EDUCATION: Digging Into Special Ed (NY)

October 27, 2010

The Rochester school district has a disproportionately high number of special education students. With 6,271 or nearly 19 percent of its 33,226 students classified as special ed, Rochester has the highest percentage of any district in the state. And the overwhelming majority of these students are black or Hispanic.

Research shows that black and Hispanic special education students, particularly males, are more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended and drop out of school, says Kirsten Barcl ay, special assistant to Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard. But the outcomes for many are much worse.

"Black and Hispanic special ed students are four times more likely to be incarcerated than white special ed students," Barclay says. "And Hispanic and Latino special ed students are almost twice as likely."

This has raised important questions for the district: what are the root causes of these disproportionate rates? And how can the district realistically expect to increase its graduation rate with so many black and Hispanic students classified as special ed?

Disproportionality, a term used by educators, is the over-representation of a specific group of students in special education programs. It can also refer to the under-representation of a specific group. There are multiple indicators. For example, Rochester’s black special ed students are 2.08 times more likely to be suspended out of school for longer periods of time than white special ed students. It’s perhaps the district’s biggest indicator of disproportionality.

"We’ve been cited by the State Education Department for having too many suspensions," Barclay says. "I don’t know how you can not say this is a crisis."

Institutions develop a culture, says School Board President Malik Evans, which can be difficult to change.

"Teachers come and go, administrators come and go, but the culture stays behind," he says. "This is not about blame. In this case, we’re talking about dismantling the inequities that evolved over time."

To address the problem, the district has teamed with New York University’s Metropolitan Center f or Urban Education on what is being called the "Disproportionality Project."

Over the last seven years, NYU has developed a program that examines disproportionality and creates strategies to reduce it. The university has worked with other urban school districts on similar concerns, and is just beginning to work with the Buffalo and Syracuse school districts. The state is funding Rochester’s efforts.

"What is leading our schools to refer so many students for special ed services?" Barclay says. "That is a huge part of our work."

The mainstream thinking among educators tends to emphasize the role of poverty, according to researchers Carla O’Connor and Sonia DeLuca Fernandez. But that’s an oversimplification, they say in a 2006 article they co-wrote for Educational Researcher. Rather, they say, it’s a lack of understanding of cultural differences that "places minority students at heightened risk for special education placement."

There are many components to the Disproportionality Project. It challenges teachers and school leaders to closely examine everything from curriculum to policies and practices, says Marilyn Haile, the district’s special education school improvement specialist. But the program also devotes much attention to the "beliefs" of teachers and administrators, Haile says.

A teacher who is less aware of cultural differences is more likely to misinterpret the behaviors of a low-income minority student, or to come to the classroom with a belief system that is less supportive. A common example is the belief that the student is "not ready" for school.

"You may not see behavior that you see in the Pitt sford school, but that doesn’t mean the student is special ed," Barclay says.

Culturally relevant curriculum is another area that the program emphasizes, says Brizard assistant Barclay.

"We know, for example, that the recommended literature should include black characters," she says. "But that’s not enough. We’re looking for is: how many of those black characters are protagonists in the story and how many are antagonists? If more of the black characters are the bad people, we’ve got a problem."

The Disproportionality Project is under way in 10 Rochester city schools. NYU’s instructors meet twice a month with a team of teachers from each of the schools. They’re working on the program’s first step, which is identifying the root causes of disproportionality in their respective schools. The root causes in each school may be different, Barclay says.

That will be followed by cultural awareness training. And the third and final step will be targeted professional development for teachers based on the identified root causes of disproportionality.

The effectiveness of the two-year program will be measured incrementally, Barclay says. One of the main components is a careful review of the special ed referral process. Consistency is critical, Barclay says, but so is informed judgment.

"We should be seeing a reduction in the number of referrals," she says. "But we’ve committed to not play the numbers game. We’ll also be looking at suspension rates, tracking the referrals for special ed services, and grade retention rates. If we see the kind of improvements we’re hoping for, we may expand the program to more schools."