Estimating the Local Average Treatment Effect of Special Education Services for a Specific Learning Disability

• In Event: Statistical Models of Teacher- and Student-Level Data

Abstract

There are relatively few large-scale, published studies that estimate the impact of special education services on the performance of students with a specific learning disability. I address this gap in the literature with data from Washington state, and employ an instrumental variable approach that exploits the state’s special education funding laws that cap per-pupil special education funding at 12.7% of a district’s students. Students in districts that pass this threshold are far less likely to be placed in special education, all else equal. I use a district’s position relative to this funding threshold as an instrument to estimate the Local Average Treatment Effect of special education services on student test performance, and do not find a statistically significant treatment effect.

Author

• Roddy Theobald, University of Washington