Four quantitative meta-analyses examined whether teachers' expectations, referrals, positive and neutral speech, and negative speech differed toward ethnic minority students (i.e., African American, Asian American, and Latino/a) as compared with European American students. Teachers were found to hold the highest expectations for Asian American students (d = -.17). In addition, teachers held more positive expectations for European American students than for Latino/a (d = .46) or African American (d = .25) students. Teachers made more positive referrals and fewer negative referrals for European American students than for Latino/a and African American students (d = .31). Although teachers directed more positive and neutral speech (e.g., questions and encouragement) toward European American students than toward Latino/a and African American students (d = .21), they directed an equal amount of negative speech (e.g., criticism) to all students (d = .02). In general, teachers' favoring of European American students compared with African American and Latino/a students was associated with small but statistically significant effects. The meta-analyses suggest that teachers' expectations and speech vary with students' ethnic backgrounds.

Are teachers' expectations different for racial minority than for European American students? A meta-analysis.

Among the most-longstanding and intransigent issues in the field, the disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs has its roots in a long history of educational segregation and discrimination. Although national estimates of disproportionality have been consistent over time, state and local estimates may show varying patterns of disproportionality. A number of factors may contribute to disproportionality, including test bias, poverty, special education processes, inequity in general education, issues of behavior management, and cultural mismatch/cultural reproduction. This article provides a report on the history, measurement, status, and factors contributing to disproportionate representation in special education, and offers recommendations based on an understanding of racial and ethnic disparities in special education as a multiply determined phenomenon.

Achieving Equity in Special Education: History, Status, and Current Challenges:

This study investigated teachers' sense of efficacy and biases in their decisions to refer students to special education. Teachers (N = 240) read a case study about a student with academic difficulties and judged the appropriateness of the student's regular class placement and whether they would refer the student. Teachers were randomly assigned to one of six conditions, in which student socioeconomic status (SES) and etiology of the learning problem were varied. Findings revealed that teachers who perceive themselves as ineffectual consider regular education inappropriate for underachieving students from low-SES families; teachers who believe that they are effective do not differentiate students by SES. Further, teachers referred students whose learning problems had an unspecified etiology more than those whose problems were medically or environmentally based. Thus, teachers' referral decisions appear to be biased by variables unrelated to the specific academic difficulties of the student.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27541871.pdf

Teacher Efficacy and Bias in Special Education Referrals

http://msan.wceruw.org/documents/resources_for_educators/Relationships/Behav%20At%20Risk%20and%20St%20Teach%20Relation.pdf

Behaviorally at-risk African American students:The importance of student–teacher relationships for student outcomes

Abstract Our paper reanalyzes data from the classic 1966 study Equality of Educational Opportunity , or Coleman Report . It addresses whether teacher characteristics, including verbal ability and race, influenced “synthetic gain scores” of students (mean test scores of upper grade students in a school minus mean test scores of lower grade students in a school), in the context of an econometric model that allows for the possibility that teacher characteristics in a school are endogenously determined. We find that verbal aptitude scores of teachers influenced synthetic grain scores for both black and white students. Verbal aptitude mattered as much for black teachers as it did for white teachers. Finally, holding teacher characteristics other than race constant, in some specifications black teachers were associated with higher gain scores for black high school students, but lower gain scores for white elementary and secondary students. Because these findings are for American schools in the mid-1960s, they do not directly apply to our contemporary experience. However, they do raise issues that should be addressed in discussions of hiring policies in American education.

/pdf/did-teachers-verbal-ability-and-race-matter-in-the-1960s-4wy8lhrmbf.pdf

Did Teachers' Verbal Ability and Race Matter in the 1960s? "Coleman" Revisited. RAND Reprints.

Teacher-Student Ethnicity and Recommendations for Special Education Referrals.

/pdf/special-education-referrals-failure-to-replicate-student-4abn6xmduk.pdf

Special Education referrals: Failure to replicate student–teacher ethnicity interaction.

Cravens, D. W., Heathington, K. W., and Mundy,R. A., \"Organizing for Interdisciplinary Research in a University Setting,\" Journal of the Society of Research Administrators. Vol. Ill, No. 1, Summer 1976. Cravens, D. W., Heathington, K. W., and Mundy, R. A.,ManagementModelsfor Interdisciplinary Research, Transportation Center, The University of Tennessee, 1977. Cunningham, J. L., Cravens, D. W., Heathington, K. W., and Mundy, R. A.,Management of Interdisciplinary Research in Universities: Current Practices, Problems, and Processes, Transportation Center, The University of Tennessee, 1977. Heathington, K. W., Cunningham, J. L., Cravens, D. W., and Mundy, R. A., Evaluation of Research in Universities, Transportation Center, The University of Tennessee, 1977. Mundy, R. A., Heathington, K. W., and Cravens, D. W., Facilitating and Constraining Factors of Interdisciplinary Research in Universities, Transportation Center, The University of Tennessee, 1977. Proceedings of the Conference on: The Management of Large-Scale Interdisciplinary Research, Transportation Center, The University of Tennessee, 1976.

Does Blind Reviewing Make a Difference

Five standardized tests of reading achievement were administered to community college freshmen. Each student took two different tests on two consecutive days. Grade-equivalent scores earned on tests were compared. Differences were found between tests based on the number of students who reached the criterion score of grade-equivalent 11 or 12. These differences would pose a threat to the criterion-related validity of the scores when they are used for selection and placement purposes.

Mara Zibrin

Papers

Teacher-Student Ethnicity and Recommendations for Special Education Referrals.

Special Education referrals: Failure to replicate student–teacher ethnicity interaction.

Does Blind Reviewing Make a Difference

Dissimilarities in Grade-Equivalent Scores on Different Standardized Tests of Achievement: a Threat to Criterion-Related Validity