COMPARISON OF STUDENTS NOMINATED FOR PREREFERRAL INTERVENTIONS BY ETHNICITY AND GENDER

In the present investigation, 150 children in Grades 2 through 4 who h ad been recommended for prereferral interventions were compared on a n umber of cognitive/achievement and behavioral scales in order to test whether those children referred differed as a function of ethnicity an d/or gender. Of interest was the hypothesis that the behaviors that pr ompt referral may differ by domain or by degree for children of differ ent ethnicity or gender. Severe achievement deficiencies characterized children of all three ethnic groups. Differences that did emerge indi cated that on average, referred White children evidenced significantly higher Verbal IQs and reading achievement scores. On measures of prob lem behaviors, our data suggest that referred Black children were more likely to have a higher incidence of behavior problems than were Hisp anic children. Gender differences for this referred sample were most a pparent in the problem behaviors more typically exhibited by males; ho wever, differences did not emerge on cognitive and achievement measure s. Nevertheless, teachers rated females higher on overall academic com petence. Findings were interpreted as failing to support the notions t hat the systematic referral of children for academic and/or behavior p roblems was somehow discriminatory against male or ethnic minority chi ldren.