Answering key questions about clinical practice starts with better data. A new CALDER & @nctq.bsky.social brief offers a clear framework and lessons from six states on how to build and use clinical practice data systems.
Read ➡️ caldercenter.org/publications...
Promotional graphic with a header of “Scholars Program” and subtext of “Apply for SPARC Center Scholars Program by May 1, 2026”. The SPARC Center logo is featured in the graphic’s bottom left corner and it includes the website sparccenter.org
📢 Apply for the SPARC Center Scholars Program by May 1st! Early career scholars interested in the #SpecialEducation teacher workforce can collaborate with SPARC researchers to conduct rigorous policy-relevant research. Learn more and apply: sparccenter.org/sparc-center...
Out today, a short and accessible policy and practice summary of our new working paper "Is Teacher Effectiveness Fully Portable?"
Via the @annenberginstitute.bsky.social
edworkingpapers.com/policy-pract...
Thank you @caldercenter.bsky.social for a great day of insightful presentations and discussion at #CALDER2026. If you missed it you can check some of the papers presented and follow the work at the CALDER Recruitment and Retention Center web 👇
Huge thanks to the team & researchers that made #CALDER2026 happen! If you missed it, here are some of my takeaways from the final panel on the just-released Reimaging the Institute of Education Sciences report. #EdResearch #EdPolicy www.linkedin.com/posts/caraja...
Family income shapes educational opportunities: Students with disabilities edition.
And, as we've said before, FRPM won't tell you the full story.
Led by the wonderful @nick-ainsworth.bsky.social.
See his thread for more details, a WP link, and our co-author team.
A sincere thank you to all candidates in our election for the AEFP board of directors. We appreciate your commitment to AEFP. Welcome and congratulations to our newly elected board members!
We had a fantastic audience with great questions and suggestions to include in the resource list! It's coming soon, featuring lots of research from @sparccenter.bsky.social & policy reports from www.gao.gov
Excited to share a new EdWorkingPaper on the relationship between family income and disability ID. 🧵
TLDR: Low-income students are much more likely to receive SPED services while high-income students are more likely to get 504 plan accommodations.
edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1374
The moment many of us in #edresearch have been waiting for...
Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences has been released.
ies.ed.gov/ies/2026/02/...
I replicated and extended @jerseyjazzman.bsky.social and @schoolfinance101.bsky.social's study on funding adequacy and school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their original study did not incorporate measures of local partisanship. I found...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Check out this great overview in @the74.bsky.social of our recent paper examining the scale and scope of students' potential exposure to industrial pollution and toxic sites while at school. #SustainableED
@AnnenbergInst WP:
edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1384
www.the74million.org/article/mill...
Check out our new @caldercenter.bsky.social working paper studying the effects of AR LEARNS teacher base salary raises on retention caldercenter.org/publications...
A promotional image for a podcast about special education staffing by AIR. It includes a quote emphasizing the need for effective and accessible systems in special education. Below the quote, there is a profile image of Allison Gilmour, with a title indicating she is a Principal Researcher at AIR. AIR's logo and website are at the bottom.
AIR Principal Researcher Alli Gilmour joins a new episode of S.O.S.: Strategies for Operation Special Education to discuss the causes of special educator staffing shortages—and practical strategies schools can use to recruit and retain staff.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/18JqMRrL4dCets4ol3YzLj
Principal Effects on Teacher Working Conditions Ataur Rahaman & Cory Koedel CALDER Working Paper No. 335-0226 February 2026 Abstract: Research on school principals highlights their role in shaping teachers’ work environments, but most evidence is qualitative or correlational. We provide plausibly causal estimates of how principals affect a broad swath of teacher working conditions using data from Illinois, where the State Board of Education collects detailed and comprehensive information annually on teacher working conditions in nearly all schools. We estimate the variance of principal effects by comparing correlations in working conditions over time in schools that do and do not experience principal changes. Under reasonable stationarity assumptions, the difference in the correlations can be used to back out the variance of principal effects. Unsurprisingly, we find principals have large effects on working conditions related to leadership directly. They also influence teachers’ professional work environments and their interactions with students and families, though their effects on these broader indicators are much smaller, particularly the latter.
What do we know about the impact of principals on teachers' working conditions? New CALDER paper from Ataur Rahaman & Cory Koedel uses data from IL to explore this relationship. 🔗https://bit.ly/4kQRpxC (1/2)
The @caldercenter.bsky.social Conference is Monday 3/2 in Arlington, VA. SPARC's @roddy-theobald.bsky.social will present new findings on #SpecialEducation teacher retention from work with @lizbettini.bsky.social, @afgilmour.bsky.social, & LaRon Scott.
Register: caldercenter.org/events/17th-...
NEW CALDER WEBPAGE Visit to learn about the CALDER Recruitment and Retention Center
📢 Want to learn about new research on teacher recruitment & retention? Visit our new webpage for the IES funded CALDER Recruitment & Retention Center!🔗 bit.ly/4aJ8FQH
And join us for #CALDER2026 next Monday 3/2, where we'll be presenting multiple studies from this work.
Register:🔗 bit.ly/3ZSd5Qw
🔎How do researchers identify #SpecialEducation teachers? Our recent paper explores how seemingly simple data decisions impact analyses.
Read the paper from @afgilmour.bsky.social @lmasonwms.bsky.social, @roddy-theobald.bsky.social , and @lizbettini.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Excited to share a new manuscript and policy brief, published in TESE!! This is one of my dissertation papers, co-authored with @roddy-theobald.bsky.social, in which we study turnover patterns among paraeducators in WA state. When do paras leave the workforce and what are risk factors for exiting?
The first TESE policy brief by Kaler and Theobald is now on TED/CEC website!
Great information related to turnover patterns in the paraeducator workforce!
Link = tedcec.org/sites/defaul...
@lindseykaler.bsky.social @roddy-theobald.bsky.social @lizbettini.bsky.social @cec-ted-policy.bsky.social
🌟Supporting the #SpecialEducation teacher workforce requires collaboration. This week, SPARC Center experts @lmasonwms.bsky.social and @afgilmour.bsky.social share insights from our first year of research with the Coalition for Teaching Quality.
Read our findings: sparccenter.org/research-fin...
17th Annual CALDER Research Conference March 2, 2026 8:30 AM - 3:45 PM ET Arlington, VA Register at caldercenter.org
📢 #CALDER2026 is less than TWO weeks away!
Join us on Monday 3/2 in Arlington, VA for a one-day conference featuring research from CALDER experts & discussion between researchers, policymakers & practitioners.
Register ➡️ caldercenter.org/events/17th-...
@cedr.bsky.social @airinforms.bsky.social
Attend the upcoming #CALDER2026 conference to catch a session by SPARC Center Director @roddy-theobald.bsky.social on Evidence on What Makes Teachers Stay: Schedules, Salaries, and School Leaders! 💡
:15 p.m.—3:45 p.m. Roundtable Discussion: What’s Next? Education Research and Policy at a Crossroads Panelists Amber Northern, Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary, US Department of Education Cara Jackson, Research Manager, The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting (OBC) at Southern Education Foundation Nat Malkus, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Education Policy Studies, AEI Moderator: Dan Goldhaber, CALDER/AIR
We're at a crossroads—what's next for education policy and research?
Join us at #CALDER2026 on March 2 for a roundtable discussion with @carajackson.bsky.social, Nat Malkus (AEI), Amber Northern (U.S. Department of Education), and @cedr.bsky.social.
Register 👉 caldercenter.org/events/17th-...
Just saw @gzamarro.bsky.social give a preview of this work and can confidently say that if you're interested in teacher retention and/or compensation - YOU WILL WANT TO BE THERE.
Just a couple weeks away. Register soon!
This week, our experts LaRon Scott and @lmasonwms.bsky.social presented at the @ceedarcenter.bsky.social Cross-State Convening on strengthening teacher and leader preparation. When we lead together, we can better support #SpecialEducation teachers and students with disabilities.
10:45 a.m.—12:15 p.m. SESSION II: Evidence on What Makes Teachers Stay: Schedules, Salaries, and School Leaders Teacher Retention and the Four-Day School Week Presenter: Andrew Camp, Annenberg Institute at Brown University Teacher Salary Raises and Teacher Turnover: Evidence from the Arkansas LEARNS Act Presenter: Gema Zamarro, University of Arkansas/CALDER R&R Principals’ Special Education Experience and Special Education Teacher Retention Presenter: Roddy Theobald, CALDER/AIR Discussant: Mark Olofson, Executive Director of Education Data, Research, and Strategy, Texas Education Agency
What makes teachers stay? Join us at the 2026 CALDER Conference on March 2 to dig into teacher retention with @andrewmcamp.com, @gzamarro.bsky.social, @roddy-theobald.bsky.social, and the Texas Education Agency's Mark Olofson.
Register now 👉 caldercenter.org/events/17th-...
I’m really glad to see that our paper is now out at Ed Researcher! We examine turnover among the half of school employees who are not teachers to understand how their turnover compares. Using Oregon data (2007-23) for all public school employees, there are 3 new patterns that we document:
A 🧵
📣 Updated working paper on teacher strikes
➡️ Strikes have big impacts on compensation and working conditions & no average effect on test scores.
➡️ Strikes are most effective where initial spending is relatively low and where they are illegal. www.nber.org/papers/w32862
9:15 a.m.—10:45 a.m. SESSION I: Evidence on Teacher Working Conditions: Daily Realities, Leadership, and Labor Action To Make Teaching Sustainable, Help Teachers Balance Work and Personal Demands: Findings from the 2025 State of the American Teacher Survey Presenter: Elizabeth Steiner, RAND/CALDER R&R Principal Effects on Teacher Working Conditions Presenter: Cory Koedel, University of Missouri/CALDER R&R The Effect of Teacher Strikes on Compensation, Working Conditions, and Productivity Presenter: Melissa Arnold Lyon, University at Albany, SUNY/CALDER R&R Discussant: Marla Ucelli-Kashyap, Senior Director for Educational Issues, American Federation of Teachers
How do daily realities, leadership, and labor actions shape teacher working conditions?
Join us at #CALDER2026 on March 2 to dig into the evidence with @elizabeth-steiner.bsky.social, Cory Koedel, @mimiarnoldlyon.bsky.social, and @marlau-k.bsky.social.
Register 👉 caldercenter.org/events/17th-...
