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Using the Risk Ratio to Assess Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education at the School-District Level

Westat, Rockville, Maryland, juliebollmer{at}westat.com

James Bethel

Westat, Rockville, Maryland

Roberta Garrison-Mogren

Westat, Rockville, Maryland

Marsha Brauen

Westat, Rockville, Maryland

The issue of the disproportionate identification and placement of racial/ethnic minorities in special education has been investigated extensively. One of the most useful tools in this research is the risk ratio, which compares one racial/ethnic group's risk of receiving special education and related services to that of all other students. The risk ratio can be used to calculate disproportionality at both the state and school-district levels. However, analysts often encounter difficulties in applying the risk ratio to district-level data due to variable demographic distributions and small numbers of students in either the racial/ ethnic group or the comparison group. We propose two modifications to the risk ratio for dealing with these problems.

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The Journal of Special Education, Vol. 41, No. 3, 186-198 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/00224669070410030401


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Bollmer, J. Articles by Brauen, M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Bollmer, J. Articles by Brauen, M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?