Developing Quality Special Education Teachers

1
Developing Quality Special Education Teachers

• Need for a Seamless,
• Longitudinal Approach
• Mary T. Brownell
• Center for Personnel Studies in Special Education

2
The 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

3
The 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)

4
The 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

5
Seamless teacher education

• Involves high quality
• Initial preparation
• Induction into the field
• On-going professional development

6
High 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

7
High 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

8
High 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

9
High 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

10
Examples 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

11
High 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

12
High 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

13
High 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

14
High 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

15
What 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

16
Questions 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?

17
References

• 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.

18
References

• 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.

19
References

• 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.