African American Students in Special Education

1. African American Students in Special Education Ekaterina P. Forrester, Ph.D.

2. Disproportionality • Definition • Identification • Disproportionality study • Composition Index • Risk Ratio • Disproportionality in high poverty vs low poverty districts • Discussion

3. Disproportionate Representation of Minority Students in Special Education • Disproportionate representation of students from minority groups in special education has been a concern of educators for more than 4 decades (Dunn, 1968). • Overrepresented in certain disability categories • Underrepresented in gifted and talented education • Inappropriate placement concern: • False positives • False negatives

4. Disproportionality • Percentage of students from a certain racial or ethnic group enrolled in/eligible for special education is higher or lower than their proportion in general population. • IDEIA (2004) identified disproportionality as an important issue: • African-American students are identified as having emotional disturbance and intellectual disabilities at rates greater than their white peers. • Schools with predominately white student population tend to put disproportionately high numbers of minority students in special education programs.

5. Disproportionality • State and federal departments of education are tasked with monitoring and addressing the disproportionality. • Districts where a particular race or ethnicity is overrepresented in special education must review its evaluation and placement procedures to address the overrepresentation.

6. How Many Students with Disabilities • In 2013-14, about 6.5 million children ages 3-21 received services under IDEA. • This accounted for about 13% of total public school enrollment. • About 36% of students receiving services under IDEA had Specific Learning Disabilities (LD), followed by students with Speech and Language Impairments (SLI) -21% and students with other health (OHI) impairments – 12% • Students with autism, intellectual disabilities, developmental delay, and emotional disturbance each accounted for about 6 to 7% of students served under IDEA. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database

8. Racial/Ethnic Differences in Special Education • Several racial/ethnic groups had higher special education identification rates. • The percentage of African American and American Indian students served under IDEA was between 15 and 16%. • Identification rates for certain disability categories varied by race/ethnicity. • Students identified under Emotional Disturbance (ED) category accounted for 6% of all children receiving special education services, compared to about 9% of African American students served under IDEA. • Students receiving services under Developmental Delay category accounted for 6% of all children served under IDEA, while the percentage of American Indian and Pacific Islander students served under this category was 9%. • The percentage of students with disabilities who were served for autism was higher among Asian students - 17%, than among children overall – 7%. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database

9. African American Students in Special Education • African American students consistently found to be more likely than other students to be identified for special education services (NRC, 2002). • Overrepresented in more “subjective” disability categories such as intellectual disability and emotional disturbance (Skiba, 2008). • No disproportionality exists in more “objective” disability categories (e.g. physical disabilities, visual or hearing impairments). • More likely to be placed in more restrictive settings (Skiba, 2008).

10. African American students in Emotional Disturbance Category • Over-representation of African American students in Emotional Disturbance (ED) disability category has been consistently documented in research (McKenna, 2013; Serpell, Hayling, Stevenson & Kern, 2009). • This over-representation has been found to be associated with negative educational and social outcomes. • Several studies agree that African American students are on average about 1.5-3 times more likely to be over-represented in ED category (NRC, 2002; Parrish, 2002). • Gender has also been named a significant factor in this over-representation, with African American males more likely to be identified for ED category compared to females. • Coutinho & Oswald (2005) using data from OCR Elementary and Secondary School Survey found that African American males were 3.42 times more likely to be identified for ED category compared to African American females.

11. Contributing Factors(Review of Literature) Socioeconomic Environment (Oswald et al., 1999, 2002; Parrish, 2002; Skiba et al., 2005) • Higher poverty rates • Less developmentally ready for school • What about other ethnic groups with higher rates of poverty that are not over-represented? • Studies of the impact of poverty on disproportionality produced inconsistent results. • Poverty as a “contributing factor” does not explain why African American students are over-represented in “subjective” but not “objective” disability categories.

12. Contributing Factors(Review of Literature) Teacher/School Psychologist Perceptions and Bias • Cultural disconnect between primarily White teachers and African American students. • Expectations about normative behavior. • Miner & Clark-Stewart (2008) reported that African American students externalizing behaviors decreased with age according to parents reports but increased with age according to teachers. • In Skiba et al. (2006) teachers reported that lack of resources to deal with disruptive behaviors contributed to referrals for externalizing behaviors. Teachers also did not perceive special education referrals as having negative consequences for students.

13. Contributing Factors(Review of Literature) • Parental/Community Support • School counselors, special and general education teachers report parental influence and low involvement as a contributing factor in overrepresentation of African American students in special education (Kearns, Ford, & Linney 2005; Shippen, Curtis, & Miller, 2009). • Parents report alienation and feeling out of place when interacting with their child’s educators (Thompson, 2003). • African American parents also mistrusted special education system and believed cultural disconnect was the reason for over-identification (Williams, 2007) • School culture • School disciplinary policies have been named as a potential factor contributing to overrepresentation (Donovan & Cross, 2002). • Classroom management

14. Consequence of Disproportionate Representation Inferior and ineffective educational experience Risk of underachievement Risk of dropout Social difficulties Stigma of a disability label

15. Problem Statement • Research is inconsistent about the role of poverty and home environment on disproportionate representation of minority students in special education(Skiba et al., 2005). • This investigation focused on examining the relationship between identification rates of African American students in special education and socioeconomic level in one County in Southern California.

16. Research Questions • Are African American students over-represented in Special Education? • Are African American students over-represented in specific disability categories? • Is poverty a contributing factor to overrepresentation of African American students in special education and in specific disability categories?

17. Data • Data for the analysis were drawn from publically available statewide special education enrollment in disability category datasets (DataQuest) from 2012, 2013 and 2014 for districts in a large county in Southern California. • Free or Reduced Price Meals (FRPM) data for individual districts in the county were obtained from publically available school demographic data files released by the California Department of Education. • Data were aggregated at district-level. No student-level data were used in this analysis.

18. Procedure Overrepresentation indicators: Composition Index (NRC, 2002) - percentage of children from a specific racial/ethnic group receiving special education and related services for a particular disability • Coutinho & Oswald (2004) suggest using a confidence level of 10% around the population enrollment percentage. e.g.: 15%  1.5% (13.5% --16.5%)

19. Procedure Overrepresentation indicators: • Relative Risk Ratio (NRC, 2002; Parrish, 2002) - is a comparison of the risk of a particular racial/ethnic group compared to the risk for all other groups. • Relative Risk Ratios show how much more likely it is on average that a student from a particular ethnic group is identified for a certain disability category than are students from all other ethnic groups. • If a risk ratio is 1, there is equal risk. As risk ratio increases above 1, so does the risk. If a risk ratio is 2.0 , students from that racial or ethnic group are twice as likely to be identified for a certain disability than other students.

20. Procedure Poverty Level: • The percentage of students in a given district receiving free lunch was used as a district-level indicator of economic disadvantage. • The sample was divided into thirds based on the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch. • Districts ≤ 33% of students on free lunch – Low Poverty • Districts ≥ 66% of students on free lunch – High Poverty • Average risk ratios for African American students in special education and in specific disability categories were calculated and compared for high and low poverty districts.

21. Results • Using 2012-2016 special education enrollment data from over 20 school districts in Southern California, we calculated composition indices to compare African American students’ composition in various disability categories to African American enrollment composition. • Five-year trends in risk ratios (2012-2016) were calculated comparing African American students identification rates for special education in general and in emotional disturbance (ED) category. • Risk Ratios of African American students in special education in general and in emotional disturbance category in high and low poverty districts were compared.

27. Composition by Disability Category • Composition analysis revealed that in 2011-12 African American students accounted for 6.7% percent of total school enrollment in a county of interest, they comprised 9.5% of Special Education enrollment, 17.7% of students in Emotional Disturbance category, 11% in SLD category and 10.2% of students in Intellectual Disability category. • These results support previous research suggestive of over-representation of African American students in “subjective” disability categories: ED and ID. • Further analysis revealed that percentages of African American students in categories of Speech or Language Impairment, Orthopedic Impairment, Autism and Visual Impairment were comparable to their percentage of total enrollment (5.8%, 7.1%, 6.6% and 6.9% respectively). • This lend support to the previous findings of lack of over-representation in “objective” or biologically verifiable categories.

28. Change in Composition from 2011 to 2016 • There was an overall positive change in composition indices from 2011 to 2016 suggesting that disproportionality in the special education and emotional disability identification rates is decreasing for African American students. • While the percent in total school enrollment has not changed (6.7% vs 6.4% in 2011 and 2016 respectively) • The African American special education enrollment went down from 9.5% to 8.5% • The African American students identification rates in Emotional Disturbance category went down from 17.7% to 14.8%.

31. Risk Ratios • Risk Ratio analysis revealed that African American students were about 1.5 times more likely than all other students to be identified for Special Education and about 2.5x as likely to be identified under Emotional Disturbance category. • Risk ratios showed a declining trend from 2011 to 2016 • Further comparison with risk ratios of White and Hispanic students revealed that • Hispanic students were equally as likely than all other students to be identified for Special Education (risk ratio of about 1) and only half as likely to be identified under Emotional Disturbance category (risk ratio of less than 0.5) • White students were also equally as likely than all other students to be identified for Special Education (risk ratio of slightly above 1) but 2 times more likely to be identified under Emotional Disturbance category. • Findings for overall special education risk ratios were similar to the national findings for the three ethnic groups. • High risk ratios for African American students in Emotional Disturbance category were also consistent with previous research.

32. Risk Ratios in High vs. Low Poverty Districts Special Education Risk Ratios in Low vs. High Poverty Districts Average risk ratios of African American students in special education were 1.18 (high poverty)  and 1.27 (low poverty), with no significant difference (t=.286, p = .782). Emotional Disturbance Risk Ratios in Low vs. High Poverty Districts Average risk ratios of African American students in emotional disturbance category were 2.46 (high poverty)  and 2.63 (low poverty), with no significant difference (t=.891, p = .467).   

33. Poverty Measured by FRPL • Snapshot of FRPL participation • Students who participated in FRPL every year since Kindergarten. • Other poverty indicators?

34. If Not Poverty Than What? • Teacher perception and biases • False Positives & False Negatives • Pre-referral and screening process

35. If Not Poverty Than What • School engagement • Discipline • Graduation/Dropout • A-G completion • School Climate • Socio-emotional

36. 2013-14 Discipline Rates

42. Interventions • Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) • Culturally-responsive instruction and assessment • Parent and community collaboration • Pre-referral screening process

43. Next Steps • More research is necessary to understand how teacher perceptions of African American students’ behaviors contribute to disproportionality in Emotional Disturbance category. • Pre-referral process evaluations • Qualitative analysis of teacher vs. parent perceptions of externalizing behaviors in African American students. • Research of model districts where minority students are not overrepresented.

44. Questions?