Akron Public Schools, Ohio

Akron Public Schools are focusing on reducing the referrals to special education classes with an examination of the Akron Public Schools prereferral process. Currently, an informal survey distributed by the special education director found that at least five different iterations of a prereferral program exist in Akron Public Schools. The rationale for examining this issue is that the lack of consistent, culturally responsive, research-based prereferral strategies may contribute to the current proliferation of minority students referred to special education. Intuitively, one might surmise that it would be better to have a common research-based method of validly referring students to special education rather than a mix of strategies and processes. As it stands, the district has no way of evaluating which schools are doing an exemplary job with their prereferral process and which schools are systematically failing their students. Simply looking at raw referral numbers may be misleading; a school with balanced numbers may not necessarily have a sound prereferral process; conversely, a school may not be referring a disproportionate number because of a poor process. Other factors may also affect the referrals, but the Akron Public Schools Disproportionality Team wanted to focus first on the process and interventions that directly result in a special education referral.

Although Akron Public Schools has not selected an intervention, members of the Emstac disproportionality team are currently working on an evaluation tool that will help inform the Akron Public Schools Disproportionality Team about the degree to which district schools are adhering to research-based best practices for prereferral strategies. The EMSTAC disproportionality team is examining evidence-based research findings for prereferral strategies. After examining the studies, staff members will synthesize the results and look for trends and components that might inform best practices. An evaluation tool will be created from a synthesis that will ask targeted questions based on these best practices. Members of the Emstac disproportionality team will then train the Akron Public Schools Disproportionality Team members on the use of the tool so that they can administer it to identified parties at the participating schools. From these results, the Akron Public Schools Disproportionality Team will have a clearer idea of the degree to which their schools are adhering to best practices. In the event that they are not adhering to best practices, the Akron Public Schools Disproportionality Team will recommend through the appropriate channels that Akron Public Schools adopt a districtwide, common prereferral process.

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