Dr. Li Feng joins $5M initiative to support special education research

SAN MARCOS, Texas — The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) — part of the Institute for Education Sciences — and the U.S. Department of Education have committed $5 million over five years to support researchers such as Dr. Li Feng, an economics professor in the Department of Finance and Economics at Texas State University's McCoy College of Business, in building the "Special Education Workforce: A Research Collaborative (SPARC) Center.”

The shortage of special education teachers has been a persistent issue for years, but rising attrition rates and declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs have made it an increasingly pressing concern.

The SPARC Center, a research and development center managed by the American Institutes for Research, brings together independent researchers with shared resources and a common goal of addressing special education staffing challenges.

Through a collaborative network of researchers across the country, the center is working to address staffing challenges by studying the composition, distribution, stability, and effectiveness of the special education workforce. It consists of three interconnected teams dedicated to developing data-driven solutions to support special educators and enhance the quality of education for students with special needs.

Feng, who is part of the center's leadership team and a co-principal investigator and quantitative co-lead, and her team will use state longitudinal data systems (SLDS) and qualitative data from seven states, including Texas, to investigate the special education workforce — with a scope of over 90,000 teachers and over 1.5 million students, representing 20% of U.S. special education teachers and students — to conduct a cohesive, mixed-methods program of research.

A second team studies school districts that have successfully hired and kept special education teachers. Researchers can pinpoint the key factors behind their success by looking at what worked in these districts and finding ways to apply them in other school districts.

The third team is partnering with state agencies to enhance data collection on special education teachers' roles in schools and classrooms. This team raises awareness about the research, informs policymakers, and strengthens states' abilities to conduct high-quality research on the special educator workforce.

A core objective of Feng’s research is to identify who special education teachers are, their distribution in school districts, and what factors influence their career longevity.

With the center's support, Feng and her team will analyze teacher recruitment trends, how preparation affects workforce stability and efficacy, how policy influences workforce dynamics and student performance, and whether a broader pipeline issue leads to the national shortage of special educators.

Feng expressed concern about the growing disinterest in teaching and the number of teachers leaving the profession, particularly in special education. She emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the issue, making the center's research even more important as schools recover.

"There's a general decline," she said. "People are not interested in teaching anymore. A lot of times, [special education teachers] face a lot more challenging working conditions compared to general education teachers. In a lot of ways, what our study wanted to do is to really have a good understanding about their pay, what kind of environment they work in, and how we can keep them in the profession."

Through her research with the SPARC Center, Feng aims to provide evidence-based insights into factors that affect special educators' work environments, compensation, and career satisfaction. Feng and her team will analyze historical and current trends to provide policymakers and educators with recommendations to improve retention rates.

A key priority of the SPARC project is ensuring that research findings reach practitioners in the field. Feng and her team collaborate with over 20 organizations to disseminate the project findings.

"One of the research goals is we don't just want to do research and let this sit on a bookshelf or in the library database," Feng said. "We have a leadership team, and their main goal is to disseminate our research to the practitioners, to people who are on the ground or working with these special education teachers. Essentially, we wanted our research to be useful to practitioners. Just doing research for research purposes is not that meaningful."

Feng is optimistic that the center’s work will lead to policy discussion and action to understand the special education workforce better. By addressing challenges faced by special educators, Feng hopes the SPARC project will improve the quality of education for students with special needs.

"It's not just about teachers," Feng said. "Ultimately, we want to improve student outcomes. We want all the children in our country to be able to have great quality education, especially those students who have special needs. I think that's one of the ultimate goals."

Funding impact on McCoy College
Feng, who was also awarded McCoy College's 2024 Steven R. Gregg, Sr. Excellence Professorship, has dedicated over 20 years of research to understanding the dynamics of the educator workforce. She said she sees the funding she receives as an opportunity to invest in students and staff at Texas State. The funding supports the Education Policy Lab, a research group she leads that includes undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral scholars and various research projects.

One such project is research by Dr. Jieon Shim, a lecturer of economics and former postdoctoral scholar in McCoy College's Department of Finance and Economics, who is working with Feng on a project evaluating whether teachers are compensated more to teach in high-poverty and high-minority schools, especially as they relate to rural and urban settings.

Feng says education research is essential and increasingly relevant for McCoy College.

"Why are we doing this in McCoy College, in a business school?" she asked. "These students are going to be our future workforce. It's all very important, very connected, and we're economists so it's very important for us to see the broader impact of this project.”

The SPARC initiative is just one element of her research interests. Over the next decade, Feng plans to expand her research to include higher education and workforce development, particularly in STEM fields.

With Texas' growing metropolitan areas and the demand for skilled workers, Feng sees an opportunity to connect her research on education policy with economic trends. She says funding is an essential element in supporting that research.

"STEM workforce development is the next hot topic that our lab is interested in," she said. "The metropolitan area, Austin, San Antonio, and our corridor, there's a great many opportunities, especially in terms of how we develop the workforce and prepare the workforce for tomorrow." ✯