Title: Developing Quality Special Education Teachers
1Developing Quality Special Education Teachers
- Need for a Seamless,
- Longitudinal Approach
- Mary T. Brownell
- Center for Personnel Studies in Special Education
2The Case for Seamless Teacher Education
- Beginning special education teachers (SETs) need
ongoing support to become highly qualified
because they. . - Are less likely to be fully prepared for their
job and more likely to be completely unprepared - Are expected to perform all aspects of job
capably and alone - Experience less collegiality than senior
colleagues - Have fewer curricular and technological resources
- Boe, Cook, Sunderland, 2006 Griffin, Winn,
Otis-Wilborn, Kilgore, 2003
3The Case for Seamless Teacher Education
- Even when beginning SETs are knowledgeable, they
struggle to enact that knowledge. - In a quantitative study of beginning special
education teachers, teachers were rather
knowledgeable about how to teach reading, but
struggled to enact that knowledge. - Additionally, beginning SETs demonstrated
stronger classroom management and generic
practices than reading practices. - Brownell, Bishop, Gersten, Klingner, Dimino,
Haager, Penfield, Menon, Sindelar (2007)
4The Case for Seamless Teacher Education
- Although some beginning SETs provide highly
engaging instruction, most are uneven in their
practices. - Beginning SETs indicate being well-prepared in
special education, but less well-prepared to
teach students with disabilities reading. - SETs, in co-teaching situations, are often
relegated to a teachers aide position in the
classroom. - Experience is often touted as the most important
factor, but this finding is actually not
consistent - Bishop, Brownell, Klingner, Menon, Galman,
Leko, 2007 Scruggs,Mastropieri, McDuffie, in
press Seo, Brownell, Bishop, Dingle, 2007
Wayne Youngs, 2003
5Seamless teacher education
- Involves high quality
- Initial preparation
- Induction into the field
- On-going professional development
6High Quality Initial Preparation
- Even though the research base is limited, these
characteristics seem to define quality
preparation - More extensive in terms of coursework and field
experiences - Includes appropriate coursework in pedagogy for
teaching content - High degree of coherence between coursework and
fieldwork - Professional collaboration is valued and
emphasized - Brownell, Ross, Colon, McCallum, 2005 Hoffman,
Roller, Maloch, Sailors, Duffy, Beretras, 2005
7High Quality Induction
- Why is it essential?
- Beginning teachers are more vulnerable
- Can improve teacher retention
- Can improve teacher quality
- Costs less than replacing a teacher
- Brownell, Hirsch, Seo, 2004 Griffin, Winn,
Otis-Wilborn, Kilgore, 2003 Ingersoll
Kralik, 2004 Strong, 2005 Strong, 2006
8High Quality Induction
- Attributes of effective, comprehensive programs
- Supportive school culture and collective
responsibility - Opportunities for collaborative interactions
- Quality mentoring by well-trained mentors that
are a good match in terms of subject taught,
grade level taught, and personality - Explicit goals for improving teaching
9High Quality Induction
- Attributes of effective, comprehensive programs
- Instructional and psychological support
- Mentors engage in formative assessment not
evaluation - Political and fiscal support
- Extend beyond the first year
- Consider difficulty of initial placements,
particularly critical for AR route participants
10Examples of High Quality Induction Programs
- The Connecticut Beginning Teacher Support Program
- New Teacher Center at the University of
California Santa Cruz - Californias Beginning Teacher Support and
Assessment Program - Toledo District Induction Program
- Additionally, there are the CEC guidelines for
effective mentoring
11High Quality Professional Development
- Structures for learning must be in place that
promote more extended, deeper learning - The duration of the learning activities matters,
but only when they. . - provide opportunities for active learning and are
- aligned with teachers goals, curriculum
standards, and professional communications
12High Quality Professional Development
- Collective participation of teachers from the
same school, department, and grade level is
important. - Content focus of the staff development effort
matters, particularly when it. . . - provides opportunities to learn about the
curriculum - helps improve teachers knowledge of content,
content specific pedagogy, and how students
acquire content
13High Quality Professional Development
- Promotes active learning on four dimensions
- observing and being observed teaching,
- planning classroom implementation,
- presenting in and leading staff development
efforts, and . . . - analyzing and reviewing student work
14High Quality Professional Development
- Fosters coherence by
- being consistent with teachers learning goals
- building on information and skills previously
acquired - being aligned with state and district standards
and assessments - providing communication opportunities that enable
teachers to confront implementation issues and
share solutions
15What will be essential to support a seamless
system?
- Well-articulated standards that promote a
cohesiveness between teacher preparation,
induction, and professional development - Tiered licensing system that encourages teachers
to continually work at professional standards - Valid and reliable indicators of teacher quality,
as evaluation of teachers is critical - Securing adequate political will to change and
fund such a system
16Questions for Our Field
- Consideration of how special education will be
incorporated into this larger system - What does it mean to successfully socialize and
educate beginning special education teachers? - How must larger teacher quality efforts be
adjusted to suit the needs of beginning special
education teachers? - What do high quality special education teachers
look like and know? What are we aiming for?
Should we insist on only playing certain roles in
schools? If not, how will efforts to prepare and
support special education teachers be focused?
17References
- Bishop, A., Brownell, M., Klingner, J., Menon,
S., Galman, S., Leko, M. (2007). Understanding
the Influence of Personal Attributes,
Preparation, and School Environment on Beginning
Special Education Teachers Classroom Practices
During Reading Instruction. Status revised and
resubmitted. - Boe, E., Sunderland, B., Cook, L. (November,
2006). The supply of teachers from traditional
and alternative routes to preparation. Annual
Teacher Education Conference for the Council for
Exceptional Children, San Diego, CA. - Brownell, M. Bishop, A., Gersten, R., Klingner,
J., Dimino, J., Haager, D., Menon, S., Penfield,
R., Sindelar, P. (2007). Examining the
Dimensions of Teacher Quality for Beginning
Special Education Teachers The Role of Domain
Expertise. Accepted with revisions in Exceptional
Children. - Brownell, M.T., Ross, D., Colon, E.,
McCallum, C. (2005). Critical features of
special education teacher preparation A
comparison with exemplary practices in general
education. Journal of Special Education, 38,
242-252. - Brownell, M., Hirsch, E. Seo, S. (2004).
Meeting the demand for highly qualified special
education teachers during severe shortages.
Journal of Special Education, 38, 56-61.
18References
- Griffin, C.C., Winn, J.A., Otis-Wilborn, A.,
Kilgore, K. (2003). New teacher induction in
special education. (COPSSE Document Number RS-5).
Gainesville, FL University of Florida, Center on
Personnel Studies in Special Education. - Hoffman, J.V., Roller, C., Maloch, B., Sailors,
M., Duffy, G., Beretras, S.N. (2005). Teachers
preparation to teach reading and their
experiences and practices in first three years of
teaching. The Elementary School Journal, 105(3),
267-287. - Ingersoll, R. Kralik, J. M. (2004). The impact
of mentoring on teacher retention What the
research says. ECS Research Review, Denver, CO
Educational Commission of the States. Retrieved
June 30, 2004 from http//www.ecs.org/clearinghous
e/50/36/5036.htm - Seo, S., Brownell, M., Bishop, A., Dingle, M.
(2007). An Examination of Beginning Special
Education Teachers Classroom Practices That
Engage Elementary Students with Learning
Disabilities in Reading Instruction. Status
revised and resubmitted.
19References
- Scruggs, T., Mastropieri, M., McDuffie, K. (in
press). Co-teaching in inclusive classrooms A
Meta-synthesis of qualitative research.
Exceptional Children. - Strong, M. (2005). Mentoring new teachers to
increase retention A look at the research.
Research brief 05-01. New Teacher Center. - Strong, M. (2006). Does new teacher support
affect student achievement? Some early research
findings. Research brief 06-01. New Teacher
Center - Wayne, A. J., Youngs, P. (2003). Teacher
characteristics and student achievement gains A
review. Review of Educational Research, 73,
89-122.