Education Commons^™

A Multivariate Study Of Disproportionality In Special Education, Stacey L. Steggert

ETD Archive

The disproportionate representation of ethnically and culturally diverse students in special education has been the topic of significant research and policy debate for the last forty years. Disproportionality occurs when the proportion of students of a specific ethnic group in a disability category is greater or less than the proportion of Caucasian students in the same disability category. The prevailing logic asserts that disproportionality is the result of ethnically and culturally diverse students being differentially affected by the deleterious effects of poverty. Despite considerable research regarding the prevalence of overrepresentation, few studies have been undertaken to examine the relationship between …