Elizabeth Bettini

The purpose of the Special Educator Workforce: A Research Collaborative (SPARC) is to help address long-standing challenges related to the composition, distribution, stability, and effectiveness of the special education teacher workforce. SPARC will conduct a cohesive, mixed-methods program of research using state longitudinal data systems (SLDS) and qualitative data to explore factors shaping these challenges (state, district, and school contexts; teacher preparation; and state and di...

The purpose of this project is to develop and test the SUSTAIN intervention to enhance the working conditions of special educators serving students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) in self-contained settings. Special educators' working conditions are associated with a number of educator outcomes, including quality of instruction, burnout, and attrition. The need for interventions to improve working conditions is especially salient for special educators serving students with E...

The purpose of this project is to develop the Revealing Special Educators' Conditions for Teaching (ReSpECT) measure to evaluate special education teachers' working conditions. Working conditions include teachers' job demands as well as the available social, informational, and logistical resources to meet those demands. Working conditions are a crucial lever by which leaders may be able to improve teacher effectiveness, retention, and well-being and, as such, there is increased interest in r...

The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct a program of research to better understand how working conditions (e.g., instructional resources, planning time, collegial support) contribute to special education teacher instruction and student education outcomes. In addition, the PI will participate in mentoring and training activities to develop expertise in evaluating teachers' instruction, conducting mixed-methods research, designing and analyzing single-case studies, and grant writing. The ...