Is there a racial disparity between the children that are receiving special education services?

Are African-American children or kids who aren’t proficient at speaking English over-represented ina special education programs?

Penn State Professor of Education & Demography and Director of Center for Educational Disparities Research Paul Morgan doesn’t think so. His research concludes “that white children are more likely to be identified as having disabilities and to receive special education services than black children. These disparities are evident even when black children were displaying the same disability-related symptoms as well as being otherwise similar on other background characteristics.”

Prof. Morgan joins us on Thursday’s Smart Talk to discuss his findings.