Reports and Briefs

As part of an ongoing research-practice partnership with the Utah State Board of Education (USBE), the Utah Education Policy Center (UEPC) conducted a study of facilitators and barriers to the representation of students with disabilities in Career and Technical Education (CTE). The study sought to understand how facilitators and barriers differed among exemplar and improvement sites. The findings and recommendations complement the USBE’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan for Utah’s Secondary Career and Technical Education, which outlines the goals of Awareness and Outreach, Industry Alignment, Postsecondary Alignment, and Durable Skills. In addition, this research supports an understanding of how LEAs are ensuring students with disabilities are aware of and have access to educational opportunities, including those that prepare them for employment or career preparation.

The Utah Education Policy Center (UEPC), in a research practice partnership with the Utah State Board of Education (USBE), conducted a survey study to examine why preservice teachers in Utah choose careers in special vs. general education, how they perceive the special education teaching profession, and what factors influence these perceptions.

Using qualitative methods, this study explored how states framed the need for their work, their motivations for implementation efforts and challenges, key partnerships in establishing and implementing the work, perceived impacts, and reflections on lessons learned, missed opportunities, and planned next steps.

This report explores how students receiving special education services in grades 7–11 experience inclusion in Utah’s schools. It examines patterns of core vs. non-core class inclusion, differences across student groups, and the relationship between inclusion and academic outcomes.

The USBE annually administers the Utah Indicator 14 Post School Outcome Survey Questionnaire as part of their reporting to the public and to the Office of Special Education Programs. The PSO survey is administered to students who had an Individualized Education Plan and who are no longer in school.

In this report, the UEPC reviews promising practices in special education teacher preparation by highlighting programs across the state of Utah.

In this report, the UEPC describes results from a statewide survey of special education teachers on their working conditions.

In this report, the UEPC examined the composition of Utah’s beginning special education teacher workforce. Specifically, this analysis focuses on changes in teacher/school characteristics and mobility patterns over time.

This report offers initial insights into the unique experiences of special education teachers and seeks to serve as a launching point for future work on this group of educators. It is a companion to the UEPC’s primary report on the 2019 ECAPS for Teachers, Educator Motivation, Satisfaction, and Persistence.