Examining Disproportionality and
Quantitative Data
New York University
Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity
and the Transformation of Schools
Technical Assistance Center on
Disproportionality
ENTER DISTRICT NAME
ENTER DATE
Internal and External Dialogue:
Shoulder Partner Talk – what are some of
the internal and external discussions you
have had related to disproportionality?
Overview of the Day
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Part 1: Framing beliefs about race and class
Part 2: Being responsive to students’ needs
Part 3: Analyzing district and school level data
Part 4: Collecting other data
Part 5: Reflection, wrap-up, and debriefing
Objectives
• Explore and discuss notions of culture, privilege, risk
factors, protective factors, vulnerability
• Examine district and school level data
• Continue to develop a basic hypothesis around the
patterns of data and identify the data
(documents/activities) needed to explore the
identified patterns in the data
Contract
• Push your growing edge
• Consider what’s in it for you
and where you’re going
• Listen with respect and stay
engaged
• Struggle together and expect
to experience discomfort
• Speak your “truth” and
respect the “truth” of others
• Keep personal conversations
confidential
“As we struggle
together, we will have
hit the growing edge—
push your growing
edge!”
-The People’s Institute for Survival and
Beyond
Critical Questions:
•
What are some predominate
beliefs about race and class?
•
How do these beliefs manifest in
your school district?
PART 1: Framing
beliefs about race and
class
Discussing the Readings
Homework Assignment
• Reading:
– Truth in Labeling: Disproportionality in Special
Education
• What are the different forms of disproportionality?
• What factors contribute to disproportionality?
• How might we address disproportionality?
– White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
• What is the invisible knapsack?
• What is in your invisible knapsack?
• How might our “knapsack shape our view of the world?
• Complete School-Wide TAC-D Survey
Reading “Grab Bag”
1. Partner up with someone sitting next
to you.
2. Each partner chooses a quote
(without looking) out of the “Grab
Bag.”
3. Take turns reading your quote aloud
and discussing it with your partner.
•
Be sure to think and talk about how the
quote relates to the conversations we’ve
started about disproportionality
(particularly in your district and/or
school)
Race and Class Based Beliefs
• What do the readings say about the importance of
looking at race and class?
• What do the readings say about the relationship
between race and class and disproportionality?
• How do the readings relate to your own beliefs on race
and class?
• What are the predominant beliefs of race and class in
your school district?
Beliefs and Facts about Race and Racism
Beliefs
Facts
Race is biological
There are no biological markers for
race. Race is a social construct.
Taking a “colorblind” or “race
neutral” stance treats all students
fairly
“Colorblind” or “race neutral”
stances devalue students lived
experiences and identity
Racism is perpetrated by the racist Institutional racism and White
acts of individuals
privilege (Blanchett, 2006;
McIntosh, 1992)
Beliefs and Facts about Class
Beliefs
Facts
There is a culture of poverty that
keeps poor people poor (Lewis,
1966; Herrnstein &Murray, 1992)
Most poverty is caused by
institutional practices and
inequities and is not the result of
the practices and beliefs of people
from low income backgrounds
(Venkatesh, 2006; Wilson, 2009)
Situational and generational
poverty (Payne, 2005)
1. Various identities will be shared. Find other individuals that share
your identity and discuss.
2. One rule…you can’t be removed from the group!
3. Once your group has been established, answer the following
questions:
1.
2.
What are the features we share around identity?
What are some features each of us believes we may not share with
others around this identity?
A look at culture
Take a moment to jot any new
ideas onto your “IDEAS” sheet
Critical Questions:
• Why is it important to pay attention
to issues of race, class, and
culture?
• How do our notions of race, class,
and culture influence our education
practices?
PART 2: Being
responsive to
students’ needs
School Privilege by Ruth Anne
Olson
Forms of Social Power and Privilege
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•
•
•
•
•
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•
Economic
Governmental
Physical
Political
Media
Knowledge
Personal
Situational
Cultural and Institutional
Power and
privilege frame
the ways in
which we
acknowledge and
validate each
other’s culture.
What does it mean to engage in culturally
responsive practices?
• All practice is culturally responsive – but to which
culture(s) is it responsive?
• Culture is involved in all learning.
• Culture is not a static set of characteristics located
within individuals, but is fluid and complex.
• If we have this understanding of the schooling
process, then we must examine every policy and
practice in order to identify where is the cultural
responsive gap…
Think-Pair-Share: Discuss a time in your
life when you were vulnerable
• Describe the situation.
• What made you feel vulnerable?
• What do you think helped (or would have helped you)
feel less vulnerable?
Dual Axis Model of Vulnerability
Risk Factor Level
Low
Low
High
Vulnerability
(difficulties
apparent)
High
Protective Factor Level
High
Low
Vulnerability
(demonstrated,
but often
unacknowledged
resilience)
Masked
Vulnerability
(difficulties
veiled)
Undetermined
Vulnerability
(positive
outcomes
predicted)
Differential Vulnerability – Margaret Beale
Spencer
• All humans are
vulnerable (i.e.,
chronically exposed to
risk and protective
factors)
• Varying levels of
vulnerability are possible
• School can both provide
protective factors and
exacerbate risk factors
• We need to ensure that
schools protective factors
for all students
Protective
factors
SOURCE: Spencer, 2006; Spencer, Harpalani, Cassidy et al., 2006
Risk
factors
What Would You Do?
Jose Antonio Vargas’ story
• What were Jose’s risk factors?
• What were his protective factors?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJH1IKqF8PA
Risk Factors, Stresses, and Challenges
Associated with Race
• Microaggressions
• Negative media
portrayals
• Stereotype threat
• Structural
Inequalities
• In general, the
racial/ethnic identity
of people of color is
considered to be
more vulnerable and
salient than those of
the dominant group
because of their
position relative to
power (Tatum, 2003)
What do schools with low protective factors
look like for racial/ethnic minority students?
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•
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Presence of stereotype threat
Lack of acknowledgement of cultural assets
Minimal rigor and academic press
Pre-tracking (K-4), soft tracking (grades 5-6), and
explicit tracking (grades 7-12).
• Absence of understanding racial/ethnic identity
development
• Limited understanding of conditions surrounding lowincome status
Our Working Assumptions
• Race Matters. Almost every indicator of well-being shows
troubling disparities/disproportionalities by race.
• Disparities are often created and maintained inadvertently
through policies and practices that contain barriers to
opportunity.
• It is possible – and only possible – to close equity gaps by
using strategies determined through an intentional focus
on race.
• If opportunities in all key areas of well-being are equitable,
then equitable results will follow.
• Given the right message, analysis, and tools, people will
work toward racial equity.
SOURCE: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Race Matters)
Looking at Vulnerability
• Risk Factors
– Who are our most
vulnerable students?
– What makes them
vulnerable?
– What are our
students risk factors?
• Protective Factors
– What protective
factors do we have in
place to address
those risk factors?
Looking at Vulnerability
Consider the most vulnerable students in your school.
• What risk factors do they face?
• What protective factors do they have and are provided?
Risk Factors
Protective Factors
Looking at Vulnerability
Consider the least vulnerable students in your school.
• What risk factors do they face?
• What protective factors do they have and are provided?
Risk Factors
Protective Factors
Take a moment to jot any new
ideas onto your “IDEAS” sheet
Critical Questions:
•
What does our data tell us about
our referral process?
•
What can’t the data tell us?
PART 3: Analyzing
district and school
level data
Insert school
level data
Take a moment to jot any new
ideas onto your “IDEAS” sheet
PART 4: Collecting
other data
What does the data tell us and
what additional information is needed?
• What does the data tell us (put “NA” if the data did not
apply to this)?
• What actions should be considered in response to the
data?
• What additional data should be collected?
What does the data tell us and what
additional information is needed?
What does the data tell
us (put “NA” if the data
did not apply to this)?
Discipline policies &
practices
Interventions &
referrals
Instruction &
assessment
Educational
Opportunity
Family & community
Teacher
expectations &
misconceptions
Cultural dissonance
Sociodemographics
What actions should be
considered in response to
the data?
What additional data should
be collected?
Where do we go from here?
• What are the parts of our processes that might be
responsible for producing these outcomes or might be
able to address these outcomes?
• What additional policies and practices should be
explored?
• How are we going to explore them?
Data Collection
• Policies Data to Collect:
– Individual school policies
related to
•
•
•
•
code of conduct
referrals
professional development
interventions (RtI handbook)
• Practices Data to
Collect:
– Completed discipline
referral forms (or
aggregated data)
– Observations of
• classrooms
• interventions and support
team practices
• Beliefs Data to Collect:
– Student/teacher
expectations
– School survey
– Focus groups/interviews
PART 5: Reflection,
wrap-up, and
debriefing
Mapping the Root Causes: What have we
discussed today that may relate to the root
causes of disproportionality?
Critical Questions:
• What are some predominate beliefs
about race and class?
• How do these beliefs manifest in your
school district?
• Why is it important to pay attention to
issues of race, class, and culture?
• How do our notions of race, class, and
culture influence our education
practices?
• What does our data tell us about our
referral process?
• What can’t the data tell us?
Homework Assignment
• Complete readings:
– Racial Disproportionality in School Disciplinary
Practices
• What factors contribute to disproportionality in school
discipline practices?
• What steps could schools/districts take to reduce
disproportionate discipline outcomes?
– The Color of Discipline
• What role do race, class and gender play in discipline
disproportionality?
• Bring in assigned data
Wrap-Up and Debriefing
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What are some things we learned?
What are some questions we still have?
Further areas of interest based on today’s training
Potential barriers
Evaluate Training
Questions, Comments, or Concerns:
Associate Name, email@nyu.edu
HANDOUTS
Looking at Vulnerability
Consider the most vulnerable students in your school.
• What risk factors do they face?
• What protective factors do they have and are provided?
Risk Factors
Protective Factors
Looking at Vulnerability
Consider the least vulnerable students in your school.
• What risk factors do they face?
• What protective factors do they have and are provided?
Risk Factors
Protective Factors
What does the data tell us and what
additional information is needed?
What does the data tell us
(put “NA” if the data did not
apply to this)?
Discipline
policies &
practices
Interventions &
referrals
Instruction &
assessment
Educational
Opportunity
What actions should be
considered in response to
the data?
What additional data should
be collected?
What does the data tell us and what
additional information is needed?
What does the data tell us
(put “NA” if the data did not
apply to this)?
Family &
community
Teacher
expectations &
misconceptions
Cultural
dissonance
Sociodemographics
What actions should be
considered in response to
the data?
What additional data should
be collected?