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CASE STUDIES OF MINORITY STUDENT PLACEMENT IN SPECIAL EDUCATION by Beth Harry, Janette K. Klingner, Elizabeth P. Cramer, with Keith M. Sturges and Robert F. Moore. New York: Teachers College Press, 2007. 144 pp. $19.95.
Placing students in special education has historically been a contentious issue in the United States, and it continues to be difficult in the context of No Child Left Behind. Battles over special education placement have a long history of prejudice and injustice, including potentially pejorative labels and restrictive educational settings that have stigmatized and isolated those identified as disabled. This is even more troubling, given the questionable practice of overrepresentation - that is, when the proportion of minority students with special education labels is higher than what would be expected, given their prevalence and proportion in the school system as a whole - of racial and linguistic minorities in special education.
In Harry, Klingner, and Cramer's new book, case Studies of Minority Student Placement in Special Education, the authors provide a multifaceted perspective on disability and special education placement. This volume is specifically intended for graduate and undergraduate readers, but is also useful for a broad audience, introducing the notion that the...