Alfredo Artiles

Dr. Artiles is Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education. His scholarship examines the dual nature of disability as an object of protection and a tool of stratification. Professor Artiles studies how protections afforded by disability status can unwittingly stratify educational opportunities for racialized groups and is advancing responses to these inequities. For instance, he is studying the cultural-historical contexts of racial disparities in special education and whether a disability diagnosis is associated with differential consequences for minoritized groups (e.g., segregation, quality and type of services). He and his colleagues have led national and regional technical assistance initiatives at the state and school district levels to address these equity paradoxes. Current research projects include:

* Examining the role of socio-cultural influences (e.g., histories of racial inequities in communities and schools) in educators’ interpretations and responses to chronic school district citations for racial disparities in special education.
* Mapping the changing meanings of “disability” and “inclusive education” and the ways in which disability-race intersections become visible or invisible across identification policies, practices and settings at the district and school levels.
* Piloting a participatory model with youth of color with/without disabilities grounded in the arts and humanities to (re)structure school discipline policies and practices.
* Documenting how teachers and other school professionals decide whether dual language learners' academic or behavioral difficulties are related to disabilities.
* Analyzing equity consequences of inclusive education implementation in Global South nations.

Dr. Artiles is Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Göteborgs (Sweden). He served on the Obama White House Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Dr. Artiles is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Learning Policy Institute and the National Education Policy Center. He was a resident fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He was elected AERA Vice-President to lead its Social Context of Education Division. Dr. Artiles has received numerous awards for his scholarly work and mentoring activities, including AERA’s Palmer O. Johnson Award, the AERA Review of Research Award, and Mentoring Awards from AERA’s Division on Social Contexts of Education, the Spencer Foundation, and Arizona State University. He was selected Distinguished Alumni from the University of Virginia School of Education. Professor Artiles has served on various consensus study panels of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine focusing on English learners, the Future of Educational Research, and Opportunity Gaps for Young Children.