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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.