Not-So-Special Education: Subgroup Entitlements and Daily Opportunity Provision in Segregated Schools

• In Event: 45.052 - Classrooms, Tracks, and Programs: Curricular Locations and Their Consequence

Abstract

Research on the implementation of IDEA and Title III is focused on outcomes for the targeted students—students with disabilities (SWDs) and English learners (ELs). I broaden this literature by asking how subgroup entitlements shape the education of general education students, a particularly important inquiry in high-poverty, low-performing schools where most students require intensive supports. Using ethnographic methods, I show how subgroup entitlements structured daily opportunity provision for all students in a public middle school through 1) the logic for student assignment; 2) academic tracks that offered distinct conditions for learning; 3) organizational fragmentation that inhibited coordination; 4) increased oversight and risk of citation for non-compliance; and 5) the sharing of subgroup resources and funding with general education students.

Author

• Rachel Garver, Montclair State University