores, and (often teacher-reported) behaviors, as qualification for special education is intended to be needs based.…”

Section: Black-white Classification Gaps: Special Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Categorical Inequality in Black and White: Linking Disproportionality Across Multiple Educational Outcomes

Shores

Kim

Still

2020

American Educational Research Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We characterize the extent to which Black-White gaps for multiple educational outcomes are linked across school districts in the United States. Gaps in disciplinary action, grade-level retention, classification into special education and Gifted and Talented, and Advanced Placement course-taking are large in magnitude and correlated. Racial differences in family income and parent education are strikingly consistent predictors of these gaps, and districts with large gaps in one outcome are likely to have large gaps in another. Socioeconomic and segregation variables explain 1.7 to 3.5 times more variance for achievement relative to nonachievement outcomes. Systemic patterns of racial socioeconomic inequality drive inequalities across multiple educational outcomes; however, discretionary policies at local levels are more influential for nonachievement outcomes.

show abstract

“…The Study and the Setting "Problem Children" and "Children with Problems" Freidus 8 Gentrifying schools can be a particularly rich site for the examination of the raced and gendered development of children's reputations. School demographics frequently influence how educators interpret and respond to student behaviors (Carter, 2012;Fish, 2019;Morris, 2005b;Ramey, 2015). In schools where white students are demographic outliers, these interactions can become particularly complex (Freidus, in press;Freidus & Noguera, 2017;Morris, 2005b).…”

Section: Race Gender and The Good Childmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Problem Children” and “Children with Problems”: Discipline and Innocence in a Gentrifying Elementary School

Freidus

2020

Harvard Educational Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the ways Hazel, a white girl entering kindergarten, became known as a child with a problem rather than a problem child in her gentrifying school. Building on a year of classroom observations and interviews with students, school staff, and parents, author Alexandra Freidus identifies the role of racialized discourses related to disposition, medicalization, family, and community in shaping Hazel’s reputation and contrasts Hazel’s reputation with that of Marquise, a Black boy in her class. Hazel’s and Marquise’s storylines teach us that to fully understand and address the differences in how Black and white children are disciplined, we need to look closely at the allowances and affordances we make for some students, as well as how we disproportionately punish others. By examining the ways educators in a gentrifying school construct white innocence and Black culpability, this study illustrates the relational nature of the “school discipline gap” and helps us understand how and why some children are disproportionately subject to surveillance and exclusion and others are not.

show abstract

Standing Out and Sorting In: Exploring the Role of Racial Composition in Racial Disparities in Special Education

Cited by 90 publications

References 84 publications

District-Level Achievement Gaps Explain Black and Hispanic Overrepresentation in Special Education

District-Level Achievement Gaps Explain Black and Hispanic Overrepresentation in Special Education

Categorical Inequality in Black and White: Linking Disproportionality Across Multiple Educational Outcomes

“Problem Children” and “Children with Problems”: Discipline and Innocence in a Gentrifying Elementary School

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About