Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Construction of Educational Exceptionalities

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SES-1335217Adam GamoranRachel E. FishUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisoU.S. school data has revealed extreme racial and ethnic inequality in exceptionalities, with students of color up to three times more likely to be identified with disabilities as their white peers, and white students up to three times more likely to be identified as gifted as their peers of color. Presumably, parents and teachers intend to support students' academic and social outcomes when they intervene by referring students to be tested for exceptionalities. How do these benevolent micro-level interactions connect to macro-level racial and ethnic inequalities? Existing research explains racial and ethnic disproportionality in special and gifted education by arguing either 1) that schools make biased decisions or 2) that co-factors, such as poverty, explain racial and ethnic differences. This literature is limited by its treatment of exceptionality as a natural category. This research treats exceptionality as a social construction, and the meaning of this construct changes with there are with a student's race and ethnicity. The major research question is how do schools shape this construction of exceptionalities based on race and ethnicity? To address this question, the research uses a mixed-methods approach to 1) examine school-level variation in the effects of students' race and ethnicity on teachers' decisions to refer students to special education through an experimental audit design; and 2) identify the mechanisms creating the construction of exceptionality through observations and interviews with teachers and parents. The central hypothesis of the study is that under sufficient racial and ethnic diversity, exceptionalities are constructed in ways that reproduce racial and ethnic inequalities. Broader ImpactsThis project has clear implications for policy and practice, as scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners have demonstrated the need for further understanding of the causes of disproportionality in special education and gifted services. Federal and state law has prioritized the documentation and amelioration of racial ethnic inequality in education, yet we do not yet understand why the disproportionality exists. Research findings will illuminate the role of school context, with potential implications for school desegregation policy, teacher training, and exceptionality identification processes.