LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review

Literature Review

Empirical evidence exists for and against the view that referrals reflect biased teacher judgment. Kelly, Bullock and Dykes (1977) obtained evidence for such bias in ratings collected from 2,664 kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers. Twice as many black pupils were identified as behaviorally disordered, and more black students were identified by white teachers than black teachers.

Zucker and Prieto (1977) presented 260 special education teachers with information on a fictitious 8-year-old student suspected of being educable mentally retarded (EMR), although test results bearing on the child's aptitude were purposely equivocal. Teachers rated the student's appropriateness for special education placement. Half read that the student was male, the other half female. Similarly, the student was described half the time as white and half the time as Hispanic. Significantly more teachers rated the student appropriate for special education placement when the student was described as Hispanic. The student's gender, however, failed to produce differential teacher ratings.

Zucker, Prieto, and Rutherford (1979) conducted a comparable simulation, enlisting regular educators as respondents with similar results. Again, more Hispanic than white students were identified as appropriate for an EMR placement; student gender again failed to influence teacher ratings. In a partial replication of the two previous studies, Prieto and Zucker (1981) required 180 regular and special educators to decide the appropriateness of special education placement for a boy, alternately described as white or Hispanic, and suspected of being emotionally disturbed. Consistent with previous findings, more Hispanic than white pupils were rated as appropriate for special education placement.

Lietz and Gregory (1978) produced evidence at odds with that of Zucker and associates. They examined relations between teacher referral and frequency with which 416 elementary school students visited the school office for disciplinary action. Although significantly more black pupils were sent to the office, referral rates were comparable among black and white students. Since more males were referred to special education, Lietz and Gregory (1978) suggested "maleness" may have more to do with special education placement than does race.

Shinn, Tindal, and Spira (1987) explored possible teacher bias with respect to student gender and ethnicity by comparing the reading performance of 670 referred elementary-age pupils to nonreferred, poor readers. Employing curriculum-based measures, Shinn et al. (1987) found that, although teachers were generally accurate in identifying pupils with severe reading deficits, teachers referred a higher percentage of black than white students in grades 4-6 and more males than females in grades 2-4. Shinn et al. (1987) concluded that racial and gender biases could not be discounted as factors affecting teachers' referral decisions.

In contrast to a majority of the previously described studies, Tobias and colleagues (Tobias, Cole, Zibrin, & Bodlakova, 1982, Tobias, Zibrin, & Menell, 1983) investigated the possible influence of teacher ethnicity on referral decisions. In the first of two simulations, Tobias et al. (1982) asked 199 Hispanic, black, and white teachers to judge the correctness of special education placement for a 16-year-old, 10th-grade pupil with a history of academic underachievement and behavior ...