Unequal Provision of Educational Accommodations: Impacts of a Nationwide SAT Policy Change on Receipt of Accommodations
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Educational accommodations are provided to support students with disabilities in the classroom. Previous research shows that students of privileged backgrounds obtain accommodations at higher rates than minority and low-income students, although research is inconclusive with respect to why these disparities exist. In this paper, I present causal evidence on the impact of an exogenous change in the incentive to obtain an accommodation. In 2016, the College Board introduced a policy stating that the accommodations provided in a student's 504 plan would automatically carry over to the SAT. By streamlining the receipt of accommodations for the SAT via 504 plans, this policy created a new incentive to seek a 504 plan, as 504 plans could now confer desirable advantages on a high-stakes college admissions test. To estimate the effect of this policy change, I employ a difference-in-differences approach using administrative data from over 9,000 public schools in the United States. I find that the policy change significantly increased 504 plan receipt among white students at wealthy high schools, but not among comparable subgroups like minority students at wealthy schools or white students at high-poverty schools. These findings shed light on some of the motivations that may lie behind accommodations-seeking, and demonstrate how current practices of accommodations provision may inadvertently perpetuate educational inequality.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Publication date | December 8, 2023; June 9, 2023 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Liu, Tiffany |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Educational sociology, disability, accommodations |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal license (CC0).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Liu, T. (2023). Unequal Provision of Educational Accommodations: Impacts of a Nationwide SAT Policy Change on Receipt of Accommodations. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/jk906rf5843. https://doi.org/10.25740/jk906rf5843.
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Undergraduate Honors Theses, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University
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