A Multiple Case Study of At Risk Kindergarten Students in General Education Classes

The disproportionate representation of African American students in special education classes has been a challenge and dilemma for educators for over four decades. The disproportionate identification of African American students in special education began in kindergarten general education classrooms when teachers did not use interventions adequately to address the poor academic performance of at risk African American students and referred them for special education services. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to determine the extent to which interventions were implemented with fidelity to at risk African American students in general education kindergarten classes and how that may have contributed to the disproportionate number of African American students referred for special education services. Four kindergarten teachers from four different elementary schools located in an urban district in central New Jersey were interviewed and observed interacting with students in the classroom. Interviews and observations were conducted in order to ascertain information that could help the researcher determine how interventions were used in the kindergarten classroom to implement interventions for at risk African American students. The analysis of multiple data sources revealed three dominant themes from this study that provided implications from the findings: 1) teachers used poorly designed and inadequate pre-referral documents, 2) ineffective pedagogical skills were used in the classroom and 3) teachers required additional training on implementation of interventions with fidelity. Recommendations for professional development and future research on Response to Intervention (RTI) were discussed and offered as solutions for reducing the number of African American kindergarten students referred for special education services.