3,050
Views
12
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Troubling “The Problem” of racial overrepresentation in special education: a commentary and call to rethink research

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, &
Pages 567-582 | Received 30 Sep 2018, Accepted 10 Nov 2018, Published online: 10 Dec 2018

References

  • Albrecht, S. F., Skiba, R., Losen, D., Chung, C., & Middleburg, L. (2012). Federal policy on disproportionality in special education: Is it moving forward? Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 23(1), 14–25.
  • Anastasiou, D., & Kauffman, J. M. (2011). A social constructionist approach to disability: Implications for special education. Exceptional Children, 77(3), 367–384.
  • Andrews, J. E., Carnine, D. W., Coutinho, M. J., Edgar, E. B., Forness, S. R., Fuchs, L. S., … Wong, J. (2000). Bridging the special education divide. Remedial and Special Education, 21(5), 258–267.
  • Annamma, S. A. (2014). Whiteness as property: Innocence and ability in teacher education. The Urban Review, 47(2), 293–316.
  • Annamma, S. A. (2017). The pedagogy of pathologization: Dis/abled girls of color in the school-prison nexus. New York: Routledge.
  • Artiles, A. (2009). Re-framing disproportionality research: Outline of a cultural-historical paradigm. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 11, 24–37.
  • Artiles, A., & Trent, S. (1994). Overrepresentation of minority students in special education: A continuing debate. The Journal of Special Education, 27(4), 410–437.
  • Artiles, A. J. (2011). Toward an interdisciplinary understanding of educational equity and difference: The case of racialization of ability. Educational Researcher, 40(9), 431–445.
  • Artiles, A. J. (2017, October 19). Re-envisioning equity research: Disability identification disparities as a case in point [14th Annual Brown Lecture]. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
  • Artiles, A. J., Kozleski, E. B., Waitoller, F., & Lukinbeal, C. (2011). Inclusive education and the interlocking of ability and race in the US: Notes for an educational equity research program. In A. J. Artiles, E. B. Kozleski, F. R. Waitoller (Eds.), Equity in inclusive education in four continents: A cultural historical multilevel model (pp. 45–68). Harvard Education Press.
  • Arzubiaga, A. E., Artiles, A. J., King, K., & Harris-Murri, N. (2008). Beyond research on cultural minorities: Challenges and implications of research as situated cultural practice. Exceptional Children, 74(3), 309–327.
  • Bal, A., & Trainor, A. A. (2016). Culturally responsive research intervention studies: The development of a rubric for paradigm expansion. Review of Educational Research, 86(2), 319–359.
  • Barton, L. (2005). Emancipatory research and disabled people: Some observations and questions. Educational Review, 57, 317–329.
  • Bell, C. (2006). Introducing white disability studies: A modest proposal. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The disability studies reader (2nd ed., pp. 275–282). New York: Routledge.
  • Beratan, G. (2008). The song remains the same: Transposition and the disproportionate representation of minority students in special education. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 11, 337–354.
  • Blanchett, A., & Sealey, M. (2016). “We won’t be silenced”: Senior scholars in special education respond to deficit derived claims that ‘minorities’ [students of color] are disproportionately underrepresented in special education. Multiple Voices, 16(1), 1–3.
  • Blanchett, W., Mumford, V., & Beachum, F. (2005). Urban school failure and disproportionality in a post-Brown era: Benign neglect of the constitutional rights of students of color. Remedial and Special Education, 26(2), 70–81.
  • Blanchett, W. J. (2006). Disproportionate representation of African Americans in special education: Acknowledging the role of white privilege and racism. Remedial and Special Education, 35(6), 24–28.
  • Brantlinger, E. (1997). Using ideologies: Cases of non-recognition of the politics of research and practice in special education. Review of Educational Research, 67(4), 425–459.
  • Brantlinger, E. (2004). Confounding the needs and confronting the norms: An extension of Reid and Valle’s essay. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37(6), 490–499.
  • Cavendish, W., Artiles, A., & Harry, B. (2014). Tracking inequality 60 years after Brown: Does policy legitimize the racialization of disability? Multiple Voices, 14, 30–40.
  • Collins, K., Connor, D., Ferri, B., Gallagher, D., & Samson, J. (2016). Dangerous assumptions and unspoken limitations: A disability studies in education response to Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, Mattison, Maczuga, Li, and Cook (2015). Multiple Voices, 16, 4–16.
  • Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.
  • Connor, D. J. (2017). Who is responsible for the racialized practices evident within (special) education and what can be done to change them? Theory into Practice, 56(3), 226–233.
  • Connor, D. J., Ferri, B. A., & Annamma, S. (Eds.). (2016). DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education. New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Davis, L. J. (2016). The disability studies reader (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.
  • Erevelles, N., & Minear, A. (2010). Unspeakable offenses: Untangling race and disability in discourses of intersectionality. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, 4(2), 127–145.
  • Fergus, E. (2015). Social reproduction ideologies: Teacher beliefs about race and cultural differences in school districts with overrepresentation of black and latino students in special education and behavioral referrals. In D. Connor, B. Ferri, & S. Annamma (Eds.), DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education (pp. 117–127). New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Fergus, E. (2017). The integration project among white teachers and racial/ethnic minority youth: Understanding bias in school practice. Theory into Practice. doi:10.1080/00405841.2017.1336036
  • Ferri, B., Gallagher, D., & Connor, D. J. (2011). Pluralizing methodologies in the field of LD: From “what works” to what matters. Learning Disability Quarterly, 34(3), 222–231.
  • Ferri, B. A., & Connor, D. J. (2005). Tools of Exclusion: Race, Disability, and (Re)Segregated Education. Teachers College Record, 107(3), 453–474.
  • Foldy, E., & Buckley, T. (2014). The color bind: Talking (and not talking) about race at work. New York: Russell Sage.
  • Ford, D. Y., & Russo, C. (2016). Historical and legal overview of special education overrepresentation: Access denied. Multiple Voices, 16(1), 50–57.
  • Gallagher, D. J. (1998). The scientific knowledge base of special education: Do we know what we think we know? Exceptional Children, 64(4), 493–502.
  • Gallagher, D. J. (2006). If not absolute objectivity, then what? A reply to Kauffman and Sasso. Exceptionality, 14(2), 91–107.
  • Gallagher, D. J., Heshusius, L., Iano, P., & Skrtic, T. M. (2003). Challenging orthodoxy in special education. Denver, CO: Love Publishing.
  • Gillborn, D., Warmington, P., & Demack, S. (2018). QuantCrit: Education, policy, “Big Data” and principles for a critical race theory of statistics. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 21, 158–179.
  • Gonzalez, T., Hernandez-Saca, D., & Artiles, A. (2017). In search of voice: Theory and methods in K-12 student voice research in the US, 1990–2010, Educational Review, 69, 451–473. doi:10.1080/00131911.2016.1231661
  • Harry, B, & Fenton, P. (2016). Risk in schooling: The contribution of qualitative research to our understanding of the overrepresentation of minorities in special education. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 16, 17–28.
  • Harry, B., & Klingner, J. (2006). Why are so many minority students in special education? New York: Teachers College.
  • Jackson, R. G., Thorius, K. A. K., & Kyser, T. S. (2017). Systematic approaches to eliminating disproportionality in special education. Equity by Design Research Brief Series. Indianapolis, IN: The Great Lakes Equity Center, Purdue University.
  • Karagiannis, A. (2000). Soft disability in schools: Assisting or confining at risk children and youth? Journal of Educational Thought, 34(2), 113–134.
  • Kauffman, J. M., Anastasiou, D., & Maag, J. W. (2018). Special education at the crossroad: An identity crisis and the need for scientific reconstruction. Exceptionality, 25(2), 139–155.
  • Kauffman, J. M., & Badar, J. (2018). Extremism and disability chic. Exceptionality, 26(1), 46–61.
  • Kozleski, E. (2015). Reifying categories: Measurement in search of understanding. In D. Connor, B. Ferri, & S. Annamma (Eds.), DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education (pp. 101–115). New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Ladson-Billings, G. (2015). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12.
  • Leonardo, Z. (2004). The color of supremacy: Beyond the discourse of ‘white privilege’. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 36(2), 137–152.
  • Leonardo, Z., & Broderick, A. (2011). Smartness as property: A critical exploration of intersections between whiteness and disability studies. Teachers College Record, 113(10), 2206–2232.
  • Linton, S. (1998). Claiming disability. New York University: New York University Press. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Losen, D. J., & Orfield, G. (Eds.). (2002). Racial inequality in special education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
  • Mertens, D. (2003). Mixed methods and the politics of human research: The transformative-emancipatory perspectice. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 191–216). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Mertens, D. (2010). Philosophy in mixed methods teaching: The transformative paradigm as illustration. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 4, 9–18.
  • Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Hillemeier, M. M., & Maczuga, S. (2017). Replicated evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in disability identification in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher. doi:10.3102/0013189X17726282
  • Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Hillemeier, M. M., Maczuga, S., Li, H., & Cook, M. (2015). Are minority children disproportionately represented in early intervention and early childhood special education? Educational Researcher, 41(9), 339–351.
  • Nasir, N. S., & Hand, V. M. (2006). Exploring sociocultural perspectives on race, culture, and learning. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 449–475.
  • National Research Council [NRC]. (2002). Scientific research in education. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
  • Odom, S. L., Brantlinger, E., Gersten, R., Horner, R. D., Thompson, B., & Harris, K. (2005). Research in special education: Scientific methods and evidence-based practices. Exceptional Children, 71(2), 137–148.
  • Reid, D. K., & Valle, J. (2004). The discursive construction of learning dis/ability: Implications for the classroom, parents, and research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37(6), 466–481.
  • Rueda, R., & Windmueller, P. (2006). English language learners, LD, and overrepresentation: A multiple level analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39(2), 99–107.
  • Short, E. L., & Wilton, L. (Eds.). (2016). Talking about structural inequalities in everyday life: New politics of race in groups, organizations and social systems. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
  • Skiba, R. J., Artiles, A. J., Kozleski, E. B., Losen, D. J., & Harry, E. G. (2016). Risks and consequences of oversimplifying educational equities: A response to Morgan et al. (2015). Educational Researcher, 45(3), 221–225.
  • Skiba, R. J., Simmons, A. B., Ritter, S., Gibb, A. C., Raush, N. K., Cuadrado, J., & Chung, C. (2008). Achieving equity in special education: History, status, and current challenges. Exceptional Children, 74(3), 264–288.
  • Thomas, G. (2016). After the gold rush: Questioning the “gold standard” and reappraising the status of experiment and randomized controlled trials in education. Harvard Educational Review, 86, 390–410.
  • Thorius, K. K., & Waitoller, F. (2017). Strategic coalitions against exclusion at the intersection of race and disability-A rejoinder. Harvard Educational Review, 87, 251–257.
  • Tomlinson, S. (2015). Is a sociology of special and inclusive education possible? Educational Review, 67, 273–281.
  • Tomlinson, S. (2016). Special education and minority ethnic young people in England: Continuing issues. Discourse: Studies in Cultural Politics of Education, 37, 513–528.
  • Trainor, A. A., & Bal, A. (2014). Development and preliminary analysis of a rubric for culturally responsive research. Journal of Special Education, 47(4), 203–216.
  • US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. (2003). Identifying and implementing educational practices supported by rigorous evidence: A user friendly guide. Washington: Coalition for Evidence Based Policy.
  • US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs [U.S. DOE]. (2017). 39th annual report to congress on the implementation of the individuals with disabilities education act, 2017. Washington, DC: US Department of Education.
  • Voulgarides, C. K. (2017). Does compliance matter in special education? IDEA and the hidden inequities of practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
  • Voulgarides, C. K., & Tefera, A. (2017). Reframing the racialization of disabilities in policy. Theory into Practice. doi:10.1080/00405841.2017.1336037
  • Warmington, P. (2008). Pointing to race: Distinguishing race as a critical conceptual problem in “post-racial” classrooms. Enhancing Learning in the Social Sciences, 1, 1–29.
  • West, C. (1993). Race matters. Boston: Beacon Press.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.