Metro Center for Urban Education

Technical Assistance Center of Disproportionality

Resources - Publications

Equity in Education: Addressing racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education
The Equity in Education manual is intended to provide school districts with detailed data-driven processes for identifying the root causes of disproportionality in their district and ensure equitable outcomes. This manual is the culmination of over 1,000 hours of training with over 900 practitioners throughout New York State from 2004 to 2008. A major premise of the modules involves understanding disproportionality as an outcome of policies, practices, and beliefs. At the end of this data-driven process, school districts will be able to identify policies, practices, and beliefs implicated in their disproportionality patterns and, more importantly, develop systemwide buy-in and perspective of this equity issue.

Academic Interventions for Struggling Learners: Using Culturally Responsive Instructional Support Teams
A Promising Practice Brief on academic interventions for struggling learners. This brief addresses the purpose of instructional support teams, elements of culturally responsive instruction and provide resources for response to interventions.

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Strategies
A Promising Practice Brief on culturally responsive classroom management strategies. This brief addresses essential elements of becoming culturally responsive and ways in which teachers can implement strategies in their classrooms.

Using Differentiated Instruction to Address Disproportionality
A Promising Practice Brief on differentiated instruction, what it is and how it applies an approach to teaching and learning for diverse learners. Not all students are alike and they learn on multiple levels. Differentiated Instruction recognizes student's varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, and interests, and assists teachers in knowing how to differentiate instruction given these various learning areas. This brief provides information on the principles of Differentiated Instruction, seven building blocks and available resources.

Data Analysis Workbook
This workbook, Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education, provides basic quantitative methods used to explore disproportionality. It demonstrates how to use a set of district data with the most common formulas for uncovering possible instances of disproportionality as well as examine and interpret the results of the formulas. Download the Powerpoint, Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education to use this workbook.


Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education
This Powerpoint provides measures of disproportionality by using the Data Analysis Workbook. Download the workbook to use this Powerpoint.