Reams of research have reported contradictory outcomes for students with disabilities (SWDs) who are taught in general education classrooms alongside their non-disabled peers versus learning in settings with only SWDs. A new report focuses on teacher certification as a possible mechanism to explain the variations in outcomes.
J. Jacob Kirksey from Texas Tech University and Michael Lloydhauser from the University of California, Santa Barbara use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K) to identify 2,370 unique SWDs and observe them over three school years. Students were included if they had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) on file with their school in kindergarten, first, or second grade and if data indicated that they were primarily educated in general education classrooms instead of specific classrooms for SWDs. While the original ECLS-K sample was nationally representative, the researchers do not provide a breakdown of their final sample on any demographic criteria.
Students’ academic achievement was assessed in math and reading in both the fall and spring of kindergarten as well as the spring of the next two years. The mathematics assessment included questions on number sense, properties, and operations; measurement; geometry and spatial sense; data analysis; and patterns and functions. The reading assessment had questions on print familiarity, letter recognition, and recognition of common words. Analysts used the scores to construct value-added estimates of student achievement over time. Teachers reported their certification in elementary education, early childhood education, some version of English as a second language/bilingual education, or special education. Single-credential teachers abounded in the sample, but a small minority had dual credentials in special education and one of the other areas. Kirksey and Lloydhauser compared academic outcomes for SWDs whose teachers only had special education certification, SWDs whose teachers only had a single general education certification, and SWDs whose teachers had dual certification in special and general education.
They find that SWDs with teachers holding only a special education credential fared worse in math (0.14 standard deviations) compared to their SWD peers whose teachers had a single elementary education certification. There was no difference observed in reading achievement. Dual-certification teachers, likewise, seemed to have no observable impact on SWD student achievement in this initial analysis.
A second model looked at school-level fixed effects and found no difference in achievement for SWDs based on teacher certifications. The authors’ third and preferred model combined school and child fixed effects (largely eliminating “school and child-level confounding bias”) and found positive, statistically-significant results (0.09 standard deviations) linking dual certification to higher math outcomes for SWDs.
As long as parents continue to want their children with IEPs to learn in general education classrooms, the question of how best to serve those students will loom large. This research offers few answers. Variations in disability type, size and composition of different classrooms, and out-of-classroom supports are all unmeasured factors which could have influenced the observed outcomes, and thus are worthy of deeper investigation.
SOURCE: J. Jacob Kirksey and Michael Lloydhauser, “Dual Certification in Special and Elementary Education and Associated Benefits for Students With Disabilities and Their Teachers,” AERA Open (April 2022).
