{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132483"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132483","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"A qualitative analysis of teachers’ and psychologists’ perceptions of disproportionality within special education","abstract":"Throughout the last few decades, the number of students receiving special education services in public schools has steadily increased (Education Week, 2019). As students serviced has increased, so has “disproportionality” – that is, the rate at which one racial group is overrepresented or underrepresented in special education or within specific disability categories (Skiba et al., 2008). This problem has roots deeper than just within education, connected to oppression, discrimination, and civil rights concerns due to special education settings being removed from the general education classes in certain circumstances depending on the disability category (Smedley, 2007; Skiba et al., 2008). A variety of interventions have been utilized to track and attempt to reduce this problem including providing improvements to federal policy and analyzing data on geographic location, student socio-economic status, and teacher education. This study is conducted in the Chicagoland area and interviewed 16 participants- eight special education teachers and eight school psychologists. This study utilizes the DisCrit theory which informed the research questions and interview protocols. Analysis of the data resulted in three themes: 1) knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students; 2) perceived contributors to disproportionality; and 3) systemic barriers for Black students. Findings suggest that school psychologists have a breadth of knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students. In contrast, teachers have less substantial knowledge of this concept. Perceived contributors to disproportionality by practitioners interviewed are family advocacy and involvement, school and family socioeconomic status, and administration and district involvement. Participants identified teachers' negative bias towards Black students’ behavior, practitioner knowledge gaps, and the influence of trauma as systemic barriers for Black students in regard to overrepresentation in special education.","abstract_html":"Throughout the last few decades, the number of students receiving special education services in public schools has steadily increased (Education Week, 2019). As students serviced has increased, so has “disproportionality” – that is, the rate at which one racial group is overrepresented or underrepresented in special education or within specific disability categories (Skiba et al., 2008). This problem has roots deeper than just within education, connected to oppression, discrimination, and civil rights concerns due to special education settings being removed from the general education classes in certain circumstances depending on the disability category (Smedley, 2007; Skiba et al., 2008). A variety of interventions have been utilized to track and attempt to reduce this problem including providing improvements to federal policy and analyzing data on geographic location, student socio-economic status, and teacher education. This study is conducted in the Chicagoland area and interviewed 16 participants- eight special education teachers and eight school psychologists. This study utilizes the DisCrit theory which informed the research questions and interview protocols. Analysis of the data resulted in three themes: 1) knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students; 2) perceived contributors to disproportionality; and 3) systemic barriers for Black students. Findings suggest that school psychologists have a breadth of knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students. In contrast, teachers have less substantial knowledge of this concept. Perceived contributors to disproportionality by practitioners interviewed are family advocacy and involvement, school and family socioeconomic status, and administration and district involvement. Participants identified teachers' negative bias towards Black students’ behavior, practitioner knowledge gaps, and the influence of trauma as systemic barriers for Black students in regard to overrepresentation in special education.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Smith, Samantha K."],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ed.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Nelson, Jennifer","Roegman, Rachel","Herrmann, Mary","Meadan-Kaplansky, Hedda"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-12","date_published":"2025-12","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z","subjects":["disproportionality","overrepresentation","special education","disability categories"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Samantha Smith"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132483","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Nelson, Jennifer","Roegman, Rachel","Herrmann, Mary","Meadan-Kaplansky, Hedda"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Smith, Samantha K."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-12","2025-11-11"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ed.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["disproportionality","overrepresentation","special education","disability categories"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Samantha Smith"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132483"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Throughout the last few decades, the number of students receiving special education services in public schools has steadily increased (Education Week, 2019). As students serviced has increased, so has “disproportionality” – that is, the rate at which one racial group is overrepresented or underrepresented in special education or within specific disability categories (Skiba et al., 2008). This problem has roots deeper than just within education, connected to oppression, discrimination, and civil rights concerns due to special education settings being removed from the general education classes in certain circumstances depending on the disability category (Smedley, 2007; Skiba et al., 2008). A variety of interventions have been utilized to track and attempt to reduce this problem including providing improvements to federal policy and analyzing data on geographic location, student socio-economic status, and teacher education. This study is conducted in the Chicagoland area and interviewed 16 participants- eight special education teachers and eight school psychologists. This study utilizes the DisCrit theory which informed the research questions and interview protocols. Analysis of the data resulted in three themes: 1) knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students; 2) perceived contributors to disproportionality; and 3) systemic barriers for Black students. Findings suggest that school psychologists have a breadth of knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students. In contrast, teachers have less substantial knowledge of this concept. Perceived contributors to disproportionality by practitioners interviewed are family advocacy and involvement, school and family socioeconomic status, and administration and district involvement. Participants identified teachers' negative bias towards Black students’ behavior, practitioner knowledge gaps, and the influence of trauma as systemic barriers for Black students in regard to overrepresentation in special education.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Samantha Smith, accepted the attached license on 2025-11-11 at 08:44.","The student, Samantha Smith, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-11-11 at 08:52.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-11-11 at 09:45.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22857 on 2026-02-19 at 18:24:34"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A qualitative analysis of teachers’ and psychologists’ perceptions of disproportionality within special education"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Nelson, Jennifer","Roegman, Rachel","Herrmann, Mary","Meadan-Kaplansky, Hedda"],"dc:creator":["Smith, Samantha K."],"dc:date":["2025-12","2025-11-11"],"dc:description":["Throughout the last few decades, the number of students receiving special education services in public schools has steadily increased (Education Week, 2019). As students serviced has increased, so has “disproportionality” – that is, the rate at which one racial group is overrepresented or underrepresented in special education or within specific disability categories (Skiba et al., 2008). This problem has roots deeper than just within education, connected to oppression, discrimination, and civil rights concerns due to special education settings being removed from the general education classes in certain circumstances depending on the disability category (Smedley, 2007; Skiba et al., 2008). A variety of interventions have been utilized to track and attempt to reduce this problem including providing improvements to federal policy and analyzing data on geographic location, student socio-economic status, and teacher education. This study is conducted in the Chicagoland area and interviewed 16 participants- eight special education teachers and eight school psychologists. This study utilizes the DisCrit theory which informed the research questions and interview protocols. Analysis of the data resulted in three themes: 1) knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students; 2) perceived contributors to disproportionality; and 3) systemic barriers for Black students. Findings suggest that school psychologists have a breadth of knowledge of disproportionality and the overrepresentation of Black students. In contrast, teachers have less substantial knowledge of this concept. Perceived contributors to disproportionality by practitioners interviewed are family advocacy and involvement, school and family socioeconomic status, and administration and district involvement. Participants identified teachers' negative bias towards Black students’ behavior, practitioner knowledge gaps, and the influence of trauma as systemic barriers for Black students in regard to overrepresentation in special education.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Samantha Smith, accepted the attached license on 2025-11-11 at 08:44.","The student, Samantha Smith, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-11-11 at 08:52.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-11-11 at 09:45.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22857 on 2026-02-19 at 18:24:34"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132483"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Samantha Smith"],"dc:subject":["disproportionality","overrepresentation","special education","disability categories"],"dc:title":["A qualitative analysis of teachers’ and psychologists’ perceptions of disproportionality within special education"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ed.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z"}