Special Education Doctoral Programs

Abstract

The first article in this special issue is about the doctoral programs, the suppliers of new doctoral graduates in special education. It focuses on one component of a larger effort, the Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment (SEFNA) project, which investigated many aspects of the supply of new doctoral graduates as well as the demand for new college and university faculty members. Here, the authors present information about the characteristics of the nation's doctoral programs and their capacity to produce a sufficient supply of teacher educators, faculty for doctoral-granting universities, school leaders, federal and state officials, policy makers, researchers, and advocates. In the 10-year period since The Faculty Shortage Study (Smith, Pion, Tyler, Sindelar, & Rosenberg, 2001) was completed, substantial improvement in the capacity of doctoral programs (i.e., number and size) and the supply (i.e., number of graduates produced) occurred. Federal and stakeholder actions contributed greatly to progress made in addressing the special education faculty shortage identified in the previous study. These programs are at substantial risk of being understaffed in the upcoming years due to overwhelming attrition due to faculty retirements, which will impact the supply chain across the field of special education.

Methodological Training in Special Education Doctoral Programs: A Mixed-Methods Exploration

“…Special education departments in IHEs bear the responsibility of preparing future special education researchers who can ethically, responsibly, and effectively conduct and consume research (Ford et al, 2016; Page, 2001). Moreover, doctoral programs are increasingly preparing graduates who will enter the workforce and will train future generations of teachers; faculty at doctoral-granting institutions hold the majority of personnel preparation grants (Smith & Montrosse, 2012). The findings have implications for doctoral programs and how we prepare students to consume and conduct research.…”

A Multi-Year Evaluation of Student Perceptions of University and Special Education Doctoral Websites

“…In 2006, there were approximately 97 special education doctoral programs in the United States (Smith & Montrosse, 2012). Forty-two university websites were chosen for use in this survey and were pre-selected from a list of universities which offered doctoral programs in the field of special education.…”

“…Even taking into consideration that the number of doctoral graduates with a special education degree has increased by 6%, a gap persists between graduates and unfilled faculty positions in special education (Montrosse, Deutsch Smith, Tyler, Robb, & Watson, 2011;Smith & Montrosse, 2012). A critical element in bridging this gap is recruitment of new doctoral students to the field.…”

“…Over the past decade, the field of special education has continued to experience a shortage of faculty (Smith, Pion, Sindelar, & Rosenberg, 2001; Montrosse, Smith, Tyler, Robb, & Watson, 2011; Smith & Montrosse, 2012). Even taking into consideration that the number of doctoral graduates with a special education degree has increased by 6%, a gap persists between graduates and unfilled faculty positions in special education (Montrosse, Smith, Tyler, Robb, & Watson, 2011; Smith & Montrosse, 2012). A critical element in bridging this gap is recruitment of new doctoral students to the field.…”

Preparing Doctoral Students in Special Education: What Do We Really Know?

“…As a result of this legislation, 15 institutes of higher education (IHEs) received funding to prepare teachers, teacher educators, or supervisors (Smith & Salzberg, 1994; Smith et al, 2011). With the appropriation of personnel preparation funds, the number of doctoral programs in special education grew to 84 in 1992 (Pierce et al, 1992), 97 in 2012 (Smith & Montrosse, 2012), and decreased to 79 between 2009 and 2018 representing the lowest number of programs in decades (HECSE, 2020). According to Kleinhammer-Tramill and Fiore (2003), only four doctoral degrees in special education were awarded in 1953, compared with 262 doctorate recipients in special education in 2019 (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, 2019).…”