They called me ‘Es stupido,’and ‘SPED:’ Ability Segregation and the Dark Side of Academic Intervention

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: From ‘SPED’ to Solidarity: Unforgetting Exclusion and Imagining Disability-Just Futures in K-12 Education

Abstract

For many of our students who receive the label “in need of intervention,” reading intervention, math intervention, or language intervention structures becomes a central part of their school day. Resulting from a proliferation of standardized testing metrics that track and mark student progress at multiple check points throughout the year, students in many districts find themselves identified for additional academic supports that often replace their electives courses. This qualitative semi-structured interview study gathered qualitative data from teachers and administrators to examine the impact of academic interventions courses on students. I postulate that the use of academic interventions as a biopolitical mechanism utilized to ensure maximal productive potential from students.

Author

• Martha Perez-Mugg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign