Rate My Professor Liz Bettini

Dr. Elizabeth Bettini is an associate professor in the Special Education program at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Her research examines factors shaping the special education teacher workforce, with particular focus on how working conditions contribute to teacher shortages and inequities in access to skilled educators based on students’ disability, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. She is currently identifying potential interventions to improve working conditions and address these disparities. Bettini previously taught students with emotional and behavioral disorders in self-contained and inclusive settings in Arizona and Connecticut.

Bettini earned a PhD in Special Education from the University of Florida, an MA in Special Education with a focus on Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities from the University of Arizona, a BS in Cognitive Science with a focus on Neuroscience, and a BA in English Literature, both from the University of California, San Diego. She received the CEC Division for Research Martin J. Kauffman Distinguished Early Career Research Award in 2023 and was promoted with tenure at Boston University in 2022. Key publications include Billingsley and Bettini’s 2019 systematic literature review on special education teacher attrition in Review of Educational Research, as well as multiple studies on working conditions, roles in self-contained classes for students with emotional/behavioral disorders, and efforts to diversify the special education teaching force. Bettini serves in editorial and committee roles and has presented extensively on special education teacher well-being, retention, and workforce challenges.