Abstract
Statement of Problem Special education is a service intended for students struggling to maintain grade level achievement alongside their typically developing peers. Students are referred to special education when their disability or suspected disability begins to interfere with their ability to function and learn in the general education setting. “The intransigent problem of overrepresentation of students of colour in special education in the USA has been well documented in the literature” (Ferri & Connor, 2010, p. 106). Although compelling, current data does not explain why so many special education classrooms contain so few young women. “Disabled girls represent a dwindling presence in the special education classroom where young males make up on average two-thirds of the special education population (Mitchell 2006)” (Ferri & Connor, 2010, p. 106). The discrepancy between boys and girls receiving special education services does not accurately represent the overall population of student enrollment in California. According to the data taken by the California Department of Education (CDE) Educational Demographics Unit, girls made up 48.8% of the school population during the 2013-2014 school year. Therefore, in order to be adequately represented, girls would need to make up 48.8% of the population receiving special education services (California Department of Education, 2016). As the special education world moves towards a more inclusive practice model, it is important for special education and general education teachers to be aware of the discrepancy that exists and cohesively work to address the inequities that continue to exist in education. The gender discrepancy of students in special education warrants an examination of a segment of the referral process and a look into general education teacher bias in order to avoid perpetuating the achievement gap. The underrepresentation of girls or the overrepresentation of boys receiving special education services leads one to gather the possibility that some girls with disabilities may go unidentified and as a result unsupported, throughout their K-12 school journey. Furthermore, this could mean that boys are being unjustly referred, stigmatized, and frequently excluded from their typical peers as a result of a gender bias on behalf of general education teachers. Sources of Data The methodology utilized in this study consists of a researcher-constructed survey complete with six fictional case studies. Data was produced as a result of teacher survey input and subsequently recorded in the hope of finding a trend as a result of boys and girls being referred to special education. The anonymous survey was sent out to general education teachers in K-6 teaching positions within one school district. The survey questions asked teachers to identify their teaching background: grade level taught, gender, number of years teaching, the special education model currently implemented in their school, and other credentials held. Additionally, each survey contained two case studies selected at random. General education teachers were then instructed to read the case study and recommend the next steps in intervention they determined to be necessary for the two given students to reach optimum success (referral to special education, response to intervention, 504 plan, or student study team). Teachers were then instructed to justify their selections for their chosen next steps of intervention. The justification following the case studies allowed teachers to write in open-ended narrative format. Open-ended narrative, qualitative research utilized within this study allowed for data to expand beyond multiple-choice quantitative data. Conclusions Reached Overall findings indicate that while changing the gender specific name from Katie to Billy does not make a difference in the quantitative findings of recommended interventions, and indicates a bias towards the male gendered name, Billy, within open-ended narrative data results. Billy and Katie were both recommended to receive an SST most commonly, however Billy was recommended to be in a separate setting, need medical professional help, and deemed to be too difficult for a general education teacher to handle more than twice the amount of Katie.