Cultural Responsivity and the Disproportionality of African American Students in Special Education

The problem that was addressed in this study was a rural school district in southeastern Georgia was identified by the Georgia Department of Education as overidentifying African American students as having an intellectual disability (ID). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of special education eligibility team members regarding this overidentification of African American students into the category of ID. This study was guided by Ladson-Billings’s (1995) theory of culturally responsive pedagogy. The research questions focused on the special education team members’ perceptions about the overidentification of African American students and their suggestions for a more culturally responsive process. A basic qualitative design with semistructured interviews was conducted. Over 100 team members at the rural school district, 12 participants were recruited for face-to-face interviews. After open and axial coding, the following themes emerged: lack of knowledge, lack of training, and student placement. Study findings could contribute to positive social change by providing school personnel and stakeholders with insights regarding challenges that the team members experience and thus, can offer appropriate professional development training which meets the IDEA funding requirements. With better trained team members, students will be placed in the educational setting most conducive to their learning. When a school system has been flagged for overidentification, the system must allocate exactly 15% of the IDEA Part B funds to certain permitted activities. One particular mandated activity is professional development.