In December, experts from around the nation gathered at UConn Storrs to take the first steps toward changing special education policy and re-establishing civil rights protections for Students of Color. Led by Neag School of Education faculty Nicholas S. Bell and Zachary Collier, as well as Verónica Vélez from Western Washington University, the event outlined a vision for a new QuantCrit policy center that will prioritize innovative research methods and analysis, along with community collaborations, to advance racial and disability justice.
“We believe that current educational policies and practices, especially in special education, deny Students of Color access to an equitable education, while simultaneously divesting in their educational futures,” says Bell, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology.
Thanks to funding from the Spencer Foundation, Bell and his colleagues hosted over a dozen scholars and leaders for a two-day conference in early December. The group’s members brought a variety of expertise to the table, with specialists in special education, community-based research and organizing, quantitative modeling, computational approaches, qualitative methods, policy, and legislation.
The group’s approach is based in Quantitative Critical Race Theory, also known as QuantCrit, which questions the assumption that statistics and data are inherently neutral and objective. By turning research participants’ complex individual experiences into limited numerical categories, QuantCrit argues that data and, therefore, findings from it often miss the nuances occurring in what a researcher is trying to study. This can lead to a doubling down on existing power dynamics and institutional structures.
“Statistics have been used to support harmful practices and policies,” Bell says. “Numbers can be manipulated, so we call out notions of objectivity and neutrality in statistics and argue against it. Recently, we illustrated this by using the same data set from others’ research and coming up with completely different results. While statistics have caused harm, they can also be used for justice-oriented aims, a key tenet of QuantCrit.”
In education, policies are often created based on research and the data used within it. However, if the statistical models used to analyze the research data are not equitable and unbiased, then the research findings themselves cannot be. By changing the approach to how educational research is conducted and analyzed, Bell and his colleagues hope the special education policies that are implemented will better take into account the needs and experiences of Students of Color and those with disabilities.
One current issue in special education policy, Bell says, is that each state in the nation is allowed to set its own threshold for when a student qualifies for special education services without much oversight. The discrepancies across the country have led to some students being unjustly identified for special education and pulled out of their general education classroom more frequently than others and separated from their classmates even if it’s not necessary for their education. Bell, Collier, and Vélez refer to this as resegregation and a form of educational redlining.
“We need to reimagine special education policy,” Bell says. “Of course, certain students need services, but many of them currently in special education do not. So, we need to figure out a new identification process and avoid overrepresentation of certain groups in special education. We also need to make sure all students in special education receive high quality and equitable services.”
Another large focus of the future center is prioritizing collaborations with local schools. Communities know their students best and can inform researchers of potential areas of focus, while scholars with the center will ensure their findings are shared in accessible ways, so they’re understandable and useful for students, families, teachers, administrators, and legislators. This directly aligns with the Neag School’s values of engaging with communities as partners in continuous improvement to meet needs and make meaningful impact.
“Community-responsive research also involves students,” Bell says. “It’s not the academic experts who know all the answers to the students’ lived experiences. This spring, for example, we will be engaging 20 students to respond to some of our research results and give them a voice at the table to inform state policies.”
On the first day of the conference, participants outlined a vision for the future QuantCrit Policy Center, including its goals, priorities, and principles. The group also considered potential innovative data storage options for the center’s research, given the recent changes to the availability of national databases. The second day was dedicated to developing a research agenda for the center and designing initial research projects. Bell, Collier, and Vélez employed a UConn student as a sketch artist for the conference, visually mapping the group’s ideas and plans.
The future center’s research agenda aims to eliminate existing resegregation practices in special education, as well as to explore developing a new package for the R statistical computing software that allows for new modeling approaches, perhaps with artificial intelligence playing a role. The group’s research projects will all incorporate qualitative research methods – interviews, focus groups, etc. – to ensure non-numerical data based on a community’s knowledge and experiences is gathered.
Looking forward, Bell and the center planning team will be seeking additional funding to make the QuantCrit policy center operational. This will include creating a website, expanding community-responsive research projects, and building collaborations across UConn. A major aim of the center is also to extend QuantCrit policy beyond education into other fields.
