S11 E20 Lauren Rivera

Tim Villegas57min

Tim Villegas

00:01

Hi friends, it's Tim Villegas from the Maryland Coalition for inclusive education, and I'm coming to you from my living room. Yep, switching it up just a little bit because sometimes I just I get tired of sitting at my desk facing a wall. So thank you for hitting play on this episode of thinking inclusive, where every week we bring you conversations about inclusive education and what inclusion looks like in the real world.

Tim Villegas

00:39

Okay, so, research is one of my favorite things. I actually enjoy reading research articles. And so if that's you, too, you are going to love this episode. If it's not you, I think you are going to be very pleasantly surprised at how relevant this conversation is. Imagine if you are a parent of a child that has an individualized education program, and you are looking around for a neighborhood to move into and you email the school principal of your potential neighborhood school and request a school tour. Once the principal realizes that your child has an IEP, what do you think will happen? That is exactly what our guests did for her research, and then she even took it a step further. Lauren Rivera, a professor at Northwestern University is a well respected researcher who studies discrimination in hiring practices, as it affects social structures based on social class, gender and race. Her recent research article examines the challenges of families with children with disabilities in accessing an equitable education, bringing her personal perspective as a parent of a child with disabilities to her work. Rivera's research has been featured in high profile publications such as the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, and now thinking cluesive. Lauren shares groundbreaking findings from her study on principals discriminatory behavior towards families with children with disabilities. This groundbreaking research were over 20,000 school principals in four states were contacted through a field experiment aimed at uncovering discrimination at the very beginning of educational access the school tour request process. Reverse study examined the response rate to emails requesting school tours, varying the presence of an individualized education program for the child and the perceived race of the parents. The results were eye opening, revealing a pervasive pattern of discrimination against children with IEPs, which was significantly more pronounced if the child was also perceived to be from a black family. The research sheds light not only on the discriminatory challenges encountered before enrollment, but also on the stressors such experiences impose on families searching for educational settings for their children. Do you believe that all children with and without disabilities deserve to reach their potential through inclusive education? If so, you'll love Brooks publishing the premier publisher of books and tools on early childhood special education, communication and language and more. Brooks publishing has been partnering with top experts for over 30 years to bring you the best resources for your classroom, clinic or home. To learn more visit Brooks publishing.com. To browse their catalogue, read their blog and sign up for their newsletter. Brooks publishing, helping you make a difference in the lives of all children. And just for thinking cluesive listeners visit bi T dot L y slash Brooks dash giveaway dash 0224 to put your name in to win a copy of assessing young children in inclusive settings, the blended practices approach by Dr. Christy, Preti Frontech we'll be taking names until the end of the month. After a short break my interview with Lauren Rivera and for free time this week. I'm going to give you some tips on finding podcasts that you may find interesting. Stick around we'll be right back.

Tim Villegas

05:00

I'm Lauren Rivera, welcome to the thing conclusive podcast.

Lauren Rivera

05:07

Thank you. I'm delighted to be here.

Tim Villegas

05:09

So Lauren, you shared with us some really interesting research and I have been really excited to have you on to talk about it. And so you published a research article in the American Sociological Review called not in my school, your disability discrimination in education access. And it showed some really surprising behavior by school principals with regard to access to access for families with children with disabilities. So if you wouldn't mind, would you summarize that research for us? Definitely,

Lauren Rivera

05:43

we did a study looking at how principals respond to initial requests from families for information about a school and in particular, we used the most common way that families across class and racial backgrounds seek out information from about schools, which was a request for school tours. So we emailed in a sealed experiment, over 20,000 principals in four states. And we requested a school tour. And we varied whether or not the child that was mentioned in the email did or did not have an IEP. And I'm happy to talk about how we signal that, as well as whether the email came from a parent who was perceived as black or white. And we found that principals were significantly less likely to respond when they believed that the child who could potentially be in their school was had an IEP, we did not designate disabilities within the IEP or accommodations. And again, I'm happy to talk about that. But that gap was bigger, or especially less likely to respond. It was a child who had an IEP who had a parent who was perceived as black. And so what our findings show us is that discrimination on the basis of both disability and race occur even before children are enrolled in schools. And sometimes people ask, why does it matter school tour, when we think about schools, in the United States, many families approach the choice of school, especially given you know, school choice and these sorts of things now, as a marketplace, and they're looking for a school that fits their child and can best meet their educational needs. And families, regardless of a child's learning needs or disability status, often prioritize that in deciding where to live or choosing where to send their families to send their children to school. But that choice is even more important for children who have a disability. Because even though that cetera the Ag e which is a federal anti discrimination law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability status and public education, mandates that kids are supposed to get what they need to thrive. We know that's not the case, not all schools offer all programming. Not all schools actually treat their mandate under the IDE a as something more than just paperwork, compliance. And I'm happy to provide examples of a particularly high risk and high stakes examples. But that idea of finding a school that fits is even more important for kids who have specialized learning needs, or have need supports in order to to learn and to stay safe.

Processing audio...