What Makes Special-Education Teachers Special? Teacher Training and Acheivement of Students with Disabilities

Abstract

We analyze the impact of both pre-service preparation and in-service formal and informal training on the ability of teachers to promote academic achievement among students with disabilities. We employ rich student-level longitudinal data from Florida over a five-year period to estimate “value-added” models of student achievement. We find little support for the efficacy of in-service professional development courses focusing on special education. However, we do find that teachers who hold advanced degrees are more effective in boosting mathematics achievement of students with disabilities than are educators with only a baccalaureate degree. Further, pre-service preparation in special education has statistically significant and quantitatively substantial effects on the ability of teachers of special education courses to promote gains in achievement for students with disabilities, especially in reading. In particular, certification in special education, an undergraduate major in special education and the amount of special education coursework in college are all positively correlated with the performance of teachers in special education reading courses.