One University Triples Special Ed Enrollment While National Pipeline Collapses
Adam Moore, program director of the University of Rhode Island's special education graduate program, received the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children's 2025 Nasim Dil Award in February 2026, the highest honor for service to the organization's Small Special Education Program Caucus, according to URI. The recognition arrives as the university reports tripling enrollment in its special education program over the past two years, a trajectory that runs directly counter to the national crisis gripping the field. The current education environment is characterized by teacher shortages and long-term vacancies across most states and districts, per Fullmindlearning, raising a central question: what mechanisms allowed one program to expand while the broader pipeline contracted?
The answer involves federal money, program redesign, and an educator whose two decades in special education have positioned him at multiple leverage points within the profession's infrastructure. Moore serves on the CEC Executive Board of Directors and is one of seven national experts on the CEC Accreditation Commission, according to URI. He is also a principal investigator for URI's Project SUSTAIN award from the U.S. Department of Education, which received a $1.1 million educator grant, per URI. That funding, combined with a new accelerated degree pathway, represents a deliberate attempt to address recruitment barriers. But whether such interventions can scale beyond well-resourced programs remains the critical accountability question.
The Shortage Mechanism: Why Teachers Leave Before They Start
Teacher shortages result from decreasing real wages, according to Fullmindlearning's analysis of the education workforce crisis. The same source identifies insufficient career advancement opportunities and generally unsatisfactory experiences as additional drivers pushing educators out of classrooms or preventing them from entering in the first place. Special education positions face compounding pressures: higher paperwork burdens, more challenging student needs, and legal compliance requirements that general education teachers rarely encounter. The result is a field where vacancies persist not because training programs fail to produce graduates, but because the profession cannot retain the educators it trains.
This context makes URI's enrollment surge notable. The university's College of Education has tripled enrollment in its special education program in the last two years, according to URI, a growth rate that suggests either exceptional recruitment strategies or structural advantages other programs lack. Moore directs both the standard special education graduate program and the recently launched Special Education 4+1 Advanced Bachelor's to Master's Program, per URI, an accelerated pathway designed to reduce the time and cost barriers that discourage potential educators from pursuing advanced credentials. The 4+1 model allows undergraduates to begin master's coursework during their senior year, compressing what traditionally requires six years of higher education into five.
The Federal Investment: Project SUSTAIN's $1.1 Million Bet
Project SUSTAIN's $1.1 million educator grant from the U.S. Department of Education represents the kind of targeted federal investment that can transform a single program's capacity, according to URI. The funding supports student stipends, faculty positions, and clinical placement infrastructure that smaller programs cannot independently finance, per URI. Moore serves as principal investigator on the grant, positioning him to direct resources toward recruitment and retention strategies. The question is whether such grants create replicable models or simply identify which programs have the administrative capacity to secure competitive federal funding.
The grant mechanism reveals a tension in how the nation addresses teacher shortages. Federal dollars flow to institutions that can navigate complex application processes, maintain research faculty, and demonstrate prior success, criteria that favor established programs at research universities. URI's ability to secure Project SUSTAIN funding reflects institutional advantages that community colleges and regional teaching institutions often lack. "It was very humbling to receive this recognition," Moore said of the Nasim Dil Award, according to URI, but the recognition itself highlights how individual excellence can obscure systemic inequities in resource distribution.
The Compensation Gap: What Fellowship Stipends Reveal
The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program, administered by the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, provides a monthly living stipend of $7,500 for an 11-month fellowship, according to Fullmindlearning. That annualized compensation of approximately $82,500 exceeds what most special education teachers earn after decades in the classroom. The fellowship requires minimum five complete years of full-time classroom teaching experience and current employment as an educator or district official, per Fullmindlearning, meaning it rewards experienced teachers with compensation that the profession itself cannot match.
This disparity illuminates why recognition programs and training innovations may prove insufficient against structural wage failures. The AEF Program is eligible for K-12 grades and requires teaching full-time in a public or private elementary or secondary school district in the US for at least five of the last seven years in a STEM discipline, according to Fullmindlearning. The program's existence acknowledges that exceptional educators deserve exceptional compensation, yet the fellowship model serves only a handful of teachers annually while the shortage affects thousands of classrooms. Awards and fellowships celebrate individual achievement; they do not address the economic conditions that make teaching financially unsustainable for many qualified candidates.
The Recognition Infrastructure: How Awards Shape the Profession
The Nasim Dil Award is presented annually to honor service to the CEC's Teacher Education Division Small Special Education Program Caucus, according to URI. Jessica Rueter from the University of Texas nominated Moore for the award, and she characterized his approach in terms that suggest collaborative rather than individual achievement. "Collaboration is a hallmark of Adam's work," Rueter stated, per URI. That collaborative orientation manifests in Moore's multiple institutional roles: membership on the CEC Student Teacher Support Network working group, participation in the Rhode Island CEEDAR Center Collaborative, and service on the CAEP Board, all according to URI.
Moore's recognition within the CEC validates a particular approach to teacher preparation, one grounded in collaboration, research, and institutional resources. Yet the award raises questions about whether recognition substitutes for compensation or complements it. Moore's Nasim Dil Award carries prestige within the special education community, but prestige does not address the wage stagnation that drives teachers from the profession, according to Fullmindlearning's analysis of educator workforce challenges.
The Pipeline Problem: Training Versus Retention
Moore was a special education teacher in Massachusetts prior to joining the University of Rhode Island, according to URI, a career trajectory that moved him from classroom practice to teacher preparation. His more than 20 years of experience in the special education field, per URI, spans the period during which teacher shortages intensified from manageable gaps to systemic crises. The question his career raises is whether the most effective special educators inevitably leave classrooms for higher education positions, and what that pattern means for the students they no longer directly serve.
The University of Rhode Island's enrollment growth demonstrates that demand for special education credentials exists, according to URI. Students are entering the program at triple the rate of two years ago, suggesting that barriers to entry, not lack of interest, constrain the pipeline. The 4+1 accelerated pathway addresses time barriers; Project SUSTAIN funding addresses financial barriers; Moore's leadership addresses quality barriers. But none of these interventions address what happens after graduation, when newly credentialed special education teachers encounter the wage and working condition realities that drive the shortage in the first place, per Fullmindlearning.
The Accountability Question: Innovation Versus Structure
Moore's position at multiple leverage points within special education, as program director, grant principal investigator, CEC board member, and accreditation commissioner, gives him unusual influence over how the profession develops, according to URI. His recognition through the Nasim Dil Award validates that influence and positions URI's program as a model for others to emulate. But the mechanisms that enabled URI's enrollment growth, federal grants, accelerated degree pathways, and exceptional leadership, are not universally available. Programs without grant-writing capacity, without faculty who serve on national boards, and without institutional support for accelerated pathways cannot simply replicate URI's success.
The national teacher shortage persists because the fundamental economics of teaching remain unfavorable. Decreasing real wages, insufficient career advancement opportunities, and generally unsatisfactory experiences drive educators from classrooms regardless of how well their training programs prepared them, according to Fullmindlearning's analysis. URI can triple enrollment, and Moore can receive national recognition, but neither achievement addresses why trained special education teachers leave the profession within five years at rates that exceed other teaching fields. The pipeline problem is real, but it is a retention problem as much as a recruitment problem.
What Comes Next: Watching the Retention Numbers
The University of Rhode Island's tripled enrollment will matter only if graduates remain in special education classrooms long enough to serve students with disabilities. The university has not publicly released retention data for its special education graduates, leaving the critical accountability question unanswered. Project SUSTAIN's $1.1 million investment, spread over multiple years, represents a significant per-student subsidy for training, according to URI. Whether that investment yields educators who persist in the profession, or educators who leave for better-compensated fields, will determine the grant's actual return.
Moore's recognition celebrates innovation in a field where the fundamental problem is not training design but whether trained teachers can afford to stay. The AEF fellowship's $7,500 monthly stipend acknowledges that educators deserve compensation commensurate with their expertise, per Fullmindlearning; the gap between fellowship pay and classroom pay reveals how far the profession falls short. URI's enrollment growth demonstrates that people want to become special education teachers, according to URI. The question is whether the profession they enter will value them enough to keep them. Awards recognize individual excellence; structural change requires addressing the economic conditions that make excellence unsustainable. Until compensation and working conditions improve, programs like URI's will produce graduates for a profession that cannot retain them.