Special Education Teacher Attrition and Retention: A Review of the Literature

By Bonnie Billingsley, Elizabeth F. Bettini. Review of Educational Research, 2019

399 citations recorded by the source corpus.

High rates of attrition make it challenging for schools to provide qualified special education teachers for students with disabilities, especially given chronic teacher shortages. We synthesize 30 studies from 2002 to 2017, examining factors associated with special educator attrition and retention, including (a) teacher preparation and qualifications, (b) school characteristics, (c) working conditions, and (d) teacher demographic and nonwork factors. Most studies examined working conditions (e.g., demands, administrative and collegial supports, resources, compensation) among special educators who left teaching, moved to other positions, transferred to general education teaching, or indicated that they intended to stay or leave. The majority of researchers used quantitative methods to analyze national, state, or other survey data, while eight used qualitative methods. Our critique identifies both strengths and weaknesses of this literature, suggests research priorities, and outlines specific implications for policy makers and leaders.

Subfields: Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1bb5aec7b313a6c6ea7be4d29686efa176ad0904

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

In Safety Research

Citations in the corpus

Improving Working Conditions to Support Special Educators’ Effectiveness: A Call for Leadership (2020, methodology): “SETs’ capacity to fulfill this responsibility, however, may be limited by working conditions that interfere with their effectiveness and ultimately contribute to their burnout (Brunsting, Sreckovic, & Lane, 2014) and attrition (Billingsley & Bettini, 2019).”