64 research outputs found
Disentangling the Roots of Racial Disproportionality in Special Education
No full textDara Shifrer 1, Rachel Fish 2,3
1. Houston Education Research Consortium, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University
2. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
3. Wisconsin Center for Education Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madiso
SMH2019_R_R3_OnlineTables – Supplemental material for A Multilevel Investigation into Contextual Reliability in the Designation of Cognitive Health Conditions among U.S. Children
No full textSupplemental material, SMH2019_R_R3_OnlineTables for A Multilevel Investigation into Contextual Reliability in the Designation of Cognitive Health Conditions among U.S. Children by Dara Shifrer and Rachel Fish in Society and Mental Health</p
U.S. Ninth Graders’ Math Course Placement at the Intersection of Learning Disability Status, Race, and Socioeconomic Status
No full textThis study integrates an intersectional framework with data on 15,000 U.S. ninth graders from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to investigate differences in ninth-grade math course placement at the intersection of adolescents’ learning disability status, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). Descriptive results support an increased liability perspective, with the negative relationship between a learning disability and math course placement larger for adolescents more privileged in terms of their race and/or SES. Adjusted results suggest that the lower math course placements of youth with learning disabilities are due to cumulative disadvantage rather than disability-related inequities in the transition to high school for youth of diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition to demonstrating the importance of intersectional perspectives, this study provides a roadmap for future studies by introducing the new perspective of increased liability to be used in conjunction with the widely employed perspective of multiple marginalization
Contextualizing Educational Disparities and the Evaluation of Teacher Quality
No full textValue added scores, statistical estimates of teacher quality, are representative of neoliberal logic. The higher average scores of teachers of socially advantaged students raise concerns that scores are inaccurate and unfair, and propagate decontextualized neoliberal understandings of the nature of learning and teachers’ work. This study uses longitudinal data from roughly 4,500 teachers in a large urban district between 2007–08 through 2012–13 to follow individual teachers as they switch into schools of different “performance levels” over time. Fixed-intercept models tracking individual teachers between 2007–08 and 2012–13 showed scores increased for teachers who switched into high-performing schools and decreased for teachers who switched into low-performing schools. Particularly indicative of scores biased by contextual factors outside teachers’ control, score changes for mobile teachers are partially attributable to shifts in the economic status and race of students in teachers’ classrooms and schools. Understanding how neoliberalism operates within education provides sociological insight into how neoliberalism is legitimated and perpetuated in other central social institutions, such as the criminal justice system, the environment, gender, sexuality, and health
The Contributions of Parental, Academic, School, and Peer Factors to Differences by Socioeconomic Status in Adolescents’ Locus of Control
No full textAn internal locus of control may be particularly valuable for youth with low socioeconomic status (SES), yet the mechanisms that externalize their control remain unclear. This study uses data on 16,450 US 8th graders surveyed for the National Education Longitudinal Study in 1988 and 1990. Results indicate family income is more closely associated with adolescents’ locus of control than parents’ occupations and educational attainment, and that race does not independently affect adolescents’ locus of control net of these other components of SES. Findings also indicate higher SES adolescents feel more internal locus of control in largest part because their parents discuss school more often with them, their homes have more books and other cognitive resources, they receive higher grades in middle school science and social studies, they are more likely to attend a private rather than public school, their friends are more academically oriented, and they feel more safe at school
Science AMA Series: Hi Reddit, I’m Dara Shifrer, an assistant professor of sociology at Portland State University. I use national data to understand how disability labels (like learning disabled, autistic, ADHD) affect children socially at school. Ask me anything!
No full textQuasi-Experimental Techniques: Social Causes and Consequences of Educational Disabilities
No full textThis series of studies began with a grant proposal focused on students classified with learning disabilities which was successfully funded by the National Science Foundation. Although the main emphasis of this National Science Foundation program was science, technology, engineering, and math, we were also interested in broader educational and social psychological outcomes for these students. Previous studies had largely relied on aggregate-level data and bivariate analyses. We sought to build on these studies by analyzing data describing students, teachers, and schools with quasi-experimental techniques such as multilevel regression modeling and propensity score matching. This article describes the development of the analytical and theoretical foundations for the studies, with a particular focus on data limitations for at-risk status groups, the meaning of and need for quasi-experimental techniques, options for handling missing values and clustered data, and how disciplinary differences shape research
Clarifying the Social Roots of the Disproportionate Classification of Racial Minorities and Males with Learning Disabilities
No full textThe disproportionate placement of racial minorities and males into special education for learning disabilities (LDs) raises concerns that classifications occur inaccurately or inequitably. This study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 to investigate the social etiology of LD classifications that persist into adolescence. Findings suggest the overclassification of racial minorities is largely consistent with (clinically relevant) differences in educational performance. Classifications may occur inconsistently or subjectively, with clinically irrelevant qualities like school characteristics and linguistic-immigration history independently predictive of disability classification. Finally, classifications may be partially biased, with male overclassification largely unexplained by this study’s measures and racial minorities’ risk of classification increased in schools with fewer minorities (the latter not statistically significant)
Disability in the Transition from K–12 to Higher Education
No full textThis chapter outlines the structural underpinnings of the educational experiences of young adults with disability in the United States, drawing connections and distinctions along the trajectory from kindergarten through grade 12 and then into higher education. With relatively little sociological engagement with educational disabilities, the chapter contributes a theoretical framing for understanding disability in higher-education settings by integrating ideas from disability studies and classic sociology-of-education literature, particularly documenting tensions between disability ideology and dominant US educational ideals of merit, individual accountability, and standardization. This chapter demonstrates how complete understandings of educational inequality depend on sociologists’ more frequent engagement with disability and the integration of ideas from disability studies. Finally, the chapter concludes with tangible ways that practitioners, parents, and youth can disrupt the reproduction of disability as a category of inequality.
This handbook is currently in development, with individual chapters publishing online in advance of print publication
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