Ethnic Representation in Special Education: The Influence of School-Related Economic and Demographic Variables

The purpose of this study was to provide current information on the representation of African American students as mildly mentally retarded (MMR) and seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) and to describe the influence of economic, demographic, and educational variables on the identification of minor...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of special education 1999, Vol.32 (4), p.194-206
Main Authors: Oswald, Donald P., Coutinho, Martha J., Best, Al M., Singh, Nirbhay N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American Children
African American Students
African Americans
Black American people
Black children
Black Youth
Children, Handicapped
Demography
Disability Identification
Disproportionate Representation
Economic Factors
Education
Educational Discrimination
Educational sector
Elementary Secondary Education
Emotionally disabled children
Levels
Mentally handicapped children
Mild Mental Retardation
Minority Group Children
Patterns
Predictor Variables
Racial Differences
Special Education
Student Characteristics
United States
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to provide current information on the representation of African American students as mildly mentally retarded (MMR) and seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) and to describe the influence of economic, demographic, and educational variables on the identification of minority students for special education. The sample consisted of the districts selected for the Fall 1992 Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Compliance Report survey. Odds ratios were constructed for MMR and SED to describe the nature and extent of disproportionate representation. Regression models were tested to investigate the influence of a set of school-related demographic and fiscal variables on disproportionate representation. Results indicated that African American students were about 2.4 times more likely to be identified as MMR and about 1.5 times more likely to be identified as SED than their non-African American peers. Economic and demographic variables were significant predictors of disproportionate representation but influenced identification of students as MMR and SED in different ways. Implications for research are discussed.
ISSN:0022-4669
1538-4764
DOI:10.1177/002246699903200401