| Summary: | In an attempt to alleviate subjectivity in special education placement decisions, Congress mandated that such decisions be made by a multidisciplinary team (P.L. 94-142). Minority students are consistently overrepresented in special education classes (Mercer, 1973; Tucker, 1980; Keyes, 1981).
The research problem that was the concern of this study was: do race of the child, socioeconomic status of the child, and racial composition of the school district affect special education placement decisions? It was hypothesized that: there would be no difference in-the special education placement decisions made for white pupils and those made for black pupils; decisions made for low SES children and those made for high SES children; decisions made by special educators from school districts with a high percentage of black pupil enrollment and those made by special educators from school districts with a low percentage of black enrollment; there would be no relationship between the identification of a handicapping classification and the recommendation of time to be spent in a special class; and, that there would be no significant first or second order interactions.
Crosstabulation, 2x2x2 analysis of variance, point biserial correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Data were obtained from 81 school district directors of special education programs in Maryland and Virginia. These respondents made special education recommendations for a hypothetical child.
Findings observed included: no correlation between amount of time recommended and the identification of a handicapping classification; SES, race and district proportion explained a significant amount of variance in EMR classification; SES alone accounted for significant variance in EMR and LD classifications; and SES and race combined significantly affected the recommendation of EMR classification, SES and district racial proportion combined significantly affected the recommendation of the other than EMR or LD category. === Ed. D.
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