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Minority Disproportionality in Special

Education and School Discipline:

What We Know, What We Need to Know

Russell SkibaCenter for Evaluation and Education Policy

Indiana University

Presented at the Fall 2005 Collaborative Meeting

Indianapolis, IN October 27, 2005

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Minority Disproportionality in

Special Education

The Indiana Disproportionality

Project (IDP)

Collaboration of IDOE and Center for

Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana

University

Document status of minority disproportionality

in Indiana

Use that information to guide change planning

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Project History and Timeline

Phase I (1999-2000):

Developing Measures of Disproportionality

Phase II (2000-2001):

Understanding What Contributes to Special Ed.

Disproportionality

Phase III (2002-Present):

Addressing Disproportionality in Local School

Corporations and Addressing Key Research

Questions

National Research Council, 2002

National Special Education Disability Data for

African American Students (Odds Ratios)

Mental Retardation 2.35 x more

Emotional Disturbance 1.60 x more

Gifted and Talented 59% less

Speech & language, multiple disabilities, hearingimpairment, orthopedic impairment, other healthimpaired, visual impairment, autism, andtraumatic brain injury all relatively proportional

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Skiba, Simmons, Ritter, Rausch,

Feggins, Gallini, Edl, & Mukherjee,

2004

In Indiana

Relative Risk for Indiana’s AA students:

Mild Mental Disability 3.29 x more

Emotional Disturbance 2.38 x more

Moderate MD 1.91 x more

Communication Disorder 35% less

Learning Disabled 6% less

Disproportionality in Special Education:

Emotional Disability

African American

Relative Risk: 2.60

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Disproportionality in Special Education:

Mild Mental Disability

African American

Relative Risk: 3.21

Disproportionality in Special Education:

Regular Class Placement

African American

Relative Risk: 0.62

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Disproportionality in Special Education:

Separate Class Placement

African American

Relative Risk: 2.81

School Factors:

Resources & Classroom Management

“I think our teachers probably, general ed teachers

probably say smaller class size [would help the most].”

--Special Ed. Director

“I think that the African American children seem to be more

outspoken. They seem to be louder. They seem to be active.

They seem to be what we would call ‘disrespectful’, and for that

reason sometimes teachers don’t want to deal with them.”

--Classroom Teacher

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School Factors:

High-Stakes Testing

“This year we were told that we had to refer anyone who

didn’t pass ISTEP. So I had to refer 13 kids to [the

prereferral team] and I don’t really need that…I don’t know

what their problem is.”

--Classroom Teacher

Problems with Referral and Decision Making

“I think because they know that something is not working for

a child and they feel that they can’t tap into some resources.

One stable resource that they have to tap into is special

education. It has funding to support it, it’s a process that is in

place. So it is an easy tap into subsystem.”

--Special Ed. Director

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Referral and Decision Making

Teacher Perspective

“I am pretty open to referring any child that is not finding

success. My goal is for every child to be successful.”

--Classroom Teacher

“If there’s a chance they might qualify, it’s always to their

benefit to have them checked.”

--Classroom Teacher

““We are thinking of sending them on to middle school and

they can’t read yet. It is scary—let’s get these kids tested,

let’s see what we can do. If we can give them a label, at

least we can get them help as we let go.”

--Classroom Teacher

The Effects of Poverty

“Is ethnicity the problem or is poverty the problem?”

--Principal

“You look at the students that we are identifying

and for some reason they are disadvantaged.”

--Principal

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Is Disproportionality Simply a

Function of Poverty?

Question 1: Does poverty status explain minoritydisproportionality?

Question 2: Does race predict special educationplacement independently of poverty status?

* Skiba, R., Simmons, A., Poloni-Staudinger, L., Feggins, R., & Chung,C.G. (In press). Unproven causal links: Can poverty explaindisproportionality in special education. Journal of Special Education.

Method

Analyzed rates of disproportionality in all

305 Indiana school districts

OLS and Logistic Regressions predicting

rate of disproportionality from

Demographics (SES, LEP)

System characteristics (Class size, discipline)

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Skiba et al. (in press)

Disability Categories

Overall

Emotional Disability

Mild Mental Disability

Moderate Mental Disability

Communication Disorder

Learning Disability

Race, Poverty, and

Disproportionality: Results

Poverty a highly inconsistent predictor of placement

Overall, MoMD and ED: Not significant

CD and LD: More disproportionality as poverty decreased

MiMD: Positive and significant

Suspension/Expulsion Rate only consistent predictor

Race is a significant predictor of special education

placement regardless of (independent of) poverty

level

Poverty magnifies the gap created by race

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1.6350.7330.8900.6001.2692.6071.4291.000Adjusted Odds (Full Equation)

1.5330.8030.8410.5701.1852.2021.3621.000Adjusted Odds Ratio (Race & Poverty)

2.4070.7410.8670.6001.8853.3572.1601.000Unadjusted Odds Ratio (Race Only)

Separate

Regula

rLDCDMOMDMIMDEDFTOverallDisability or Placement Category:

Table 5: Adjusted Vs. Unadjusted Odds Ratios For African American Students

IDEA and Service in the Regular

Class Setting

“to the maximum extent appropriate,children with disabilities…are educated withchildren who are not disabled; and special

classes, separate schooling, or otherremoval of children with disabilities from theregular educational environment occurs onlywhen the nature or severity of the disabilityof a child is such that education in regular

classes with the use of supplementary aidsand services cannot be achieved

satisfactorily.” (612(a)(5)(A))

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Fierros and Conroy, 2002

Nationally…

55% of White students as compared to

only 37% of African American students

were educated in inclusive settings

33% of African American students with

disabilities received services in

substantially separate class placements as

compared to only 16 % of White children

with disabilities.

And In Indiana…

African American students with a disability are

35% less likely than their peers to have a

regular class placement

African American students with a disability are

2.84 times more likely than their peers to

have a separate class placement

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Why is There Disproportionality in

Educational Environments?

The 24th Annual Report to Congress

suggests that “it is possible that the

differences in placement by race/ethnicity

may reflect the disproportional

representation of some minority groups in

disability categories that are predominately

served in more restrictive settings (OSEP,

2002, p.III-45).”

Testing the OSEP Hypothesis

Entire state data base: Disability category,

racial/ethnic classification, LRE placement

Five disability categories: ED, MiMD,

MoMD, LD, CD

Two placements: GenEd <21%, Separate

>60%

Thus 10 category/placement dyads

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Conclusions

Evidence of disproportionality within disability

category

Four of 5 disability categories

Disproportionality increases inversely with severity

of disorder

ED-Separate: 1.18 X as likely

MoMD-Separate: 1.07 X

LD-Separate: 3.20 X

S & L: 6.92 X

Disproportionality in Special Ed…

African American students disproportionately represented

in categories and placements independently

Disproportionality more severe in “judgmental” categories

Tends not to be due to poverty; poverty tends to magnify

already existing racial differences

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Race represents a systematic worldview that has proveduseful to some protagonists in situations of conflict andcompetition. It provides its own rationalization for theinstigation and perpetuation of intergroup animosities,and reduces or eliminates any potential for recognizingcommonalities or for reaching compromise. It evolved

in the Judeo-Christian world as a justification forperpetrating inhumanities on others. Perhaps that is

why so many people are discomforted by its persistence.

---Audrey Smedley,

Race in North America

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Questions to Be Explored

Based on data, how much does SEScontribute to disproportionality in ourdistrict?

What are the alternatives to poverty as ahypothesis for Sp. Ed. disproportionality?

Why is there disproportionality ineducational settings?

How much might schools contribute todisproportionality? In what form?

Minority Disproportionality in

School Discipline

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CDF (1975): Black students suspended 2-3x as

frequently

Studies since find disproportionality in:

Office referrals

Suspension & Expulsion

Corporal Punishment

Black males 16x as likely as white females to be

suspended (Gregory, 1996)

Is School Discipline Fair?:

30 Years of Study

Discipline Comparisons by Race

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Out-of-School Suspension Comparison Ratios

by Race and School Level

Out-of-School Suspension Incident Rate

by Race and Locale

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Alternative Explanations of DisciplinaryAlternative Explanations of Disciplinary

DisproportionalityDisproportionality

Disproportionality is related to SES

SES and disproportionality correlate, but…

Effects of race remain after control

Do black students misbehave more?

No supporting evidence

May in fact be treated more severely for same

offenses

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

% E

nrolled

% R

eferred

% Suspended

% Expelled

Disproportionality in Office Referrals,

Suspension, and Expulsion

Black Students White Students

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What Behaviors are StudentsWhat Behaviors are Students

Referred For? By RaceReferred For? By Race

White students

referred more for:

Smoking

Vandalism

Leaving w/o

permission

Obscene Language

Black students

referred more for:

Disrespect

Excessive Noise

Threat

Loitering

Of 32 infractions, only 8 significant differences:Of 32 infractions, only 8 significant differences:

Improved Student Behavior?

30-50% of students suspended are repeat

offenders

“Suspension functions as a reinforcer...rather than as a

punisher” (Tobin, Sugai & Colvin,1996)

Use of suspension correlates with

School dropout (school level) (Raffaele-Mendez; Ekstrom,

1986)

Juvenile incarceration (state level) (Skiba et al)

Dropout or pushout? (Bowditch, 1994)

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Is Exclusion a Risk for Lower

Achievement? Controlling for SES

Davis & Jordan (1994): Negative rbetween emphasis on discipline andachievement, student engagement

Raffaele-Mendez, Knoff, & Ferron (2002):Simple correlations but only writing relatedto discipline when SES controlled

Skiba & Rausch (2004): Both suspensionand expulsion neg. corr’d with stateaccountability scores with SES controlled

Percent Passing ISTEP by School Disciplinary

Use (Adjusted for Demographic and Economic

Indicators)

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Discipline Comparisons by Race

“Caucasian variety: I have taken the name of this

variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its

neighborhood, and especially its southern slope,

produces the most beautiful race of men, and

because…in that region, if anywhere, we ought

with the greatest probability to place the

autochthones [original forms] of mankind.”

--Johann Blumenbach (1775)

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Questions to Be Explored

Which of the hypotheses for disciplinarydisproportionality are supported by the evidence?

SES?

Student behavior?

Cultural competence?

Are schools with black administrators less likely tosee inequity in discipline? black teachers?

Does reducing suspension/expulsion reduceracial disparity in discipline?

What would “culturally competent” classroommanagement look like? Would it have an effect?

Perspectives on Race and Inequity:

How Do We Understand the

Disparities?

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Blaming the Victim: Disproportionality due primarily to

characteristics of minority populations (e.g. Herrnstein & Murray)

Critical Race Theory: Disproportionality as a decision to

maintain the structure of white privilege (e.g. Bell, Delgado)

Cultural Reproduction: Racial/economic inequity

maintained by roles and actions of individuals within

institutions, perhaps unconciously (e.g., Bowles & Gintis, Oakes)

Maybe We Shouldn’t Talk About It...

Responses to InequityResponses to Inequity

The Difficulty of Talking About Race

“When you say minorities, are you, what are you speaking

of?...[INTERVIEWER: Ethnic and racial

minorities]...Oh....OK...Alright...We have like...I guess we have

about half and half. I don’t know that I’ve ever really paid attention

to it .”

--Classroom Teacher

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Race and the Relief Effort

"The storm didn't discriminate, and neither didthe recovery effort.” --George W. Bush

"There is a historical indifference to the pain ofpoor people, and black people ... we seem toadjust more easily to black pain.”

--Rev. Jesse Jackson

Perspectives on Katrina: Washington

Post/ABC News Poll, 9/13/05

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Local Equity Action Development

(LEAD) Projects

Cultural

Destructiveness Cultural BlindnessCultural

Competence

and Advocacy

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Questions to Explore

What are the responses to inequity and disparityof opportunity in our district?

Do we have a gap in perspective?

Where are administrators and teachers in ourdistrict on a continuum of cultural awareness?

What are the barriers for reducing conscious ordysconscious racism?

What would it take to hold “courageousconversations?”

How would we know if those conversationsworked?

What Should We Do?

Questions to Consider Through the Rest of

the Conference

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Studying Equity at Home:

The LEAD Process

Courageous Reflection

Data Mining

Courageous Conversations

Identify Actions of Greatest Potential Impact

Develop a Plan

Implement, Assess, Adapt

NCCRESt: Draft Rubric for Looking

at District Practice

Assessment: What is happening?

Hypothesis Building: What is triggering

disproportionality?

Strategic Planning: Careful planning to

address areas of concern

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What’s Your Theory?

Poverty?

Systemic inadequacies?

Community contributions?

Cultural incompetence?

Negative peer culture?

Historical discrimination?

What is Cultural Competence?

“The complex of attitudes and actions comprising

an orientation committed to high quality

educational experiences for all students. Within

that complex is the understanding that historical

and current social factors have created cultural

differences that must be understood, respected,

and integrated into teaching, and that those

differences can never be used as an excuse for

limiting educational opportunity.” (R. Skiba, 10/27/05)

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What is Cultural Competence? II

“Cultural competence is a developmental processresulting in the ability to function effectively incultures which differ from one’s own. Culturalcompetence means understanding one’s ownidentity and values, and how these influenceone’s perceptions. It recognizes that institutionalinequity exists because of the disparatedistribution of power and privilege. This affects usall, and educators have the ability andresponsibility to effect equitable change.” (S. Ritter,10/19/2005

Developing Shared Definitions

“Culturally relevant teaching uses student

culture in order to maintain it and to

transcend the negative effects of the

dominant culture.” (Ladson-Billings, 1994)

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Websites

Indiana Disproportionality Project

Home: www.ceep.indiana.edu/ieo/idp

Reports:www.ceep.indiana.edu/ieo/idp/reports.shtml

National Center for Culturally ResponsiveEducational Systems (NCCRESt)

Home: www.nccrest.org

Rubric:www.nccrest.org/publications/tools.html

Russ Skiba

Center for Evaluation and Education Policy

509 E. Third St.

Bloomington, IN 47401

812-855-1240

fax: 812-856-8440

skiba@indiana.edu