Research increasingly seeks to answer the question: does special education work? This is different than asking if specific interventions have positive effects and instead aims to identify system-wide impacts. We systematically review published quantitative research on the impact of receiving special education services on student outcomes using large administrative data, as well as review the methodology used in existing research. The takeaway from the 15 included studies is that special education positively impacts student outcomes, and the growth of students receiving special education typically matched or exceeded the growth of their general education peers. Methods used in these studies were, however, quasi-experimental, so limitations to credibly causal claims remain. In addition, that relatively few studies met our inclusion criteria reflects the need for additional research, and we highlight methodological and substantive considerations for future work.

中文翻译：

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特殊教育有用吗？对行政数据证据的系统文献综述

研究越来越多地寻求回答这个问题：特殊教育有用吗？这与询问特定干预措施是否具有积极影响不同，而是旨在确定全系统的影响。我们使用大量管理数据系统地回顾了已发表的关于接受特殊教育服务对学生成绩影响的定量研究，并回顾了现有研究中使用的方法。纳入的 15 项研究得出的结论是，特殊教育对学生的成绩产生积极影响，接受特殊教育的学生的成长通常与普通教育同龄人的成长相匹配或超过。然而，这些研究中使用的方法是准实验性的，因此可信因果关系的主张仍然存在局限性。此外，符合我们纳入标准的研究相对较少，反映出需要进行更多研究，我们强调了未来工作的方法论和实质性考虑。