Disproportionality: A Look at Quantitative Methods, Data, Technical Assistance, and Ongoing Efforts to Address the Challenges
Presented at the 2011 OSEP Mega Conference in Washington DC, this PowerPoint provides an overview of the methods States are using to identify disproportionality, a summary of what States are reporting on their APRs, future directions for measurement methods, national trends in disproportionality, promising strategies to improve disproportionate representation, and tools and resources available to help States address disproportionality.
The Right IDEA (formerly SPP/APR calendar) – Indicators 9 & 10 page
The Right IDEA website is maintained by OSEP to provide IDEA technical assistance and guidance. This page contains resources related to SPP/APR Indicators B9 and B10. In addition to the SPP/APR Indicator Analysis, this website contains policy memos and guidance, powerpoints and webinars, and other tools and resources.
National Center on RTI annotated bibliography
According to the description provided by the National Center on RTI: “This annotated bibliography outlines citations for key articles for understanding disproportionate representation. For ease of use, the bibliography is categorized into three sections: Practitioner-oriented, Practitioners Who Want to Learn More, and Research-oriented. The Practitioner-oriented category is mainly composed of articles that are simple and practical. The category entitled, Practitioners Who Want to Learn More, is for those who want more detailed information about disproportionality. While the majority of the articles are research-based, the Research-oriented category has more articles that focus on the technical and conceptual aspects of disproportionality.” Note: the online links to the bibliography are currently down. Click here to access the PDF version.
National Dissemination Center / NICHCY page
This is the main page for the National Dissemination Center (formerly known asNICHCY): “We serve the nation as a central source of information on disabilities in infants, toddlers, children, and youth. Here, you’ll also find easy-to-read information on IDEA, the law authorizing early intervention services and special education. Our State Resource Sheets will help you connect with the disability agencies and organizations in your state. Read and freely share our many articles and publications, sign up for our newsletter, and write or call us for more personalized assistance.”
Training Module 5
Module 5 presents training materials for practitioners about disproportionality and overrepresentation in special education. “IDEA 2004 takes a stand against significant disproportionality of students in particular racial or ethnic groups in special education. Module 5 explains what states, districts, and schools must now do to address the disproportionate representation. Module 5 is available in English only (except for its handouts, which are available in English and in Spanish), as you’ll see below. It includes: a slideshow presentation; a Trainer’s Guide explaining the content of the slides; and handouts for participants.”
Indicator 9
This is the National Dissemination Center’s resource page on Indicator 9: Percent of districts with disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education and related services that is the result of inappropriate identification. It contains the language for Indicator 9, links to resources to support data gathering for Indicator 9, and resources to support reducing disproportionate representation.
Indicator 10
This is the National Dissemination Center’s resource page on Indicator 10: Percent of districts with disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in specific disability categories that is the result of inappropriate identification. It contains the language for Indicator 10, links to resources to support data gathering for Indicator 10, and resources to support reducing disproportionate representation.
The Data Accountability Center
“This website provides public access to data about children and youth with disabilities served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) – Part B and C; technical assistance (TA) materials to support the collection, analysis and reporting of IDEA data; and the forms and spreadsheets used for collection. DAC was funded in October 2007 by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education to provide information and TA to improve the quality of all state-reported data required by the IDEA.”
DAC: IDEA Data Products page
This page from DAC contains materials to assist states in data analysis and improve data quality, and it contains the products “IDEA Part B Data Collection Handling Missing Data When Reporting Race/Ethnicity, January 2009,” “IDEA Part C Data Collection Handling Missing Data When Reporting Race/Ethnicity, January 2009,” and “Methods for Assessing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education: A Technical Assistance Guide, August 2004.”
DAC: IDEA Data Presentations page
This page from DAC contains conference, workgroup, and web presentations related to data and IDEA parts B & C, including the presentation “Disproportionality Calculations – Technical Workgroup on Disproportionality – January 20-21, 2011.”
Westat Technical Assistance Guide — Methods for Assessing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education
“Many different methods of calculating disproportionality exist. Each of these methods represents a different way of reporting the same data, and each answers a different question about racial/ethnic representation in special education. This technical assistance guide focuses on two of the more common methods: composition and risk. We also discuss the risk ratio as a means for comparing risk. This technical assistance guide summarizes how to apply each of these methods to state- and district-level data when assessing racial/ethnic disproportionality. For each method, Westat summarizes the question it answers and provides at least two examples of its use. We also include a brief discussion of how to interpret the methods, along with the strengths and limitations of each. The technical assistance guide concludes with a short discussion of some issues states should consider when evaluating racial/ethnic disproportionality.”
The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems
This is the archived homepage for the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems, which was federally funded to provide “technical assistance and professional development to close the achievement gap between students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their peers, and reduce inappropriate referrals to special education. The project targeted improvements in culturally responsive practices, early intervention, literacy, and positive behavioral supports.” The project continues under the Equity Alliance at ASU
NCCRESt – Tools page
This is the archived NCCRESt tools page, which contains self-assessments and rubrics to aid practitioners in identifying and addressing policies, procedures, and practices related to disproportionality, including a Rubric for Looking at District Practice “This tool is designed to guide the examination of LEA practices once data suggest that serious and inappropriate disproportionate referral, identification and placement of students who are culturally and linguistically diverse may be occurring. The tool is designed to examine knowledge, skills and dispositions as well as contextual factors that may lead to institutionalized practices that manifest themselves in disproportionate identification. This tool is grounded in a comprehensive review of the literature and the development of a conceptual framework that locates disproportionality in the intersection of context, policy, practice and knowledge (Klingner, Artiles, Kozleski, Utley, Zion, Tate, Harry, Zamora-Durán, & Riley, 2005).”
NCCRESt / Equity Alliance PowerPoint presentations about disproportionality
“Presentations at conferences, workshops, online events, and other opportunities related to the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education.” Presentations from 2003-2008 are hosted at the NCCRESt website, and presentations from 2009-current are hosted at the Equity Alliance at ASU presentation archive.
Office of Civil Rights
“The mission of the Office for Civil Rights is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights. We serve student populations facing discrimination and the advocates and institutions promoting systemic solutions to civil rights problems. An important responsibility is resolving complaints of discrimination. Agency-initiated cases, typically called compliance reviews, permit OCR to target resources on compliance problems that appear particularly acute. OCR also provides technical assistance to help institutions achieve voluntary compliance with the civil rights laws that OCR enforces. An important part of OCR’s technical assistance is partnerships designed to develop creative approaches to preventing and addressing discrimination."
New York State Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality
This is the website for the NY Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality (NYU-Steinhardt). “Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality (TACD) project, formerly known as Chapter 405, at the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education (Metro Center), is contracted through the New York State Education Department (NYSED) Office of Special Education to develop, implement, and assess a process of providing comprehensive technical assistance and professional development trainings to New York State School Districts that are addressing issues of disproportionality. Technical Assistance Center on Disproportionality’s work includes building the capacity of TACDregions and districts in understanding the root cause and systemically addressing the disproportionate assignment of various subgroups in special education. This entails providing professional development trainings, coaching, training follow-ups, materials, and resources. The resources include a Web-Based Clearinghouse, a Disproportionality Data Repository (DDR), Data Analysis Workbook, research based articles, journals, and manuals.”
Elementary and Middle Schools Technical Assistance Center
This is the archived topic page about disproportionality for the Elementary and Middle Schools Technical Assistance Center, which was federally funded to “to implement new and effective practices in special education.” The topic page contains an introduction to disproportionality, research highlights, successful models of classroom instruction, and links to other resources.
The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement
This is the CCSRI resource page about disproportionality, which contains links to research, tools, policy briefs, and practitioner guides.
Equity Assistance Centers homepage
According to their mission, “The ten Equity Assistance Centers are funded by the U.S. Department of Education under Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They provide assistance in the areas of Race, Gender, and National Origin equity to public schools to promote equal educational opportunities. Equity Assistance Centers provide training and technical assistance for state or local education agencies, but requests may originate from teachers, principals, parents, community leaders, and state and district administrators. Any such person may initiate contact that leads to services through the Equity Assistance Center.”Below is a listing from each center’s work related to issues of disproportionality. Please note that this list is not comprehensive and materials on websites may be updated.
Region I – technical assistance module
This workshop, Culturally Responsive Assessment for Differentiating Learning Differences from Disability, is offered by the New England Equity Assistance Center (Brown University). “This workshop series will provide an opportunity for educators and administrators to consider processes, decisions and communication paths in daily practice. We present a framework to implement and apply a culturally responsive process for the Child Study Team/Instructional Support Team/Response to Intervention Team when working with English Language Learners to distinguish learning difficulties from learning disabilities.”
Region II – overview page
Equity Assistance Center Region II (Touro College) – This page contains a summary of issues in disproportionality as well as specific data for Region II states.
Region III – Information Brief on The Over-Representation and Under-Representation of Minority Students in Special Education and Gifted and Talented Programs
This 2009 information brief is from the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center (George Washington University). Region III is also developing an "Equity Planning Tool: “The Equity Planning Tool (EPT) is an on-line instrument designed to assist districts assess their progress toward the goal of equitable schooling where all children have access to quality instruction and opportunities to learn. The EPT incorporates both district-wide and school level data and is comprised of two sets of indicators. The first deals with student outcomes that may vary by race and ethnicity, English language facility, family income and disability. The second set of indicators describes possible differences in students’ opportunities to learn that could explain variations in student outcomes. In addition, the EPT provides schools and districts with suggestions and resources for analyzing data and developing strategic plans for enhancing learning opportunities and outcomes for all students.”
Region IV – summary of issues page
Disproportionality is mentioned as one of the issues that the Southeastern Equity Center addresses through technical assistance.
Region V – research reports
This is a resource list of research reports on topics related to educational equity maintained by Programs for Educational Opportunity (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).
Region VI – disproportionality and ELLs
This is a resource page focusing on disproportionality and English Language Learners (ELLs) and other diverse students hosted by the Intercultural Development Research Association’s (IDRA) South Central Collaborative for Equity, which contains links to other relevant organizations and materials.
Region VII – publications links
This is the publications page for the Midwest Equity Assistance Center, which contains links to brochures, assessment instruments, resource compilations, teaching tools, and other publications related to equity, bias, and cultural competence.
Region VIII – resources page
This is the resources page for the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education (University of Colorado), which contains recent presentations and webinars aboutRTI, equity, and respecting culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Region IX – disproportionality page
This is the Equity Alliance (Arizona State University) topic page about disproportionality, which contains research and practitioner briefs, tools, and models of effective programs related to disproportionality and culturally and linguistically responsive teaching.
Region X – equity resources page
This is the Equity / Civil Rights Education resources page for Education Northwest, which contains announcements about workshops, links to research and policy articles, and practitioner guides about equity.
Illinois State Board of Education