School-Level Predictors of Placement Into Special Education

• In Event: 70.065 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 70.065-4 - Inequality: School Factors

Abstract

Special education placements alter the academic trajectories of youth with non-normative achievement levels and behaviors, qualities more prevalent among the socially disadvantaged. With limited evidence on the efficacy of special education, it is important to identify factors that contribute to inconsistencies, inaccuracies, or even inequities in which students are placed into special education. Previous studies using student level data have largely emphasized the contributions of students’ sociodemographic and academic qualities to their odds of placement into special education. This study uses longitudinal multilevel data from a large urban southwestern district to investigate which differences across schools increase the odds of categorization with a disability among otherwise similar third graders.

Authors

• Dara Renee Shifrer, Rice University - Kinder Institute

• Rachel Elizabeth Fish, University of Notre Dame