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We follow 263 completers of Moderate Disabilities programs in the U.S. state of Massachusetts from their field placements to their early-career teaching positions and study the characteristics of their field placements and the degree to which these are aligned with their early-career teaching positions. We also assess the degree to which alignment is associated with early-career teacher turnover. We found that many of these teachers student taught in an inclusive setting but were hired into a self-contained special education setting and vice versa, and teachers who experienced this misalignment were more likely to leave the workforce early in their careers. Teachers who student taught with a supervising practitioner without a special education license were also more likely to leave early. Findings suggest that teachers training to educate students with learning disabilities should student teach in a setting that is aligned with where they are likely to be hired and with a supervising practitioner who is trained in special education.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/00222194241312193","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,17]],"date-time":"2025-01-17T01:10:26Z","timestamp":1737076226000},"page":"325-338","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Misalignments Between Student Teaching Placements and Initial Teaching Positions: Implications for the Early-Career Attrition of Special Education Teachers"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"58","author":[{"given":"Ben","family":"Backes","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"American Institutes for Research, Arlington, VA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"James","family":"Cowan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"American Institutes for Research, Arlington, VA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dan","family":"Goldhaber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"American Institutes for Research, Arlington, VA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-6072-7864","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zeyu","family":"Jin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"American Institutes for Research, Arlington, VA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5479-4147","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roddy","family":"Theobald","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"American Institutes for Research, Arlington, VA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bastian K. 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