White children are especially likely to be overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD, according to a new study
Jul 7, 2022
By Paul L. Morgan, Eberly Fellow, Professor of Education and Demography, and Director of SSRI's Center for Educational Disparities Research, Penn State, for The Conversation White children are especially likely to be overdiagnosed and overtreated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder during…
Research finds flawed federal monitoring of students of color with disabilities
Nov 30, 2021
Current federal legislation and regulation that monitors for significant disproportionality in special education may be contributing to children of color with disabilities failing to receive treatments and services to which they are legally entitled, according to a Penn State College of Education…
Helping special education teachers under stress
Aug 19, 2021
Special education teachers are at heightened risk for stress and burnout, which negatively impacts their effectiveness and well-being. With a new five-year, $4 million grant from the Institute of Educational Sciences, Penn State and Georgia State University (GSU) researchers are teaming up with…News Topics: College of EducationSpecial Education
EIC Podcast on examining the delivery of special education services during COVID-19
Dec 13, 2020
The Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative Podcast is offering a new series called The Pandemic Perspective, where we examine how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and various aspects of our society, institutions, and other systems have collided, changed, and even collapsed in the last nine months. For the…
Morgan contributes to new LDA of America policy statement
Sep 14, 2020
Penn State researchers have given policy makers the evidence-based research needed to keep policies on disability identification in educational settings up to date. Paul Morgan, professor of education, and the rest of his team at the Center for Educational Disparities Research (CEDR) at Penn State…
Understanding the needs of students with or at risk for disabilities
Jul 13, 2020
Penn State researchers are examining how students with or at risk for disabilities can be better helped as they attend U.S. schools through two new projects totaling almost $1.2 million being funded by the National Center for Special Education Research, U.S. Department of Education's Institute of…News Topics: Center for Educational DisparitiesSpecial Education
Jennifer Frank earns College of Education's Outstanding Junior Researcher Award
Apr 13, 2020
The College of Education is publishing brief profiles of faculty, staff and students who would have been honored at the annual spring appreciation and awards luncheon. Faculty, staff and students who have made significant contributions to their fields were selected through nomination letters…News Topics: College of EducationSpecial Education
Extent of discrimination in discipline of students with disabilities unclear
Jan 30, 2020
Federal legislation and regulation currently require U.S. schools to monitor for whether students with disabilities who are also racial or ethnic minorities are being inappropriately disciplined. Yet a new analysis of existing studies led by Paul Morgan, professor of education in the Department of…
Morgan's research cited in report on using science and policy to advance health
Dec 13, 2019
Paul Morgan, director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research and PRI affiliate, and his research team's finding on disparities in disability identification are repeatedly cited in Vibrant and Healthy Kids, the new National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report on using…
Study: Black students less likely to be identified as having disabilities
Aug 28, 2019
Black and Latino students in the South are less likely to be identified as having learning disabilities when compared to their White peers, according to a study that will be published in a forthcoming issue of Exceptional Children. The most stark results included the number of Black students who…
New studies challenge the claim that black students are sent to special ed too much
Aug 19, 2019
Column by Jill Barshay Decades of research have documented that students of color, particularly black children, are disproportionately classified by schools as having disabilities. In 2016, 12 percent of black children across the nation received services at school for disabilities ranging from…
Children’s race, not disability status, may predict more frequent suspension
Jan 23, 2019
Suspension is one way schools discipline students, but the high number of and disparities in suspensions in the U.S. has sparked controversy and policy debate. New research, led by Paul L. Morgan, Harry and Marion Eberly Fellow, professor of education and demography, and director of Penn State’s…
Morgan featured in “New Yorker”
Oct 11, 2018
SSRI co-fund and CEDR director Paul Morgan’s research has been featured in the “New Yorker’s” article, “Georgia’s Separate and Unequal Special-Education System.” Morgan’s research focuses on the underrepresentation of children of color in special education. He argues that environmental factors like…
Research grant enables CSD student to get experience in the field
Oct 2, 2018
Hearing one word — "Mom" — set the course of Karla Armendariz’s career path. “That impacted me a lot,” said Armendariz, who at the time was working in a special needs classroom at a school in Florida. “That’s why I chose to major in communication sciences and disorders (CSD).” In addition to her…News Topics: Special EducationCommunication
Disparities in education studies most read
Sep 5, 2018
Paul Morgan, director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research, has co-authored several studies that were the most read articles in two different publications. Three of his team’s empirical studies were the most read articles published in Educational Researcher, one of the education field…News Topics: Center for Educational DisparitiesSpecial Education
Morgan's research on executive function appears in Hechinger Report
Apr 23, 2018
Executive function — a sort of air traffic controller of the brain — has been one of the hottest topics in education circles over the past 15 years. Yet experts disagree over what it is exactly, to what extent it really causes academic problems and whether anything can be done to improve one’s…
Research on racial disparities in disability identification cited by the Brookings Institution
Apr 9, 2018
Three Penn State researchers and their colleague replicated an earlier but provocative study that found that minority children are less likely to be identified as having disabilities as they attend U.S. schools. Their work is now being cited in a new analysis by the Brookings Institution, which…
Barriers prevent family-centered services for children with speech disabilities
Apr 9, 2018
While speech-language pathologists support the concept of family-centered services when working with children who cannot meet their communication needs through their own speech due to autism or other disorders, a Penn State study shows that there are barriers to meeting this goal. Specifically, the…
Individual education programs not being used as intended in special education
Mar 12, 2018
Gone are the days when students with disabilities were placed in a separate classroom, or even in a completely different part of the school. These students often sit alongside their traditional student peers for at least part of the day, with the help of individualized education programs (IEPs).…
Morgan's research featured recently in NYT & WSJ
Feb 15, 2018
CEDR director and PRI affiliate Paul Morgan's research was recently reported on in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and details why the research should be resulting in changes in federal-level educational policy. Additionally, Morgan gave the Naomi Zigmond Plenary Keynote at this…
Morgan's study named fourth most read in Educational Researcher
Jan 11, 2018
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) recently announced their most read education research articles of 2017. Paul Morgan, director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research and professor of education, and his research team had the fourth most read study in the publication…