1 Title Jessica D. Harrington Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota Schools of Graduate & Professional Programs EDSE 698 Dr. Michelle Bethke-Kaliher Spring 2019 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Special Education at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota 2 I. Statement of the Problem A. Research Topic The topic of this article was to examine what disproportionality looks like within a specific school district. B. Research Problem The Flen School District has been working to eliminate disproportionality, but experienced little change. The district leadership team desired to understand more about what the interventions have done and what systematic changes could take place in the future. C. Research Questions/Hypotheses Bal, Sullivan, and Harper (2014) state that there were two reasons for this study, “ (a) to examine the topography of disproportionality in Flen School District and (b) to study how quantitative analyses of disproportionality informed the Leadership Team’s understanding of disproportionality and its ongoing systematic effort to address disproportionality” (pg. 3). II. Review of the literature There is common knowledge among educators that disproportionate representation exists in the educational system and agreeably this is highly noticeable when it comes to special education. The authors summarize that there have been inequities in the students identified in special education long before laws and government acts were implemented to protect our most vulnerable students. The research from the authors cite data that overwhelmingly shows the overidentification of students in the Emotional or Behavioral Disorder (EBD) category, highlighting African American and American Indian students being on the highest end. Unfortunately, special education is a double edged sword as stereotypes can hinder a student just 3 as much as the same supports can help a student. Bal, Sullivan, Harper (2014) state that “an individual’s likelihood of disability identification is not only determined by intrapersonal factors, but also by interpersonal social interactional and institutional factors” (pg. 3). Research has been inconclusive and unable to succinctly pinpoint why the disproportionality exists and how schools can go about closing the gap in student identification. Bal, Sullivan, Harper (2014) cite multiple authors who are in agreement that in order for change to happen there needs to me a system wide effort including looking at both individuals and structures otherwise any efforts made will not be viable. A culmination of this researched influenced the administration in Flen School District to take a systematic approach in what has been done, currently being implemented and what to do next in order to reduce and even eliminate the disproportionate identification of special education students in their own schools. III. Methods The leadership team used a variety of research models to create stages of the study. Data, including quantitative, observational, and subjective communication were included. Demographic information was collected on student from three non consecutive school years, but no identifiable information such as names were attached. For each subgroup the leadership team compared the number of students in proportion to the sample. The leadership team used a software called SPSS to analyze their data. IV Results and Conclusions The Flen School District is the second largest county in the state of Wisconsin and the district notes that disproportionality has been an equity concern for an extended period of time. The district noted prior to research that African American students have long been over 4 identified in special education, but also tend to have higher discipline incidents as well. The school district initial data did support their belief of overidentification with African American students identified as EBD almost three to one and American Indian students identified as EBD almost five to one. Similar overidentification of African American and American Indian students was also confirmed for special education subgroups SLD, LD, and OHD. The districts analysis from year to year showed that the growth in total number of students in special education was proportionate in each of the subgroups with one anomaly. From 2006 to 2008 there was a significant reduction in the number of EBD students while other subgroups in that same time frame were either stagnant or increasing. Bal, Sullivan, Harper (2014) reported back to the leadership team, “After reflecting upon a decade’s worth of our district’s disproportionality and the current data, which unfortunately demonstrated little to no progress, we realized the continuation of current thinking and practices was ineffective. In part, this research has been a catalyst for new approaches in targeted areas. While there is high correlation between poverty and disproportionality, the data suggest race is an important factor” (pg. 9). By taking this step back the leadership team could then work towards taking two steps forward. The authors explain the difference between a technical verses and adaptive problem. While many school districts, Flen included, undertaking equity bias in a technical manner is not successful and the focus needs to be redirected towards systemic change and through a lens of an adaptivity. One of the critical components of systemic change is professional buy in and the leadership team noted that this is particularly difficult in a large school district such as their own. Bal, Sullivan, Harper (2014) discuss how, “ Debates ensued within schools, administrative teams, and board of education meetings about how to develop 5 successful curriculum, instructional practices (instructional core), assessments, and interventions” (pg. 10). Rather than focusing the efforts on the special education identification process now the focus became a part of the general education staff and changing the system before the initial referral even starts. Bal, Sullivan, Harper (2014) share the teams five priorities: (a) improving the instructional core and providing timely, evidence-based supports to struggling learners through the implementation of RTI2 (b) redesigning the K–12th scope and sequence to align with the Common Core and College and Career Readiness Standards, (c) integrating culturally responsive curriculum and instructional practices and the five dimensions of Teaching and Learning Instructional Framework (Fink & Markholt, 2011) into core instruction, (d) implementing a kindergarten program for 4-year-olds, and (e) incorporating universal design for learning in the curriculum design and instructional delivery following Rose and Meyer (2006). In this process the leadership team was able to focus on relationships of special education and general education staff providing time for instruction and interventions to be well thought out and executed. Using commonly accepted practices the team used RTI and Data Wise models to improve school wide systems as well as hiring additional staff to specialize in supporting academic gains. It was unclear in the data if there was significant decreases in the disproportionate identification, but remarks such as “there is no silver bullet” and “we could potentially change” by the authors seem to indicate the school district made strides in the right 6 direction and were better off now than with the older systems and interventions tried in previous years. 7 REFERENCES Bal, A., Sullivan, A. L., & Harper, J. (2014). A Situated Analysis of Special Education Disproportionality for Systemic Transformation in an Urban School District. ​Remedial And Special Education​, ​35​(1), 3-14.