From Tinkering with Disability Proportions to Building Systems for Thriving: Leveraging Spatial Inquiry in RPPs

• In Event: Thriving in Context: Exploring Dimensions of Variation in Equity-Driven Partnership Research

Abstract

Purpose
Since 2012, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has been cited for overrepresentation of Black students in special education, despite compliance with federal mandates. This district-university RPP advances a systemic approach to transform the conditions that (re)produce exclusion. We aim to shift how inequities are understood and addressed by reimagining educational structures—considering spatial histories and institutional logics—to develop context-centered solutions that promote Black student thriving.

Framework
Disproportionality remains resistant to decades of policy remedies (Cruz et al., 2021), and prevailing strategies fail to confront its institutional and historical roots. Grounded in a critical cultural-historical approach to collaborative research (Engestrröm, 2015; Gutiérrez & Jurow, 2016), this RPP engages district leaders, interdisciplinary researchers, Black families, and community members to examine how racialized and spatialized opportunity structures shape exclusion (Artiles, 2019; Tefera et al., 2023). We apply an asset-oriented view of learning (Nasir et al., 2020), framing disability as a fluid identity shaped by opportunity structures (Afacan et al., 2021).

Methods
This multiyear mixed-methods study uses an explanatory sequential design (Fetters & Freshwater, 2015). In Phase 1, district leaders and researchers conducted systems mapping, tracing the history and magnitude of disproportionality through analysis of policies, data infrastructures, systems, and family engagement. In Phase 2, we re-framed the problem using an interdisciplinary workgroup, synthesizing critical scholarship with district evidence. Quantitative analyses identified school-referral-rate typologies, informing selection of four schools.

Data Sources
Qualitative data sources include document analysis of referred-student files; semi-structured interviews with staff; fieldnotes from inquiry sessions, workgroup convenings, consultations with administrators, Black leaders, and parents. Quantitative data sources include longitudinal referral data (2013–2024) disaggregated by race/ethnicity and site; district-level predictors; spatial distribution of school-level disability rates and predictors. ACS Census and SF government data are used to position schools in neighborhoods.

Findings
Our analysis re-mediated framings of disproportionality. Black families reported “involvement fatigue” from prior extractive efforts and identified a persistent gap between participation and action. Past efforts stressed “fixing students” with little attention to anti-Black mindsets, actions, or systems.

We identified systemic issues in general education, including limited understanding of referral processes, minimal intervention documentation, and lack of structures to support using accurate student data. We prioritized: developing a shared-governance system with Black families; and disrupting precursors to disparities in general education.

Quantitative analysis revealed district-wide over referral of Black students. At 50 of 70 elementary and K–8 schools, Black students were at least 3x more likely to be referred than their peers. We identified district-wide referral-pattern typologies: high-referring schools with (a) high- and (b) low Black enrollment, and (c) low-referring schools.

Referral-typologies informed selection of four partner schools to deepen understanding of shared governance and systemic precursors to disparities. We describe findings from these case studies, RPP structures for analysis, and strategies for applying insights to practice.

Significance
This study illustrates how an equity-driven RPP supported systemic transformation by linking spatial analysis, institutional inquiry, and asset-based learning. Centering Black family knowledge and engaging in multilevel inquiry, this partnership offers a model for context-responsive educational change.

Authors

• Alfredo J. Artiles, Stanford University

• Allison Firestone, San Francisco Unified School District

• Laticia Errie De Erving, San Francisco Unified School District

• Mauricha Robinson, San Francisco Unified School District

• Rebecca A. Cruz, Johns Hopkins University

• Chris Lukinbeal, University of Arizona

• Hari Subramonyam, Stanford University

• Michelle Casas, Stanford University

• Lavar Edmonds, Stanford University

• Isun Malekghassemi, Johns Hopkins University

• Yura Oh, Stanford University