Findings: Teacher production
We conducted an analysis of these two proportions at the 21 institutions at which we evaluated an undergraduate special education program, a graduate special education program or both. The analysis indicated only marginal differences between the proportion of the state's special education teachers produced and the proportion of the state's teachers produced by the institution in the combination of all other preparation programs offered. No conclusions relevant to the standard can be drawn from the analysis.
Stepping back from the standard, however, there may be implications from our evaluations of special education programs relative to Illinois' efforts to increase the number of certified special education teachers.
The 21 education schools included in our evaluation produce 78 percent of the state's special education teachers.1 While no special education program received a grade higher than a C in our evaluation, 10 institutions had programs in the C range, whereas eleven had programs with grades in the D-F range. It should be noted that the eleven low-performing programs produce a disproportionate number of elementary teachers—three teachers for every two produced by the programs that rated higher. This means that if all programs were to respond to shortages by ramping up their production of special education teachers and did so in proportion to their current production, a disproportionate share of the special education teachers would graduate from programs with weak or failing design. This conclusion argues against an indiscriminate initiative to increase special education production and for one that is targeted to encourage increased production from programs with stronger design.
