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Using document analysis and semistructured interviews, it highlights limited equity absorption and implicates both racism and ableism, concluding with policy and practice recommendations.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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uses document analysis and semistructured interview data to empirically examine convergence/divergence and to discuss implications for addressing racialized inequities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},591321,1792192261,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & 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\nArticle reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2024. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero)  \nConsequential Intersections: Examining Equity Expressionsand Experiences Within Special Education Ecosystems  \nCatherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides  \nCity University of New York (CUNY), Hunter College  \nSarah L. Woulfin  \nNatasha Strassfeld  \nUniversity of Texas, Austin  \nIsabel Meltzer  \nSt. Bernard’s School  \nWe employ the metaphor of an educational ecosystem to explain how racial inequity in special education manifests in amidsized urban school district via equity expressions and experiences. We focus on two ecosystems operating at the mesolevel within school districts:1) special education and 2) equity ecosystems. We show how these educational ecosystems converge and diverge when a state education agency (SEA) cites a local education agency (LEA) via federal disability legislation for racial disparities in special education outcomes—commonly referred to as racial disproportionality. Using document analysis and semistructured interview data, we empirically examine how equity and special education ecosystems converge and diverge and discuss the implications for addressing racialized inequities. We highlight that there was limited equity absorption across the two ecosystems and how racism and ableism are implicated in the convergences and divergences between the two systems. We conclude with recommendations for policy and practice.  \nKeywords: case studies, document analysis, educational ecosystem, equity, policy, qualitative research, race, social context, special education  \nThe U.S. Department of Education (“ED”) repeatedly reports inequitable patterns in special education classifications, placements, and disciplinary outcomes for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students labeled with a disability as compared to their white peers (U.S. ED, 2022; U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights Report [OCR], 2014) . These patterns of racial inequity in special education, or racial disproportionality, have been documented for over 60 years (Donovan & Cross, 2002; Dunn, 1968) . Notably, the inequity is characterized by patterns of both over-representation and under-representation (Ahram et al., 2021) . The racialized patterns are consequential since, as compared to students who are not labeled with a disability, people with disabilities are more likely to have lower employment ratesand postsecondary completion outcomes (Carter et al., 2012; Houtenville & Rafal, 2020; Sanford et al., 2011) .  \nInadequate teaching and learning conditions and structural inequities in society generate educational opportunity gaps that, in turn, shape student outcomes (Boykin &  \nNoguera, 2011; Carter & Welner, 2013) like racial disproportionality, which is a historically situated, nuanced, and multifaceted inequity—spanning across both general and special education (Artiles, 2019; Thorius & Tan, 2015) . For instance, culture and language differences between educators and caregivers can lead to gaps in special education service delivery (Kalyanpur et al., 2000), and educators’biases and misperceptions about student capacities to learn and caregivers’ motivations can further hinder equitable service delivery (Harry & Ocasio-Stoutenburg, 2020; Strassfeld, 2019a; Wilson, 2015) . Contextual factors such as sociodemographic contexts (Fish 2017, 2019), social interactions (Ahram et al., 2011; Harry & Klingner, 2014), and school and district segregation (Aylward et al., 2021; Eitle, 2002) also contribute to the persistence of inequities for disabled students. Relatedly, disciplinary policies and practices across both general and special education spaces disproportionally impact students at the intersection of race and disability (Annam","cbCaivmmVxSG8dxM","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivmmVxSG8dxM","pdf",474999,18,"English","# Introduction\n## Educational ecosystems and equity framing\n# Background on racial inequity in special education\n## Disproportionality patterns and consequences\n# Structural inequities and contributing factors\n## Teaching conditions, bias, context, and discipline","[{\"question\":\"What metaphor does the article use to study racial disproportionality in special education?\",\"answer\":\"It uses the metaphor of an educational ecosystem at the district level, adapted from ecological systems theory, to explain how inequity is expressed and experienced.\"},{\"question\":\"Which two ecosystems does the study focus on?\",\"answer\":\"The study focuses on two mesolevel ecosystems within school districts: special education and equity ecosystems.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the research investigate how ecosystems converge and diverge?\",\"answer\":\"It uses document analysis and semistructured interview data to empirically examine convergence/divergence and to discuss implications for addressing racialized inequities.\"}]","Consequential Intersections - Examining Equity Expressions and Experiences Within Special Education Ecosystems | PDF",1792071586,45]