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Teachers' And Parents' Perceptions Of Special Education Referral For African American Students, Darlene Smith
Teachers' And Parents' Perceptions Of Special Education Referral For African American Students, Darlene Smith
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Patterns of representation of African Americans in K-12 special education programs vary across the United States. A school district in Arizona has a 13% African American population, yet the African American special education representation is 17%. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to generate an understanding of the processes related to special education referral and assignment of African American elementary students as perceived by 7 teachers and 6 parents in the school district. Inductive analysis including open, axial, and selective coding led to the categorization of three themes: complexity in the referral process, inadequate teacher-parent communication and lack …