About

William J. Therrien, Ph.D., BCBA, holds the Thomas G. Jewell Professorship of Special Education at the University of Virginia's School of Education and Human Development. He is the president of the Aletheia Society, which seeks to democratize special education research by promoting rigor and openness to improve services for children with disabilities. Therrien is also the co-director and co-founder of the Special Education Research Accelerator (SERA), a platform that unites research teams to conduct high-quality, large-scale, and open studies with diverse samples in the field of special education. Additionally, he serves as co-editor of two prominent journals: The Journal of Special Education and Research in Special Education (RiSE). His extensive experience includes designing and evaluating academic programs for students with learning disabilities and autism, particularly in science and reading, utilizing various research methods such as single-subject, experimental, and quasi-experimental designs. Therrien has contributed to numerous meta-analyses in reading, science, and special education, and has successfully directed and co-directed federal and state grants totaling over $30 million from agencies including NSF, OSEP, and IES.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Pedagogy
• Social psychology
• Psychiatry
• Medicine
• Political Science
• Developmental psychology
• World Wide Web
• Public relations
• Theology
• Medical education
• Library science
• Engineering
• Management
• Mathematics education
• Statistics
• Art
• Art history
• Philosophy
• Clinical psychology
• Engineering ethics
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• What Is Special Education and What Makes It Special?

  2026-04-20

  book-chapterSenior author

  What is special education and what makes it special? In this chapter, we will discuss various factors that make special education unique and essential. We will spend some time going over the history of special education including significant dates and key legislation. For many years, individuals with disabilities were excluded from schools. However, thanks to several laws that were set in place, children with disabilities now have the right to a free and appropriate public education in their least restrictive environment at no cost to families. Special education is special because students with disabilities are now protected under federal law and ensured access to individualized educational services.

  PublisherDOI

• A Meta-Analysis of Peer-Mediated Social Interventions for Secondary Students With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

  Remedial and Special Education · 2026-01-07

  articleSenior author

  Peer relationships and social interactions in the classroom can facilitate learning, and peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) are frequently used to support the development and quality of social interactions between students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs) and their peers. This meta-analysis examined extant literature on PMI for secondary students with I/DD. We identified 37 studies and dissertations for inclusion in this review. Effect size (ES) estimates demonstrate significant positive effects in both group design (ES = 1.38) and single-case design (ES = 1.96). Across intervention types, peer networks (ES = 2.20) and peer support arrangements (ES = 2.25) produced larger effects than peer initiation/response interventions (ES = 1.53). Overall findings suggest that PMIs are efficacious in supporting social interactions between secondary students with I/DD and their peers and can be feasibly and successfully implemented by educators in school settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Science Instruction for Students With Learning Disabilities: A National Survey of Elementary Special Education Teachers

  Learning Disabilities Research and Practice · 2026-02-09

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Elementary students with learning disabilities (LDs) often have limited opportunities to learn science, and little is known about how special educators engage in science instruction. This study drew on a nationally representative survey of elementary special education teachers to describe their roles, preparedness, time allocation, and perceived barriers. Most teachers reported minimal discipline-specific preparation and felt less prepared to teach science than other subjects. Many noted that students with LDs often missed science classes because of pull-out instruction. Common barriers to students receiving science instruction included remediation priorities and accountability pressures in tested subjects. These findings provide a national snapshot of science instruction for elementary students with LDs and point to the need for greater teacher preparation and policy support to ensure access to high-quality science learning for students with LDs.

  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Instructional Guidance on Science Learning in Second-Grade Classrooms

  The Elementary School Journal · 2026-04-13

  articleSenior author

  The appropriate level of instructional guidance for students to acquire a deep understanding of the disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards remains ambiguous. To shed light on this important topic, we tested two distinct science programs in a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 11 second-grade classrooms and 185 students. Holding constant content, dosage, and professional development, findings favored the program that provided greater levels of instructional guidance on all three science measures (g = 0.19, 0.21, 0.40). In addition, differential response analyses revealed that students with lower initial scores made significantly greater gains on a distal science measure in classrooms that implemented the program with more instructional guidance. Last, exploratory correlations between teacher-level instructional guidance and student outcomes suggested positive associations between guidance levels and outcome gains. Implications for designing and delivering science instruction to meet diverse student needs are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Analyzing the Effectiveness of Content Acquisition Podcasts: A Meta-Analysis

  2025-09-11 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) are multimedia-based instructional tools designed to support K-12 students and educators. This meta-analysis synthesized findings from 29 studies to examine the overall effects of CAPs on learning outcomes, including declarative content knowledge, application of knowledge, and maintenance of learned material. Eligible studies included multi-group pretest-posttest designs with sufficient data to calculate effect sizes. A total of 99 effect sizes were extracted and analyzed using a random-effects model, with moderator analyses conducted on CAP type and participant population. Results indicated consistently robust and statistically significant effects for all three outcome types (declarative content knowledge: g = 0.82; application: g = 0.82; maintenance: g = 0.86). Moderator analyses, conducted on declarative content knowledge, indicated no significant moderation by CAP type or participant population. These findings suggest that CAPs consistently produce strong effects and may serve as an effective and adaptable instructional tool across a range of educational settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Science Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: A National Survey of Elementary Special Education Teachers

  2025-09-20

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Elementary students with learning disabilities (LD) often have limited opportunities to learn science, yet little is known about how special educators engage in science instruction. This study draws on a nationally representative survey of elementary special education teachers to describe their roles, preparedness, time allocation, and perceived barriers. Most reported minimal discipline-specific preparation and felt less prepared to teach science than other subjects. Many teachers indicated that students with LD missed science due to pull-out instruction. Common barriers to students receiving science instruction included remediation priorities and accountability pressures in tested subjects. These findings provide a national snapshot of science instruction for elementary students with LD and point to the need for greater preparation and policy support to ensure access to high-quality science learning for students with LD.

  PublisherDOI

• Effectiveness of a Train-the-Trainer Model to Teach Water Safety Skills to Children With Autism

  Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities · 2025-07-23

  article

  Given the high risk of drowning among children with autism, there is a need for disseminating water safety education into mainstream settings. The current study explored the effectiveness of behavioral skills training (BST) in teaching water safety skills to 3 U.S. children with autism, when implemented by community-based swim instructors with no prior experience in applied behavior analysis (ABA). The program used a train-the-trainer model to teach how to: (a) find the nearest point of safety after jumping into water; (b) roll from front to back; and (c) float on back and yell for help. Participants were three children with autism and four community-based swim instructors. The child participants successfully mastered the skills in three to 24 sessions. The skills were maintained after 3 months and generalized to new settings, instructors, and situations. Results suggest that ABA practitioners can enable community-based swim instructors to teach water safety skills to children with autism.

  PublisherDOI

• Reading Interventions with School-Aged Learners with Autism: A Systematic Literature Review and Quality Assessment

  2025-10-31

  articleSenior author

  This review synthesizes 85 studies on reading interventions for autistic students, highlighting key instructional strategies across five reading areas.

  PublisherDOI

• Null Effects in the Special Education Research Base

  Remedial and Special Education · 2025-08-31 · 2 citations

  article

  Full and clear reporting of null effects is important for a robust and valid research base. The purpose of this Registered Report is to review the presence and reporting of null findings in the special education research base. Preregistered hypotheses predicted (a) few studies with all or primary null findings and (b) spin in reporting and discussing null findings. We searched all 2020 publications—41 special education journals—and identified 121 group-design intervention studies, coding the number of significant and non-significant p -values reported. We identified two (1.7%) articles reporting all null findings and no articles reporting null primary findings; both all-null studies were coded as containing one instance of spin. Exploratory analyses indicated hypotheses or predictions were stated in only 38.8% of studies and both instances of spin were low level. We discuss implications of findings and approaches for disseminating studies with null findings.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction to the Special Series: Examining the Special Education Research Base

  Remedial and Special Education · 2025-10-09 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  This introduction to the special series, Examining the Special Education Research Base, situates the work within broader concerns about questionable research practices and the reproducibility crisis in science. We review lessons from other fields, summarize existing meta-research in special education, and provide an overview of three reviews examining publication bias, selective outcome reporting, and the scarcity of null findings. Shared themes suggest that although the special education field appears to have fewer problems than some disciplines, potential threats to the validity of the special education research base were identified. We conclude by highlighting the implications of the three reviews for research and practice, and calling for the greater adoption of open-science practices to strengthen the evidence base in special education.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• John Wills Lloyd

  University of Virginia

  49 shared

• Bryan G. Cook

  University of Virginia

  41 shared

• Brian Hand

  University of Iowa

  38 shared

• Sarah Emily Wilson

  Wested

  20 shared

• Ching-Mei Tseng

  16 shared

• Angelique Murillo

  Pennsylvania State University

  16 shared

• Mack Shelley

  Iowa State University

  15 shared

• Jonté Taylor

  Pennsylvania State University

  15 shared

Labs

• Supporting Transformative Autism ResearchPI

Education

• Ph.D., Special Education

  University of Virginia

Awards & honors

• Aletheia Society presidency
• Special Education Research Accelerator co-founder and co-dir…
• The Journal of Special Education co-editor
• Research in Special Education (RiSE) co-editor