Education Funding Report Roundup

Study Urges Revamp of Special Education

By Nirvi Shah — June 07, 2011 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that looks at special education during the past decade concludes that the field needs to change dramatically.

Among what’s needed, according to the Washington think tank, are better, more consistent data about students with disabilities and uniform definitions of different types of disabilities; a better handle on spending; an exploration of why some types of disabilities seem to be declining; and a fresh approach to teaching all students, because everyone has individual needs.

“Special education, like general education, needs a makeover for the 21st century,” the report says. “But we can’t get there,” it adds,"until we peel back the layers of financial and operational opacity that currently shroud the field and hinder our efforts to make it more transparent, efficient, and effective in the future.”

Nationally, the report finds, schools employ 129 special education teachers and aides for every 1,000 special education students, an increase from 117 a decade ago. But variations ranged from a reported 320 per 1,000 in New Hampshire to 38 per 1,000 in Mississippi.

While strategies such as response to intervention, or RTI, are credited with reducing the number of students identified with specific learning disabilities, the report says the drop deserves more study. Not all school districts have the same experience with RTI, the authors note.

While the authors were able to tally, to an extent, that special education spending consumed about 21 percent of all education spending in 2005, compared with 18 percent in 1996, they said there isn’t enough information about where the money is going. “That such large swaths of state and district budgets can go essentially unmeasured and unreported is scandalous,” the report says.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the June 08, 2011 edition of Education Week as Study Urges Revamp of Special Education

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding States Are Pulling Back on K-12 Spending. How Hard Will Schools Get Hit?
Some states are trimming education investments as financial forecasts suggest boom times may be over.
6 min read
Collage illustration of California state house and U.S. currency background.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Funding Using AI to Guide School Funding: 4 Takeaways
One state is using AI to help guide school funding decisions. Will others follow?
5 min read
 Illustration of a robot hand drawing a graph line leading to budget and finalcial spending.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding A State Uses AI to Determine School Funding. Is This the Future or a Cautionary Tale?
Nevada reworked its funding formula hoping to target extra aid to students most in need. What happened could hold lessons for other states.
13 min read
Illustration of robotic hand putting coins into jar.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Education Funding How States Are Rethinking Where School Funding Should Go
There's constant debate over the best way to allocate state money to schools. Here are some ways states are reworking their school funding.
7 min read
Conceptual illustration of tiny people is planning the personal budget, accounting, analysis.
Muhamad Chabibalwi/iStock/Getty