Equity Expansive Technical Assistance for Schools

Based on the author’s experience leading equity-focused technical assistance centers, this book details approaches to partnering with educators and other stakeholders to eliminate racial disproportionality in special education. Because of its historical and current relevance as an indicator of systemic oppression, Thorius centers disproportionality as a crucial issue to be addressed through technical assistance partnerships. For these partnerships to be successful, technical assistance providers must: (1) support partners in engaging with systemic and individual oppressions that contribute to inequities at the intersections of racism and ableism, and (2) introduce partners to resources that mediate learning about, and development of, locally relevant solutions that abolish racism and ableism in tandem. Equity Expansive Technical Assistance for Schools provides a research-based framework for conducting technical assistance, including vignettes and facilitation guides that educational leaders can use to address disproportionality in special education within their local contexts.

Book Features:

• Detailed protocols for professional dialogue toward eliminating racial disproportionality in special education.
• Expanded definitions and descriptions of disproportionality as an issue of ableism, as well as racism.
• Real-life examples of technical assistance and professional development partnership activities that improve conditions leading to, and outcomes of, disproportionality.

Kathleen A. King Thorius is a professor at Indiana University School of Education–IUPUI and executive director of the Great Lakes Equity Center. Her books include Sustaining Disabled Youth: Centering Disability in Asset Pedagogies and Ability, Equity, and Culture: Sustaining Inclusive Urban Education Reform.

“Who better to challenge us all to understand, examine, and act to transform a major system of oppression in our schools? Kathleen King Thorius brings years of experience and learning to this volume. As a school psychologist, a researcher, and a partner of schools, school systems, and local, state, and national governments, Professor Thorius has brought her knowledge, love, hope, and inquiry to help students, practitioners, and policymakers tackle the complex web of racism and ableism in schools. Her insight, research, and experience converge in this important book.”
—Elizabeth B. Kozleski, professor, Learning Differences Initiative, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

“This important and powerful book does something that few books in the field of special education do—it centers racism and ableism as critical factors that must be directly named, addressed, and dismantled in technical assistance activities in order to address the decades old problem of racial disproportionality. Thorius provides a theoretically rich yet practical account for rethinking how technical assistance activities can bring us one step closer to justice and equity. Grounded in both theory and practice, this book has far and wide-ranging implications for federal policy, state and local education agencies, educational administrators, and teachers. Most importantly, it gives hope for reversing what has been a seemingly intractable feature of the education system.”
—Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides, assistant professor, City University of New York, Hunter College

“I have been embedded in technical assistance for states, regions, districts, and schools for about 12 years. In a time when states are banning equity language and refusing opportunities connected to equitable outcomes, Dr. Thorius’s work provides a clear signal from the depths of the political noise for technical assistance (TA) providers. Here is a roadmap for supporting TA providers to facilitate disruptions in systems that perpetuate racism and ableism in policy, practices, and beliefs. The book inspired me to critically reflect on my practice, dive deeper into the resources, and try out some of the tools presented.”
—Sophia Farmer, co-director, State Implementation and Scaling-Up of Evidence-Based Practices Center (SISEP), Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contents

Acknowledgments  ix

Introduction and Overview of the Book  1

Part I: The Quest For Equity And Theory In Partnerships To Eliminate Racial Disproportionality In Special Education

1.  Disproportionality—A Cultural–Historical Problem in Search of a Cultural–Historical Solution  13
Meeting the Moment With Equity Assistance  13
Sorting Through the Research: An Introduction to the Problem of Disproportionality  15
Reading the Research: A Synopsis of What We Know About Disproportionality’s Root Causes  18
Disproportionality as a Contested Phenomenon: Illuminating and Obscuring Systemic Racism and Ableism  27
Policy and Practice Approaches to Eliminating Disproportionality  30
Researcher-Led/Research on Approaches to Eliminating Disproportionality  36
Implications of Existing Research on Technical Assistance Approaches to Remediating Disproportionality  38

2.  Technical Assistance as Cultural–Historical Activity  42
Enhancing Technical Improvements With Contextual Analysis and Application  47
Considering Context in the Development and Design of Evidence-Based Practices: Equity Cannot Be “Implemented”  49

3.  Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations of Equity Expansive Technical Assistance  53

PART II: Facilitating Critical En/Counters: The Application Of Equity Expansive Technical Assistance Partnerships To Reverse Racial Disproportionality In Special Education

4.  Equity Expansive Technical Assistance  61
Technical Assistance Organized by Duration and Intensity  61
The Defining Elements of Equity Expansive Technical Assistance  66
From Top-Down Expert to Critically Conscious Partner  67
Expanding and Enhancing Technical Solutions With Contextual and Critical Analysis and Systemic Transformation  79
Process-Based Conceptualization of Systemic Transformation Informed by Expansive Learning Theory  90
Critical Tools for Encountering and Expanding Policies and Practices  93
Revisiting the Goal of Equity Expansive Technical Assistance: Something for Everyone  106

5.  Equity Expansive Technical Assistance for Reversing Disproportionality  108
Equity Expansive Learning Cycle(s) of a Technical Assistance Partnership to Eliminate Disproportionality  109
Step 1: Analyzing the “Dispro Status Quo”  109
Step 2: Evoking Systemic Tensions, or Framing and Naming the Impact and Relationship of Racism and Ableism  120
Step 3: Introducing Equity Resources as Mediating Artifacts, or Defining the Elements of Equitable (Special) Education, Curriculum, and Instruction  129
Step 4: Equity Expansion of the Object Through Innovative Activity Models, or Expanding the Object to a Coordinated System of Equitable Education Practice, Policy, and Contributing Belief Systems  132
Step 5: Testing out and Refining Innovations, or Engaging in Critical Praxis  132
Steps 6 and 7: Reflecting on and Refining the New Activity Model and Disseminating the Model Through Distributed Activity Systems, or Distributing Equitable Practice  134

6.  The Florence Unified School District  135
Reframing Perceptions of Isolated Incidents to Understand and Remediate a Pervasive Negative Climate for People of Color  137
The Primary Contradiction: The Epistemic Question of How We Can Have Two Truths  138
The Double Bind: We Are Here Because We Want to Help/We Are Not Your Charity  140
The Tertiary Contradiction: Seeking Resolution Through Trauma and Harm Reduction  142
Refining the Activity Model: Who Does What, When, and How  142

7.  Representative SEA Center Partnership  145
Background for the Partnership  145
Site and Participants  147
How the Partnership Led to the Study  148
Data Collection and Analysis Processes  148
The Initial Object of Collecting and Distribution of “Best Practices”: Seeking “Critical Friends” to Layer Equity on Technical Acontextual Solutions  149
Artifacts and Contradictions Expanding the Initial Object of Activity: “Oh My, What Are We Going to Do Now?”  150
Modeling New Solutions: From Technical Strategies to Transformative Asset Pedagogies  158

8.  Ongoing Cycles and Continued Vigilance  161
Implications of the Approach  162

References  167

Index  191

About the Author  197