Co-Principal Investigator: Li Feng

Purpose: Teacher quality has a profound impact on student achievement and educational attainment, but research has produced few definitive findings on how best to prepare high quality teachers. The researchers on this project will analyze data from the Florida Education Data Warehouse to evaluate the potential impact of pre-service and in-service teacher training experiences on academic achievement, high school graduation, and post-secondary education and employment outcomes for students with disabilities. This analysis is made possible by the remarkable comprehensiveness of this data warehouse, which contains individual-level longitudinal data for the universe of public school students and teachers in Florida from 1995 forward, including approximately 400,000 special education students each year. The researchers will study the potential effects of both the quantity and content of teacher preparation courses as well as the number, content, and timing of in-service professional development courses. The findings of this project may suggest best practices for preparing teachers for students with disabilities. By identifying those characteristics of in-service professional development training that are associated with better outcomes for students with disabilities, the researchers are laying the groundwork for creating professional development programs that are more likely to improve the quality of instruction and student outcomes.

Project Activities: The researchers will apply a variety of statistical techniques to analyze data from the Florida Education Data Warehouse and to sort out the relationships among different variables. Student outcomes to be studied will include performance on the state standards-referenced assessment as well as another norm-referenced assessment, high school graduation rate and the type of diploma received, time of drop out for students who do not complete high school, and post-school employment, military and educational experiences.

Products: The expected outcomes from this study include reports and presentations of findings on teacher training factors that are associated with improved student outcomes for students with disabilities. These findings may suggest interventions for improving teacher quality and student outcomes in the future.

Structured Abstract

Purpose: Teacher quality has a profound impact on student achievement and educational attainment, but research has produced few definitive findings on how best to prepare high quality teachers. The researchers on this project will analyze data from the Florida Education Data Warehouse to evaluate the potential impact of pre-service and in-service teacher training experiences on academic achievement, high school graduation, and post-secondary education and employment outcomes for students with disabilities. This analysis is made possible by the remarkable comprehensiveness of this data warehouse, which contains individual-level longitudinal data for the universe of public school students and teachers in Florida from 1995 forward, including approximately 400,000 special education students each year. The researchers will study the potential effects of both the quantity and content of teacher preparation courses as well as the number, content, and timing of in-service professional development courses. The findings of this project may suggest best practices for preparing teachers for students with disabilities. By identifying those characteristics of in-service professional development training that are associated with better outcomes for students with disabilities, the researchers are laying the groundwork for creating professional development programs that are more likely to improve the quality of instruction and student outcomes.

Setting: The Florida Education Data Warehouse (Data Warehouse) contains individual-level longitudinal data for the universe of public school students and teachers in the state. The Data Warehouse also includes the entire college transcript (including specific courses taken and grades received) for all teachers who attended a Florida public university and the subject matter and length of every professional development course taken by Florida teachers once they begin their careers.

Population: The population to be studied includes the students with disabilities whose data are available in the Florida Education Data Warehouse. The Data Warehouse has data for about 400,000 special education students each year since 1995.

Intervention: Pre-service and in-service teacher training experiences and other relevant variables as recorded in the Data Warehouse will be analyzed for possible associations with student outcomes. Data on the teachers' certification status, pre-service coursework and degrees attained, and content and duration of professional development activities will be included.

Research Design and Methods: See "Key Measures" and "Data Analytic Strategy" below.

Control Condition: n/a

Key Measures: The project will employ several different measures, including the "Sunshine State Standards" Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test - Norm-Referenced Test, high school enrollment and completion, type of the diploma received, post-secondary outcomes, classroom peer characteristics, and teacher characteristics.

Data Analytic Strategy: Analysis of the data will involve estimation of the impact of teacher training on student achievement, the probability of graduating from high school, and the post-secondary education and employment outcomes of students with disabilities. A variety of value-added models of student achievement and educational attainment will be estimated along with survival analysis, probit models, and multinomial logit models.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Sass. T., and Feng, L. (2013). What Makes Special Education Teachers Special? Teacher Training and Achievement of Students With Disabilities. Economics of Education Review, 36: 122–134. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.06.006