Examining the Disparate Policy Impacts of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act on Special Education Teachers

• In Event: Can National and State Policies Ameliorate Systemic Inequities?

Abstract

Drawing on eight waves of the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey, we apply both difference-in-differences and interrupted time series research designs to examine special education teachers’ (SETs) responses to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the subsequent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004). IDEA was associated with decreases in SETs with special education fields of study and graduate degrees, an increase in co-teaching and a decrease in the fraction of SETs with a resource delivery model, with no evidence that NCLB influenced these outcomes. Little consistent evidence was found to indicate these federal policies influenced SETs’ job attitudes. Differences in these relationships were observed across school poverty status and level.

Authors

• Tuan D Nguyen, Kansas State University

• Christopher Redding, University of Florida

• Allison F. Gilmour, American Institutes for Research

• Elizabeth A. Bettini, Boston University