Student Teaching and Teacher Attrition in Special Education

Abstract

Research suggests that substantial pre-service student teaching is essential for the preparation and retention of special educators. Using logistic regression analysis, survey responses of beginning special educators were analyzed to answer the following questions: Are beginning special educators more likely to leave the field if they have had minimal or no pre-service student teaching? Are other characteristics of preparation related to the probability of attrition? It was found that substantial pre-service student teaching experience has a strong effect on the probability that a beginning special educator will remain in the field 1 year later (estimated odds ratio = 2.18). In addition, none of the effects of aspects of teacher pre-service preparation or teacher or school demographics analyzed had an impact on attrition, when controlling for the number of weeks of student teaching.

Department

Education

Publication Date

8-2009

Journal Title

Teacher Education and Special Education

Publisher

Sage Publications

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1177/0888406409339472

Document Type

Article

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