Special Education

This guide, published by the Council for Exceptional Children in collaboration with the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR) and many partners, presents 22 high-leverage practices (HLPs) for K-12 special educators. These HLPs, when successfully implemented, have led to improved outcomes. The HLPs are categorized by: collaboration, assessment, social/emotional/behavioral, and instruction. The guide shares corresponding resources about HLPs, including articles, videos, and reports.

This North Carolina-based study explores the impact of teacher experience on student learning and concludes that greater teacher experience is correlated with improved student outcomes, both in terms of achievement and behavior, demonstrating that teachers learn on the job.

This research—published by the Center on Personnel Studies in Special Education— addresses four concerns regarding special education teacher induction: (1) the high attrition rate in special education; (2) the potential for beginning teachers—who are struggling to adapt to their new role—to provide inadequate services to children and youth with disabilities; (3) the increasing reliance on alternative routes to certification; and (4) the unique conditions within which special educators work.

The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University developed this five-part, online, interactive module to highlight how to best support—and therefore retain—special educators, with a particular focus on the key steps school administrators can take to create a productive and inviting work environment.

This five-part, online module, created by the IRIS Center, highlights that administrative support is critical for new special education teachers and demonstrates how teacher support can boost effectiveness in the classroom.

Published by the National Center to Improve Recruitment and Retention of Qualified Personnel for Children with Disabilities, this brief highlights best practices—from across the country—for utilizing technology and social media (including Facebook and Twitter) to recruit and retain special education teachers and specialists.

Published by the National Center to Improve Recruitment and Retention of Qualified Personnel for Children with Disabilities, this case study researches the approaches three states have taken to “grow their own” special education personnel. Grow Your Own programs enable local education agencies (LEAs) to recruit and train special education employees from their own communities, often targeting high school students with an expressed interest in education careers, paraprofessionals, and/or rural educators seeking a career change. Approaches from Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah are highlighted.

This article—published by the National Center to Improve Recruitment and Retention of Qualified Personnel for Children with Disabilities—examines how four states implemented new technologies (at either the state or regional level) in order to revamp their approach to recruiting and retaining special education teachers and specialists. Though limited data are available, all of these technologies appear to have had a positive impact on states’ recruitment and retention efforts.

This article—published by the National Center to Improve Recruitment and Retention of Qualified Personnel for Children with Disabilities—provides a set of guidelines to help state-level leaders address the needs of special education teachers and specialists. The document outlines the essential elements necessary to build personnel capacity and highlights best practices in the field.