Disproportionate Representation of Minority Students in Special Education: Academic, Demographic, and Economic Predictors

Abstract

Research on variables that predict disproportionate representation of minority students in special education has often ignored an important variable—academic achievement. This study examined the prediction of representation of students from various minority racial/ethnic groups using district-level academic, demographic, and economic blocks of variables. The relative strength of these blocks was tested using weighted multiple least squares regression. The results show that academic achievement added significantly to predictive models for various racial/ethnic groups and disability categories. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.

Exploring Involvement Expectations for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parents: What We Need to Know in Teacher Education

“…More recent studies have sought to understand the relationship between these two factors (De Carvalho, 2000;Galindo & Sheldon, 2012;Ice & Hoover-Dempsey, 2011;Lee & Bowen, 2006), particularly within the special education community (Duchnowski et al, 2012;Hosp & Reschly, 2004;McDonnall, Cavenaugh, & Giesen, 2012;Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Javitz, & Valdes, 2012) and minoritized student populations (Bower & Griffin, 2011;De Carvalho, 2000;Jeynes, 2003Jeynes, , 2005Jeynes, , 2007Lee & Bowen, 2006;Souto-Manning & Swick, 2006;Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996).…”

“…For example, some data suggest that CLD parents, lower socio-economic status (SES) parents and parents with less education tend to be less involved in school than White parents, parents with higher SES status, and parents with more educated (Artiles et al, 2010;Duchnowski et al, 2012;Epstein, 1995;Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000;Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994;Harry, 2002;Hosp & Reschly, 2004;Rodriguez, Fishman, & Nickerson, 2015;Wagner et al, 2012;Zhang & Bennett, 2003). Childcare and other barriers can prohibit CLD parents from participating in the same ways as White parents, yet studies indicate they do participate.…”

Educational Justice, Transformative Leadership Practices, and Special Needs Students

“…But the work of leaders of special needs students is perhaps ever more necessary for it may often be these students who can least serve as their own advocates. Quite often, as well, minority students are disproportionately represented within special needs populations (Hosp & Reschly, 2004) and thus those who work on their behalf realize that they are addressing a complex interplay of cultural, ability, language, and academic variables. The explicitly political work of transformative leaders working with special needs populations is multifaceted, challenging and often overlooked.…”

Answering the Call to Prepare Special Education Teachers at Institutions of Catholic Higher Education

“…We recommend that ICHE take the data to heart and intentionally work to increase their culturally diverse student population so that it begins to approximate the percentages of children in Catholic schools and national and/or regional norms. This incidence is likely to be even higher for children with disabilities based upon the overall trends for children with disabilities to have a higher representation of minorities (Hosp & Reschly, 2004). The issue of linguistic diversity is especially important due to the increasing numbers of Hispanic families whose children attend Catholic schools and for whom English is a second language.…”