Disproportionality in Special Education..Tips, Factors and Professional Development

Virtuosoed. (2012, February). Disproportionality in Special Education. Tips, Factors and Professional Development. Retrieved from http://www.virtuosoed.com/disproportionality.html

This video consisted of very valuable information regarding the definition of disproportionality in special education programs. The video then went on to discuss the three different measures that are used to determine disproportionality, the composition index, the risk index, and the relative comparison index. The narrator then goes on to highlight contributing factors and the validity of those factors as well as the misconceptions around some of those factors. The factors include that contribute to disproportionality are, the influence of poverty, test bias, unequal resource allocation, the referral process, and behavior management practices, as well as cultural mismatch.  Lastly, she discussed tips for addressing the issue, which include data driven action steps that can be found at www.virtuosoed.com.