Beyond Under- vs. Overrepresentation: An Exploration of Racial Disproportionalities in the Special Education Classification Process

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Engaging Mixed and Quant Methods to Illuminate Context of Injustice (Table 10)

Abstract

Whether Black students are overrepresented or underrepresented in special education has been an ongoing source of scholarly debate. This ambiguity has resulted in calls for research that illuminates the procedural mechanisms underlying disability diagnoses in schools. Using data from a large urban district with documented racial disproportionality, we examine differential patterns at each step of the classification process – referral, evaluation, eligibility determination, and placement. Through multilevel modeling, we explore the extent to which structural school and community factors predict racial differences at each step. Preliminary results suggest Black students in the study district are overrepresented at referral. Guided by QuantCrit theory, our study design considers how historical and contemporary racism may shape students’ experiences of the special education classification process.

Authors

• Ericka S. Weathers, University of Pennsylvania

• Karen Babbs Hollett, Pennsylvania State University