Disproportionality monitoring for Special Education and Stakeholder Practices in a Post-Affirmative Action Landscape

ABSTRACT

In this article, we examine and explore how the recent US Supreme Court case on affirmative action within higher education will shape and contextualize disproportionate minority representation and its monitoring within a K-12 public school context for students with disabilities. That is, as the litigation and ultimate judicial decision shape how institutions of higher education advance affirmative action policies for the admission of racialized and ethnic minority college students, another unanswered question remains. Namely, how will K-12 public school districts both adhere to federal policy that mandates proportionate racial representation of students with disabilities within special education categories and support teachers and school systems with compliance to federal policy? Using a legal compliance focal point theoretical perspective, this article contextualizes the affirmative action conversation as one that must include guidance to education systems and teachers working to ensure federal compliance and racial equity within special education.

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Additional Resources

Harry, B., & Klingner, J. (2022). Why are so many students of color in special education?: Understanding race and disability in schools. Teachers College Press.

Discussions of minority disproportionate representation in special education tend to center on identifying and addressing bias in schools. The third edition of this landmark ethnographic study shows that bias in special education is often inconsistent—when detected—and difficult to separate from larger structural inequities, such as those related to teacher shortages, teacher training, school leadership, and funding. Using interviews and observations across schools and districts over a four-year period, the authors ask readers to consider whether special education is appropriate when students, including those in the book, have not had opportunities to learn or when the dominant school culture marginalizes their identities and stereotypes their families.

Voulgarides, C. K. (2022). The promises and pitfalls of mandating racial equity in special

education. Phi Delta Kappan, 103, 14-20.

As schools work to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, this article discusses the consequences of policies focused on compliance in special education. In particular, IDEA requires school districts to undergo compliance reviews when cited for disproportionality. The author shows that compliance often results in districts fixing low-stakes bureaucratic matters that run counter to educators’ instincts. In other cases, compliance means tinkering with procedures and recalculating numbers without addressing longstanding and disturbing racial dynamics and inequities within districts. Ahram, R., Voulgarides, C. K., & Cruz, R. A. (2021). Understanding disability: High-quality evidence in research on special education disproportionality. Review of Research in Education, 45, 311-345.

How schools address minority disproportionate representation in a post-affirmative action landscape may depend in part on how they understand and leverage existing research. Unfortunately, researchers themselves are divided in how to interpret special education disproportionality and its causes. This article reviews studies from the last 2 decades and shows how differing epistemological and ontological views structure research around disability and special education. More importantly, the authors propose a shared framework, focusing on the role of agency and structure in racial inequality, to help researchers and education professionals continue to explores ways to address disproportionality.