Title: What makes special-education teachers special?

Teacher training and achievement of students with disabilities

Authors: Li Feng and Tim Sass (2010)
Abstract: Using statewide data from Florida, analyses of impact of both pre-service and in-service training on the
ability of teachers to promote academic achievement among students with disabilities was completed. Students with
disabilities whose teacher is certified in special education have greater achievement in both math and reading than
similar students whose teacher is not special-education certified. However, students without disabilities experience
slightly lower achievement when taught by a special-education certified teacher. In-service professional development
has no effect on the value-added of teachers in special education courses, but non-disabled students whose regular
education teachers received special education training exhibit modestly higher achievement. Similarly, the gain in
effectiveness associated with teacher experience is greater for teachers of regular education courses than for
teachers of special education courses. Teachers with advanced degrees are more effective in boosting the math
achievement of students with disabilities than are those with only a baccalaureate degree.
Overview and Rationale:
Nearly 14 percent of public school students have disabilities and receive services under the Individuals Harris and
Sass (2011) find mixed evidence on the effect of professional development course taking on the ability of teachers to
increase student achievement in Florida. Research on the performance of the general student population has
produced a general consensus that the most important school-based determinant of student achievement is teacher
quality. However, little is known about the effect of teacher quality on the ability of teachers to promote achievement
and enhance educational outcomes for students with disabilities. This analysis focused on the relationship between
achievement of students with disabilities and various aspects of teacher training, including formal pre-service
university education, in-service professional development, and informal training acquired through on-the-job
experience
Data Analyses and Source:
One of the primary factors limiting quantitative research on the effectiveness of special education teachers is the
difficulty in matching students with disabilities and their teachers.
o To overcome this obstacle, data from a unique statewide database from Florida was used. The Florida
Education Data Warehouse (FLEDW) contains individual-level longitudinal data for public school students
and teachers in the state from 1995, including about 400,000 special education students each year.
o Florida data contain the entire enrollment record for each student, including the minutes per week spent in
each classroom. Each teacher of record is indicated to distinguish courses that are co-taught by a regulareducation teacher and a special-education teacher.
o A limitation to value-added analysis in special education is a lack of test scores for some students. While the
vast majority of students with disabilities participate in statewide achievement exams, about four percent of
students with disabilities in Florida are exempted. The proportion of special education students who are
exempted varies widely across districts with some having exemption rates as high as 16 percent.
o The FLEDW contains data on all public school students within Florida and identifies each course students
take we can measure classroom peer characteristics along multiple dimensions, including mobility,
race/ethnicity, gender and age.
o The FLEDW also provides a wealth of information on teachers, as well. For each Florida public school
teacher. The FLEDW provides their basic demographic characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity) and years of
teaching experience.
o In addition, it provides data on each teacher's certification status (professional or temporary), subject area
certification (e.g. special education) and whether they possess an advanced degree.
Findings and Results:

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On-the-job training gained through experience has positive effects on the ability of teachers to promote
student achievement, both for students with disabilities and for their typical peers.
Results indicate that achievement for students with disabilities tends to rise with the experience of their
teacher and the largest gains from experience occur early in a teacher's career. However, in math, the gains
from early-career experience appear to be significantly less for teachers of special education courses
compared to teachers of regular education courses.
The difference in effectiveness for teachers with 1024 years of experience (relative to rookie teachers) is
roughly twice as large for teachers in general education courses than for teachers of special education
courses. There is also a much greater drop-off in effectiveness for the most senior teachers, those with 25
or more years of experience.
There appears to be little evidence that participation in special education in-service professional
development (PD) has a positive effect on the ability of teachers of special education courses to enhance
achievement for students with disabilities.
Students with disabilities tend to have modestly higher math achievement (about one percent of a
standard deviation) when taught by an instructor with an advanced degree. This is true whether
instruction is in a regular education classroom or in a special education course.
For teachers of special education courses in either math or reading, there is a positive and statistically
significant relationship between special education certification and achievement for students with disabilities.
The effects are roughly equivalent to the difference in productivity between a rookie teacher and one with 1
2 years of experience. There is also a somewhat smaller, but still statistically significant, positive effect for
teachers of students with disabilities in regular education math courses. These findings suggest that the
pre-service coursework required for certification in special education enhances the productivity of
teachers instructing students with disabilities.
Students with disabilities whose math teacher holds an advanced degree tend to have higher achievement
than do similar students whose teacher only holds a bachelor's degree. Professional certification is
associated with higher student achievement for students with disabilities in general education courses.
There were statistically significant and quantitatively substantial effects of special-education certified
teachers on achievement in regular education math courses and special education reading courses.
Attainment of advanced degrees is associated with increased student achievement for early-career
teachers, but not for veterans. Similarly, early-career special education teachers with a certification in
special education produce greater achievement gains than similar teachers without special education
certification, but no corresponding difference is found among veteran special education teachers

Conclusions:
This is the first study to quantify the relationship between teacher training and the achievement of students
with disabilities from a very large database including multiple student and teacher characteristics.
1) Consistent with research on regular education students, we find that in-service professional development for
teachers has little effect on their ability to increase the achievement gains of students with disabilities.
2) We find that students with disabilities whose teachers are certified in special education (and thus completed
a substantial amount of special-education coursework) score substantially better on achievement tests than
observationally equivalent students with disabilities whose instructors are not certified in special education.
This certification effect is driven mainly by early-career teachers, suggesting that experience may serve as a
substitute for pre-service training in special education.
3) We believe our findings can be informative for education policy makers who must make important choices
about regulation of and funding for special education teachers.

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