Friday Photos: It's Paul Morgan
Paul L. Morgan is a professor in the University of Albany’s College of Integrated Health Sciences in Albany (NY, US). More formally, he is the Empire Innovation Professor, Social and Health Equity Endowed Professor since 2023, and he serves as the director for the Institute for Social and Health Equity at SUNY Albany. Academics among the readers of Special Education Today would interpret the chair and directorship as a strong hint that Paul has done important work, that he earned those titles. That interpretation would be accurate.
A lot of readers, not just those academics among us, probably recognized Paul’s name because the research he has done on identification of children who have selected ethnic or other characteristics as having disabilities has been widely discussed. One of his papers that folks might remember reported a finding that surprised many authorities and advocates: Studying a large and carefully created data set, Paul and his colleagues (2015) found that racial and ethnic minority children were consistently less likely to be identified as needing special education than White, English-speaking children who were similar in academic and social characteristics as well as child and family background. He and his team also conducted many other studies that examined questions about ethnicity and special education (e.g., Morgan & Hu, 2026).
As many of those academics also know, however, Paul’s contributions to special education were not restricted to studies of racial disparities. He reported studies about the developmental course and causes of low achievement in science (Morgan et al., 2016), the effects of changes in laws on dyslexia identification (Hu et al., 2025), the later effects of executive function on achievement (Morgan et al., 2024), bullying (Morgan et al. 2023), and many other topics.
In the midst of all this research, Paul finds time to write a column for the popular magazine, Psychology Today. And, it should come as no surprise that organizations have given him awards such as the prestigious Kauffman-Hallahan-Pullen Distinguished Researcher Award from the Division for Research of the Council for Exceptional Children and the CEC Research Award.
I first met Paul when he enrolled in an introductory course on learning disabilities that I taught with Joanne (Heubusch) Meier. To help me learn the names of students in the class, I created flash cards with photos of them on one side and their names on the other. Here’s the photo of Paul from 1995… (I must’ve used one the very early digital cameras, but it’s the same wonderful guy!)
Paul’s undergraduate studies were in philosophy and history at the University of Oregon. He completed a masters degree (with teaching certification) and the University of Virginia and a doctoral degree in special education at Vanderbilt University. He taught and conducted research at Pennsylvania State University for almost 20 years before moving to the State University of New York at Albany.
References
Hu, E., Sayeski, K., & Morgan, P. L. (2025). Assessing the impact of dyslexia laws on identification and reading achievement: An empirical analysis. Annals of Dyslexia, 75, 637–654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-025-00347-w
Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Hillemeier, M. M., Mattison, R., Maczuga, S., Li, H., & Cook, M. (2015). Minorities are disproportionately underrepresented in special education: Longitudinal evidence across five disability conditions. Educational Researcher, 44, 278-292. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4950880/pdf/nihms749741.pdf
Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Hillemeier, M. M., & Maczuga, S. (2016). Science achievement gaps begin very early, persist, and are largely explained by modifiable factors. Educational Researcher, 45(1), 18-35 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X16633182
Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Woods, A. D., Wang, Y., Hillemeier, M. M., & Oh, Y. (2023). `Factors predictive of being bullies or victims in U.S. elementary schools. School Mental Health, 15, 556-582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-023-09571-4
Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Oh, Y., & Hillemeier, M. M. (2024). Executive functions, oral vocabularies, and early literacy skills mediate sociodemographic gaps in mathematics and science achievement during elementary school. Learning and Individual Differences, 112(102447). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2024.102447
Morgan, P. L., & Hu, E. H. (2026). Racial and ethnic differences in the risks for reading difficulties across elementary school. Learning and Individual Differences, 126, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2025.102859
Morgan, P. L., Staff, J., Hillemeier, M. M., Farkas, G., & Maczuga, S. (2013). Racial and ethnic disparities in ADHD diagnosis from kindergarten to 8th grade. Pediatrics, 132, 85-93. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2012-2390