Addressing Diversity and Disability

The Louisiana State Improvement Grant at LSU, a collaborative project between the Louisiana Department of Education and Special Education Programs at LSU, held SIG Day on December 11, 2007, at the Lod Cook Conference Center. The focus of the day was “Disproportionality and Cultural Responsiveness.” More than 250 family members, administrators, teachers, and university personnel were in attendance.

One of the major challenges in special education is ensuring the identification of students with disabilities is not based on factors other than a disabling condition. Nationally, there is evidence that students from certain racial and ethnic backgrounds may be over-represented in some categories and underrepresented in others. This is present in aspects of schooling that include student achievement, school completion, and discipline. To help address this, schools, families, and researchers across the country are focusing great efforts to assure that students are properly identified and served within special education.

James Patton, Ed.D., gave a keynote presentation titled, “A Framework For Understanding Disproportionality as a Change Event.” Patton is Professor of Leadership and Special Education at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He was formerly an associate dean of Academic Programs and director of Project Mandala, a federally funded research and development project aimed at identifying and serving selected students and their families who exhibit at-risk and at-promise characteristics.

Beth Harry, Ph.D., presented, “Three Children, Three Families: What’s Wrong with these Pictures?” She also spoke on issues involving special education placement.

A professor of special education at the University of Miami since 1995, Harry has taught in Toronto and the British West Indies. She was the founder and director of Immortelle Center for Special Education, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

A former member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on the Disproportionate Placement of Minorities in Special Education, she serves on several editorial boards, including Teacher Education and Special Education.

“The strength of this project is the connection and support of concerned and talented individuals that represent the key stakeholders for schools and communities. The needs of communities, schools, families, and students with and without disabilities are not viewed as exclusive or separate,” said College of Education Associate Professor R. Kenton Denny. “The LASIG2 project is intended to provide the support for stakeholders to work collaboratively to address many of the complex challenges faced at all levels of the education effort. Having these incredibly accomplished scholars to help challenge our thinking and share their experiences is a critical component in the ongoing improvement efforts.”