"Are U.S. Schools Discriminating When Suspending Students With Disabilities? A Best-Evidence Synthesis"

UCI Distinguished Professor of Education George Farkas has published an article with colleagues from Penn State University in Exceptional Children.

The title of the article is "Are U.S. Schools Discriminating When Suspending Students With Disabilities? A Best-Evidence Synthesis."

​Penn State co-authors are Paul L Morgan (1st author), Yangyang Wang, Adrienne D. Woods, Zoe Mandel, and Marianne M. Hillemeier. 

Farkas's research foci include the achievement gap, educational inequality, social ethnic minority education, early childhood, cognition, behavior, and afterschool programs. His research has made a major contribution to understanding the school achievement gap for low income and ethnic minority students.

​Abstract

We examined whether U.S. schools systemically discriminate when suspending or otherwise disciplining students with disabilities (SWD). Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria. We coded 147 available risk estimates from these 18 studies. Of four studies including individual-level controls for infraction reasons, over half of the available estimates (i.e., 14 of 24, or 58%) failed to indicate that SWD were more likely to be suspended than otherwise similar students without disabilities. Of the seven available estimates adjusted for the strong confound of individual-level behavior, most (i.e., five of seven, or 71%) failed to indicate that SWD were more likely to be suspended. The other two estimates indicating SWD were more likely to be suspended were from one study. We also examined whether SWD were less likely to be suspended than otherwise similar students without disabilities. There was no strong evidence of this. Empirical evidence regarding whether U.S. schools discriminate when disciplining SWD is currently inconclusive.

Morgan, P. L., Wang, Y., Woods, A. D., Mandel, Z., Farkas, G., & Hillemeier, M. M. (2018). Are U.S. schools discriminating when suspending students with disabilities? A best-evidence synthesis. Exceptional Children, 86(1), 7-24.