Reducing System-wide Racial Disproportionality in the Prevalence of Students Identified as Mentally Retarded

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Reducing System-wide Racial Disproportionality in
the Prevalence of Students Identified as
Mentally Retarded

• NCCREST 2nd Annual National Forum
• Leadership for Equity and Excellence
  Transforming Education
• Washington DC Feb. 7th -9th 2007
• Enid Amos, Linda Gaskill, Robert Hull
• Prince Georges County Public School System
• Robert.Hull_at_pgcps.org

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The Content of this Presentation is Directed at
Districts that Have Been Identified as Racially
Disproportionate in Relation to the Prevalence of
Students with Mental Retardation
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IDEA 2004and Racial Disproportionality

• Requires state education agencies and local
  school systems to develop policies and procedures
  designed to prevent the over identification or
  disproportionality by race of children with
  disabilities.
• Each state must provide for the collection and
  examination of data to determine if significant
  disproportionality is occurring in the state and
  the local educational agencies.
• This applies to overall disability rates, rates
  by disability code and placement in particular
  settings.

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IDEA 2004 requires that in the case of a
determination of significant disproportionality,
with respect to the identification of children
with disabilities the state must

• Provide for the review of the policies,
  procedures and practices to ensure that they
  comply with the requirements of IDEA 2004,
• Require any LEA identified as being
  disproportionate to reserve the maximum amount of
  funds under 613f to provide comprehensive,
  coordinated early intervening services to those
  groups that are significantly over identified and
  
• Require the LEA to publicly report on the
  revision of policies, practices and procedures.

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Implications of No Child Left Behind and IDEA 2004

• Teachers and Related Service Providers must be
  highly qualified.
• Do racial minorities and poverty level students
  have the same access to highly qualified teachers
  and related service providers?
• Are evidence based interventions accessible to
  minority and poverty level students at the same
  rate as all students?
• Highly qualified staff and access to evidence
  programs are mandated to be the foundation of
  efforts to address disproportionality.

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Key Concepts

• Since 1997 IDEA has prioritized identifying and
  responding to disproportionality
• National data suggest that disproportionality is
  getting worse not better
• Data suggest that Disproportionality is due to
  complex multiple factors including some very
  positive reasons ie. early identification
  efforts, alternative programming and effective
  drop out prevention programs
• The IDEA 2004 has placed a renewed emphasis on
  responding to disproportionality
• There are multiple examples of effective methods
  to respond to this issue

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Epidemiological Issues

• How do we determine whether Census vs. Enrollment
  data are appropriate as the denominator?
• What do age distribution curves tell us?
• What level of effort will give us the impact we
  are looking for?

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School Count Vs. Census Count Risk Ratios
(NCCREST Data 03/04)
Risk Ratio of MR Census Count The darker the
color the higher the risk ratio (white is
excluded)
Risk Ratio of MR School Count The darker the
color the higher the risk ratio (white is
excluded)
Some states get worse some seem better??? If
there are these kinds of differences in states
then we can expect these kinds of differences in
local districts
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Epidemiological data on the Rates of Mental
Retardation of Children Census Data vs. School
Count

• Census Data
• Local School district 1
• Children 5-18 114446
• White 31
• Black 65.1
• MR rate 1552/114446, .0136

• School Count
• Local School district 1
• Enrollment 85,468
• White 8.3
• Black 86.8
• MR rate 1552/85468, .0181

Is the difference in rates of approximately a 33
important? Which is more accurate?
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Epidemiological data on the Rates of Mental
Retardation of Children Census Data vs. School
Count

• Census Data
• Local School District 2
• Children 5-18 92468
• White 81
• Black 15
• MR rate 416/92468, .0045

• School Count
• Local School District 2
• Enrollment 73565
• White 70
• Black 25
• MR rate 416/73565, .0057

Is the difference in rates of approximately a 25
important ?? What should your district use? Can
we fairly compare these two districts??
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What do Age Distribution Curves tell us?
Students stay in school longer
Slope stays the same from 4 to 14
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Some of the questions that school psychologists
and educational leaders are asking about this
data include

• At what age is racial disproportionality evident?
• Why would a disability that is typically thought
  of as expressed in the early developmental period
  not be identified until after several years of
  education?
• Does delay in service contribute to racial
  disproportionality?
• Are we focusing efforts on impacting early
  education when the problem is in late elementary
  to high school?

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Some of the questions that school psychologists
and educational leaders are asking about this
data include

• Are intellectual levels falling as children age
  thus suggesting that Mental Retardation is
  acquired?
• Are identification procedures different across
  the age span? Do we measure different cognitive
  functions at later developmental periods?
• Are students being reclassified as MR from other
  disabilities in order to access more restrictive
  placements?

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What level of effort will give us the impact we
are looking for?Or What will happen ifFrom Now
On Ill Be Good

• Acme Township MR data
• 100 students identified as mentally retarded, 50
  white 50 black
• LEA has overall racial population of 75 white,
  25 black
• Risk Ratio2.0
• 10 of MR students graduate, transfer or drop-out
  and 10 new students identified.
• Starting now, proportion of newly identified MR
  students will be consistent with racial
  composition of district population

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Pop Quiz

• Given data from the last slide how long will it
  take for Acme Township to reach a Risk Ratio of
  1.0 ?
• 3 years
• 5 years
• Until IDEA is reauthorized
• Until I retire, and someone else fixes it

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gt 3 Years of Perfection

• Start 100 _at_ 5050.Risk Ratio2

gt1 Y 10 exited. Incoming_at_ 7.52.5 New
Totals 52.547.5
gt2 Y 10 exited. Incoming_at_ 7.52.5 New
Totals 5545
gt3 Y 10 exited. Incoming_at_ 7.52.5 New
Totals 57.542.5
Risk Ratio1.7
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We cannot meet the expectations of IDEA by only
addressing New Cases

• We must develop a procedure to review existing
  cases if we are to change racial
  disproportionality

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Suggestions for improving the assessment,
evaluation and team decision making for students
who are referred for possible identification of
mental retardation.
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Comparing State Procedures

• Is Mental Retardation a clear cut, rigorously
  defined diagnostic category? Here is a brief
  review of a few select states
• Wisconsin
• Operationally defined Cognitive Disability at a
  state level, collected data on impact and
  determined that the definition slightly changed
  disproportionality in low income groups
• Tennessee
• Adding an additional category Mental Retardation
  vs. Functionally Delayed, developed operational
  definitions and exclusionary worksheet

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Comparing State Procedures

• Is Mental Retardation a clear cut, rigorously
  defined diagnostic category? Here is a brief
  review of a few select states
• Georgia, Florida
• Developed operational definition and
  qualifications of examiner Defined difference
  between mild, moderate, severe and profound
• Should we exclude provisional and contractual
  staff from assessing students suspected of MR?
• Connecticut
• Developed Guidelines for Intellectual Disability,
  (2000)
• Conceptual, Practical and Social Intelligence
• NCCREST data indicates a change from a risk ratio
  of 4.45 in 99/00 to (2.83 in 04/05)

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Team Considerations

• List the areas that teams need to consider
• Medical
• Sensory
• Social/Emotional
• Attention/Concentration/Executive Functioning
• Lack of School Experience
• Communication Problems
• Validity of Assessment Devices

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Evaluation ProcessRequire Multiple Confirming
Data

• Assessment is solution-focused not
  classification- focused
• Validity and reliability (confidence intervals)
• Unbiased assessments
• Multiple confirming data
• Quantitative and qualitative
• Multiple environments
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Context
• Adaptive behavior, direct and indirect measures
• Adaptive measures from multiple environments
  e.g., home, school, Community (non-academic
  settings, Sunday school)
• Approved list of assessment devices

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Improving Reliability Validity of MR Eligibility

• Definition of terms
• Definition of eligibility
• Eligibility determination checklist
• Guidelines for referral to IEP team
• Guidelines for dismissal or change of disability,
  from MR to another category and from another
  category to MR
• Required Assessments, for MR and for exclusionary
  factors
• Definition of Developmentally Delayed and
  Communication Disorder

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Benefits of Developing a Well Defined
Comprehensive Team Evaluation Process

• Improved
• Accuracy/Consistency in identification service
  delivery
• Supervision and audit decision making
• Requiring comprehensive re-evaluations who are
  identified as Mild MR
• Review incoming records
• Focus on teams or schools that need training

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If you are a district that has been identified as
disproportionate

• What do we do?

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Helpful Policies and Procedures that Reduce
DisproportionalityInitial Identification

• Student needs should drive programming and
  placement decisions (based on present level of
  performance and response to intervention) rather
  than disability codes.
• Procedures for Differential Classification of
  students at a young age, Developmentally Delayed,
  Speech/Language Impaired. Consistent with IDEA
  limitations
• Appropriate services for ancillary conditions
  (family stress, limited access to educational
  opportunity utilization of early intervention
  services)
• Assessment guidelines ie. Use of multiple sources
  of data that are consistent

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Policies and Procedures that Improve Length of
Stay

• Fostering independence and Fading student
  supports for successful studentsPrioritizing
  Academic Enabling and Requisite Learning
  Behaviors on Every IEP How can we promote a
  highly motivated independent learners?
• The use of temporary assignment of students
  into disability categories and special education
• Address parents misconceptions regarding
  classification and placement.Parent training

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Requiring Comprehensive Reassessments

• Comprehensive reassessments should be mandated on
  students identified as mildly mentally retarded
• With the same rigor as initial assessment
• Must include a response to intervention
  component, if a child is learning at a higher
  rate than what is expected from his intelligence
  then mental retardation is not an appropriate
  disability code
• Review all incoming students who have a code of
  mental retardation within thirty days of
  enrollment

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Exploring Alternative Disability Coding

• Advantages
• Reduce pressure of fitting students into
  inadequate classification systems
• Provides method for accessing needed resources to
  close the gap between expectations and
  performance
• Keeps high level of teacher expectation and
  access to rigorous curriculum
• Promotes inclusion and differentiated instruction

• Challenges
• Addressing funding issues
• System buy in and changing mind sets
• Funding for development of guidelines and
  training school system staff
• Addressing current misconceptions regarding
  mental retardation
• Eligibility for alternative testing
• Concerns about high stakes assessment and AYP

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Systems Change

• Comprehensive, Coordinated Early Intervening
  Services for Students with Mental Retardation

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Comprehensive, Coordinated Early Intervening
Services for Students with Mental Retardation
Includes Examining

• Epidemiological data on the rates of mental
  Retardation of children including school based
  and public health data analysis methods
• The process for developing a needs assessment and
  surveillance system that can focus local
  education agencies efforts to provide targeted
  audits and technical support
• Policies and procedures that select school
  districts are using that seem to have impacted
  disproportionality

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Comprehensive, Coordinated Early Intervening
Services for Students with Mental Retardation
Includes Examining

• Suggestions for improving the assessment,
  evaluation and team decision making for students
  who are referred for possible identification of
  mentally retarded
• The potential impact of co-occurring conditions,
  early stress, and demographic factors, medical
  factors on the identification of mental
  retardation

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Comprehensive, Coordinated Early Intervening
Services for Students with Mental Retardation
Includes Examining

• The impact of delay in service for students who
  are at risk of being identified as mentally
  retarded on future identification rates
• The use of evidence based interventions for
  students that are at risk of being identified as
  mentally retarded
• The use of evidence based interventions for
  students who are identified as mentally retarded
  with the intent of mitigating the impact of the
  disability on education and facilitating their
  acquisition or ability to demonstrate cognitive
  improvement

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Priorities and Changes

• Cost Effectiveness Which solutions generate most
  change? Immediacy, Expense, Impact
• What is cost of change vs. maintenance of current
  effort?
• What are the legal mandates?
• What are the executive pressures for change?
• How will the family and advocacy organizations be
  involved?