Professor named co-PI on Institute of Education Sciences grant analyzing special education services

The Institute of Education Sciences named Distinguished Professor George Farkas co-PI on a grant that will analyze special education services.
 
Farkas and the research team  – which includes Pennsylvania State University Professor Paul Morgan (PI) and PSU Professor Emerita Marianne Hillemeier – will analyze Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies from both 1998 and 2011, along with seven National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) studies dating back to 2003. The team will examine change in racial disproportionality in special education and the effects on student outcomes.
 
“My previous research revealed that once students with similar needs (measured by reading and math test scores) for special education services are compared, nonwhite students have much lower special education placement rates than white students,” Farkas said. “This is important to study because it indicates that many nonwhite students are not receiving the academic assistance they need, and that is their legal right.

“This current study will allow us to better understand how long this underrepresentation of nonwhite students in special education has been occurring, whether it has recently been getting more extreme, and for which students.”
 
Throughout his career, Farkas addressed inequality in children’s educational opportunities. His research has made a major contribution to understanding the school achievement gap for low-income and ethnic minority students, and he was one of the first scholars to show that the gap emerges in early childhood.
 
"Achievement gaps between children from low- and high-income parents are already present when students enter kindergarten, and continue at the same magnitude through 12th grade,” Farkas said. “Special education services are one of the few programs with a mandated budget that can be used to help these students catch up academically. When nonwhite students are denied these services, their academic careers are seriously jeopardized.”
 
Earlier this year, Farkas authored a Policy Analysis for California brief that addressed practices and policies that would improve services and outcomes for students with disabilities in California. In July, the California Bar Association adopted policies to improve equity in attorney discipline based on recommendations in a report Farkas authored.
 
Farkas has authored or co-authored four books and more than 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Collectively, his work has been cited more than 14,000 times. His publications indicate the range of his research expertise: special education needs and consequences, pre-school readiness, disparities and impacts of child care, children’s growth trajectories in reading, math, and science, and early interventions for students who have fallen behind in reading.
 
In 2020, Farkas received the American Sociological Association’s Willard Waller Award, which honors a scholar for lifetime achievement in the field of sociology of education.
 
The IES grant is: Who Receives and Benefits from Special Education in the U.S.? Analyses of Three Nationally Representative Datasets. R324A200166