Journal of Counseling & Development ■ April 2012 ■ Volume 90 177 © 2012 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Received 01/13/11 Revised 05/11/11 Accepted 07/28/11 The issue of disproportionality, a phenomenon in which stu- dents relative to their proportion in the population experience overrepresentation or underrepresentation along a particular data point, plagues schools and many institutions nationwide. These data points include but are not limited to special educa- tion placement (Coutinho, Oswald, & Best, 2002; MacMillan & Reschley, 1998; Patton, 1998), gifted education enrollment (Ford, Grantham, & Whiting, 2008), graduation rates (Orfield, Losen, Wald, & Swanson, 2004), school dropout, and suspen- sion and expulsion rates (Mendez & Knoff, 2003; Wallace, Goodkind, Wallace, & Bachman, 2008). Researchers have developed several methods for computing disproportionality, such as the risk index, risk ratio, and the composition index; however, the composition index seems to be the most widely cited approach (Hosp & Reschley, 2003). The composition index compares the proportion of a particular racial/ethnic group in the population to its proportion in a particular category (e.g., suspension and expulsion). As an example, African American students composed 17% of public school students in 1997, yet African Americans accounted for 32% of all suspensions (Brooks, Schiraldi, & Ziedenberg, 2000). The composition index suggests that if African American students were represented proportionately among the students who experience school exclusion, one would expect their suspension rates to approach 17%. Recently, researchers have begun to examine in earnest dis- parities associated with the referral (for discipline problems), suspension, and expulsion of students of color (Gregory & Mosely, 2004). Although certain research hypotheses identify risks, such as poverty experienced by some students of color, as possible explanations for these disparities, race appears to Julia Bryan, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, University of Maryland at College Park; Norma L. Day-Vines, Counseling Education Program, Virginia Tech; Dana Griffin, School Counseling Program, University of North Caro- lina at Chapel Hill; Cheryl Moore-Thomas, School Counseling Program, Loyola University Maryland. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Julia Bryan, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, University of Maryland at College Park, 3214 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742 (e-mail: jabryan@umd.edu). The Disproportionality Dilemma: Patterns of Teacher Referrals to School Counselors for Disruptive Behavior Julia Bryan, Norma L. Day-Vines, Dana Griffin, and Cheryl Moore-Thomas Disproportionality plagues schools nationwide in special education placement, dropout, discipline referral, suspension, and expulsion rates. This study examined predictors of teacher referrals to school counselors for disruptive behavior in a sample of students selected from the Educational Longitudinal Study 2002 (National Center for Education Statis- tics, n.d.). Findings demonstrated that students’ race predicted English teacher referrals; students’ gender, previous disciplinary infractions, and teachers’ postsecondary expectations for students predicted English and math teacher referrals. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed. Keywords: disproportionality, teacher referrals, school discipline practices, racial disparity, school counseling be a significant predictor of disparities in referral, suspension, and expulsion rates over and above socioeconomic status (SES) across all learning environments (Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010; Skiba et al., 2011; Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002; Wallace et al., 2008). These findings are im- portant given the relation between school success and school disciplinary actions (see Morrison, Anthony, Storino, & Dil- lon, 2001; Reyes, 2006). Moreover, given the mandate issued by the American School Counseling Association (ASCA; 2005) National Model for school counselors to promote the academic, career, and personal and/or social development of all children—irrespective of their demographic characteris- tics—and to dismantle barriers to student success, counselors have a particularly compelling rationale for understanding how and why students receive counseling referrals for dis- ciplinary infractions. In response to this important issue, the current study examined predictors of teacher referrals to school counselors for disruptive behavior in the specific contexts of math and English classes. Racial Disparity in School Discipline Practices Consistently, students’ race and gender predict disciplinary referrals and suspension and expulsion rates (see Gregory et al., 2010; Mendez & Knoff, 2003; Reyes, 2006; Skiba et al., 2011). Published reports document that African American and Latino students are more than twice as likely as their White peers to experience school suspension (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2003). This pattern of disproportionality related to school disciplinary practices