A Possible Dream: Retaining California's Special Education Teachers

By Ken Futernick, Director, K-12 Studies, Center for Teacher Quality, California State University

On April 26, 2007, the Center for Teacher Quality released a report I had written on teacher retention in California: A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn. When I set out to gather data for the report in 2005, my aim was to gain a better understanding of the factors affecting staffing patterns in California's K-12 public schools. Unless policymakers, educators, and researchers really understood why so many teachers were leaving the profession before they retired, why many were transferring away from certain types of schools or assignments, and especially why many chose to stay where they were, it would be difficult to develop and adopt policies and practices that would address and solve the retention problem. If the state could find a way to retain more of its qualified and experienced teachers, it could significantly and positively affect student learning.
Before conducting a survey for the report, I knew that, in 2005, 14 percent of special education teachers in California's public schools did not have an appropriate teaching credential and that nearly half of first-year special education teachers were underqualified. It was clear that the status of these professionals needed to be a significant part of the study. With guidance from special education teachers, I included in the survey several questions that specifically addressed their circumstances.

Over 1,000 survey responses from current and former special education teachers informed our study. These data provided a fascinating and, at times, sobering perspective on their professional worlds. Before sharing some of the highlights from these findings and the report's recommendations to improve the retention of special education teachers, I want to underscore the serious costs associated with high teacher turnover.
California spends over $455 million each year to recruit, hire, and prepare teachers to replace those who leave the profession or transfer to other schools before reaching retirement age. Nearly a quarter of California's newly prepared K-12 teachers walk away from their teaching posts by the end of their first four years.

On top of the monetary costs, the educational costs of high teacher turnover are nearly incalculable when one considers the loss of continuity and expertise at schools with high turnover rates. The churning of teachers in some schools is, of course, an unambiguous signal that something in the school environment is not right and needs to be fixed.

So, why do special education teachers leave?
One important finding from our study is that many special education teachers do not leave the profession altogether; instead, they take positions in general education. Approximately one-third of the teachers we surveyed who had special education credentials were teaching in general education. But whether they leave their profession or just special education, many special education teachers point to the same factors that cause general education teachers to leave, frequently citing the following concerns:

In addition, special education teachers often pointed to factors that are unique to their work environments:

  1. Inadequate support for special education students Many teachers described how their students and programs lack adequate materials, physical space, and attention from administrators. One special education teacher working at a high-poverty elementary school said, "For nine of the 12 years I have worked as a resource specialist, I had no materials of consequence, and I shared one room with four others, all teaching at the same time to groups as large as ten. The noise, chaos, and confusion were hard to bear. In desperation, I found an empty room, and I moved every month to a new room for one and a half years."
  2. Lack of understanding from general education colleagues Special educators spoke about feeling isolated from colleagues and frequently at odds with them. One 14-year veteran special education teacher explained, "The lack of understanding from general education colleagues translated into being more isolated, left out, excluded, and devalued. Oftentimes special education teachers at my school aren't viewed as 'real teachers.' We are always needing to fight battles--advocating for the children to be included, getting basic teaching supplies/resources for them, or getting the teachers to understand and follow IEPs."
  3. IEPs and related paperwork Special education teachers who left their professions pointed to the frequent changes to IEP (Individualized Education Program) forms, the lack of standardization across the state, and the lack of time or assistance for completing them. A teacher with seven years of experience in special education complained, "IEPs seem to change every year, and it is frustrating that IEP forms are not standardized throughout the state. It takes extra time to find information on IEPs for students coming from other districts. I spend at least four hours testing every child, two hours writing every IEP, at least five hours testing for triennial reviews, and another two-to-three hours writing the report for every child. Most of this [work] takes place on weekends or after school gets out. We do not have release time to work on these reports. The paperwork overload is out of control. Teachers are burning out, and something needs to give. I love teaching. I really do not love the paperwork."

Why special education teachers remain "active"

Despite the problems that cause many teachers to leave special education, many "active" special education teachers report being satisfied with their work. The three most frequently cited reasons for staying are related to the "collegial supports" in their workplace--those elements that maintain strong relationships among staff. Sixty-eight percent of special education teachers who remain in their profession said they stay because of close professional relationships with other members of the staff; 67 percent stay because their principal is supportive and effective; and 66 percent because their staff works effectively as a team. Positive morale among the staff and close personal relationships with other staff members was cited by 60 percent of on-the-job special educators. These figures point, once again, to the critical role that professional relationships play in teachers' attitudes toward their jobs. As one survey respondent said, "I stay because I work with a partner in special education who is highly regarded by staff and administration and who was my mentor when I started at the junior high school setting. I have learned that special education can be very lonely, and many times I have self-doubts. The progress we see is usually slow and is not always valued by the parents and certainly does not seem to be valued by society in general. I stay where I am because I have a co-teacher who shares my philosophy and whom I respect. The job is so isolating at times, but even though I could make quite a bit more money elsewhere, I cannot replace the support I get."
Getting "inactive" special education teachers back to special education.

As noted above, many teachers holding special education credentials have chosen to work in general education classrooms. Given the chronic shortage of special education teachers and the substantial investment that has already been made in their training, getting these "inactive" special education teachers back to special education is a worthy goal. When surveyed, just eight percent of the inactive special education teachers said they would return to special education if they were offered a sufficiently high salary. Twenty-two percent, nearly three times as many, said they would return to special education if many of the working conditions were improved to better support their work.

In general, those who have left special education are unwilling to return to it without improvements in teaching and learning conditions. The range of concerns these former teachers have expressed indicates that there is no single, simple change to teaching and learning conditions that would motivate them to return. That said, the positive and stirring comments from teachers who stay point to a host of system and collegial supports that can keep our valued special education teachers in the classrooms for which they were trained--and even lure a fair number of them back. As described below, what will be needed is a multifaceted approach that is based on local assessments of teaching and learning conditions and on teacher-generated solutions for improving them.
Recommendations for policy and practice

The findings from this study demonstrate that teaching and learning conditions play a critical role in teachers' decisions to stay or leave the classroom--even more than compensation. But the study would not have added anything new to the body of research on teacher retention if it merely demonstrated that teaching and learning conditions affect teacher retention.

By providing educators and policymakers with a clearer understanding of both the specific and general types of teaching and learning conditions that really matter to teachers, this report can help reformers construct strategies that improve schools in ways that will keep more teachers, especially experienced teachers, in the classroom. The recommendations from the report represent a balance of strategic and tactical actions that are borne out of the data collected from this K-12 teacher retention study. Implementing these recommendations will require action from local educators and statewide education officials. If, together, they commit to improving teacher retention rates in California schools, especially among special education teachers, there is an excellent chance that students and their schools will thrive.

The specific recommendations offered to retain special education teachers are as follows:

These findings have guided the construction of a sound and detailed set of recommendations that will be especially useful to state and local decision makers as they wrestle with the teacher shortage in California's public schools. If implemented, not only will it be possible to reduce the shortage of special education teachers, but doing so will also have a profound and positive effect on student performance in all types of school settings in California: high-poverty schools as well as low-poverty schools; high schools as well as middle and elementary schools; special education classrooms as well as general education classrooms.
That is the possible dream.