Do Race of Student and Race of Teacher Influence Ratings of Emotional and Behavioral Problem Characteristics of Students with Emotional Disturbance?

Abstract

African American students are disproportionately likely to be identified with the emotional disturbance (ED) education disability. To investigate how teachers’ perceptions of students might vary by race, we analyzed Black and White teachers’ ratings of 769 students with ED, subdivided by race and grade level, on six emotional and behavior problem variables. Results did not support the position that, among students with ED, overrepresentation of African Americans arises from racial bias in teacher perceptions of emotional and behavioral problems; however, there were several interesting main and interaction effects. Discussion focused on implications of present results for the continuing issue of race disproportionality among students with ED, as well as several lines of research that might clarify race disproportionality and related issues in identification of students with ED.