Are Special Educators' Career Paths Special? Results from a 13-Year Longitudinal Study
Abstract
A statistical methodology relatively new to education—survival analysis—is used to describe the career paths of over 6,600 special education teachers newly hired in Michigan and North Carolina between 1972 and 1983, following them for up to 13 years, or until they stopped teaching in the state. Beginning special educators in both states continue to teach for an average of 7 years. They are most likely to leave teaching during the first few years after hire; those who survive this initial “hazardous” period typically teach for many years to come. Young women are particularly likely to leave, as are those special educators who provide support services or teach students with speech, hearing, or vision disabilities. Teachers with high test scores are at greater risk of leaving as are teachers paid comparatively low salaries.
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The Working Conditions and Induction Support of Early Career Special Educators
Billingsley, B., Carlson, E., & Klein, S. (2004) · Exceptional Children · doi:10.1177/001440290407000305 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Too Stressed to Teach? Teaching Quality, Student Engagement, and IEP Outcomes
Wong, V. W., Ruble, L. A., Yu, Y., & McGrew, J. H. (2017) · Exceptional Children · doi:10.1177/0014402917690729 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
“For example, teachers of students with emotional or behavioral problems are more likely to leave than teachers of students with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or intellectual disability (Singer, 1993).”
Background
- Authors
- Singer, J. D.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Singer, Judith D.
- ORCID
- Singer, Judith D.
- Venue
- Exceptional Children
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1992-12
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 262-279
- ISSN
- 0014-4029 (ISSN-L)
- 2163-5560
- OpenAlex
- W1923918669
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 41.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Exceptional Children (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Professional Development and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Education in Rural Contexts
- Keywords
- special education teachers, teacher professional trajectories, teacher attrition, teacher retention, survival analysis, teacher turnover, teacher salaries, Michigan, North Carolina
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