Students with disabilities (SWDs) depend upon special education teachers (SETs) to provide effective instruction. SETs, in turn, depend upon school leaders to provide conditions necessary to learn and engage in effective instructional practices for students with the most significant learning needs. A promising body of research indicates that working conditions such as administrative support and school culture influence general educators’ effectiveness and their students’ achievement. This literature review examines research investigating relationships between SETs’ working conditions and instructional quality and SWDs’ academic achievement, to provide insights into how working conditions might be leveraged to improve SETs’ instruction and SWDs’ achievement.

Novice special educators (those in their first 3 years) consistently report their workloads are unmanageable. Yet, it is not clear whether their perceptions of workload manageability contribute to outcomes of concern such as emotional exhaustion (a component of burnout) or intentions to continue teaching in their schools and districts. This pilot investigation used structural equation modeling to analyze data collected for the Michigan Indiana Early Career Teacher Study. We found (a) novice elementary and middle school special educators rated their workloads less manageable than novice elementary and middle school general educators; (b) novice special and general educators’ ratings of workload manageability predicted emotional exhaustion, which mediated a relationship between workload manageability and career intentions; and (c) the magnitude of the relationships was stronger for novice general educators. Results have implications for supporting and retaining novice special and general education teachers.

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This article examines special education's role in preparing knowledgeable and skillful leaders for inclusive schools that strive to serve a wide range of students. Special education and educational leadership intersect, and the professional literature of both fields has been used to describe the work of school administration at their interface. A conceptual framework for special education leadership is presented, with suggestions for its use in planning cooperative leadership development. This analysis proceeds from the perspective that special education can add value to educational leadership preparation by articulating and communicating not only its legal requirements but the core principles that guide the meaningful education of learners with exceptionalities.

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