Edward Fergus, assistant professor of policy, organizational, & leadership studies, will join a panel of experts in a briefing by the Maryland Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Fergus has worked with the Maryland State Department of Education to assist in writing their state policy on disproportionality in special education and suspension since 2016. This briefing will address how rates of discipline, suspension, and expulsion disproportionately affect students of color and students with disabilities. His role at the briefing entails following up on that work and providing updates on the current policy implementation in Maryland. 

Fergus is a leading researcher on issues of equity within education and has dedicated much of his professional career serving as an expert consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division on Educational Opportunities and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He has written and co-edited several texts discussing issues of equity in education for disadvantaged and minority populations, including: Schooling for Resilience: Improving Trajectory of Black and Latino Boys and Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity: A Leader's Guide to Using Data to Change Hearts and Minds. The briefing will take place on August 24th at Morgan State University.