Leading Equitable Education: A Qualitative Study on the Role of Public School Leaders in Reducing and Eliminating Disproportionality in Special Education
Open AccessThe disproportionate representation of minority students in special education has long been a significant issue in the education system. The U.S. Department of Education found that Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students are more likely to receive special education services than all other racial and ethnic groups combined. Although the goal of federal laws (e.g., Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) is to monitor and regulate the rate of minority student identification, the overrepresentation of minority students in special education remains an issue.Moreover, despite years of exploration, researchers have yet to find the cause of the problem. Scholars have speculated that the disproportionate rates of identification could have occurred due to a variety of factors, including poverty, deficit thinking, and the eligibility process. Although researchers have not identified the cause of disproportionate representation, they have found that students who receive special education services disproportionately suffer negative academic and social outcomes after graduation compared to their general education peers. Complying with federal laws, giving students fair educational opportunities, and decreasing the societal costs of negative educational outcomes require leaders to implement effective policies, practices, and procedures to decrease the overrepresentation of minority students in special education. Thus, this interpretive, interview-based study focused on the role of school and district leaders of special education in addressing the issue. The findings of this study included four leadership practices for reducing disproportionality in special education identification: (a) leaders work to raise awareness, (b) leaders provide effective professional development, (c) leaders make data-based decisions, and (d) leaders work to find and allocate resources. In addition to exploring leadership practices, this study also addressed leaders’ perceptions of the causes of disproportionality in special education, such as the historical and systemic factors of a lack of school readiness, a lack of access to resources, biological and environmental factors, and bias in education. School and district leaders of special education could use this study’s findings to discern the actions needed to reduce and eliminate disproportionality. The study’s results could also contribute to future empirical research on leadership practices to address the causes of disproportionality in special education identification.
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