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Special Education Teacher Effectiveness: Policy Context Past and Present

Special Education Teacher Effectiveness: Policy Context Past and Present. Margaret J. McLaughlin University of Maryland. The Foundation of Current Reform Policies. We have a quarter century of experience with “Standards-driven Reform”

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Special Education Teacher Effectiveness: Policy Context Past and Present

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  1. Special Education Teacher Effectiveness: Policy Context Past and Present Margaret J. McLaughlin University of Maryland

  2. The Foundation of Current Reform Policies • We have a quarter century of experience with “Standards-driven Reform” • The central focus of the reforms has been to standardize teaching and learning in order to ensure equal opportunity for all students to learn the same content • Content standards represent the focal point of the reform

  3. Standards • Universal Standards create equal opportunity

  4. Assessments and Accountability • Accountability for student performance is the tool for implementing common standards • These are the tools by which policy is

  5. Resources • Access to effective teachers and adequate resources are key to achieving equal opportunity

  6. Current Policy Context • Standards, assessments and accountability systems were state developed and controlled but were seen as unequal in rigor and thus “inequitable” • The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the creation of common assessments (PARCC and SBAC) represent the latest step in standardization of teaching and learning

  7. Current Policy Context: Common Core State Standards • Developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governor’s Association. • CCSS represents one set of content expectations in the subject areas of English language arts and mathematics for students in grades K-12..science is coming • Adopted by 48 states, the District of Columbia, and two US territories as their state academic standards • Standards are internationally benchmarked, and define college and career-ready knowledge and skills and focus on the application of knowledge. They have been developed “based on knowledge gained from the state standards”

  8. Current Policy Context: Effective Teachers • Teacher quality has been a major concern from the beginning of the reforms and is critical to ensuring educational equity • Ensuring quality teachers has also been among the more difficult policy issues • Teacher policies have moved from the (sole) consideration of inputs (i.e., licensure or certifications, degrees, credits, etc.) to performance based on “objective measures of student learning”.

  9. How is Current Policy Being Implemented • Proactive Dept of Education that has used incentives to promote implementation: • Race to the Top Grants • Assessment Consortia • ESEA Flexibility Waivers • Regulatory changes to ESEA

  10. Implications for Special Education • The reform policies expect that students with disabilities will fully participate. • “Students with disabilities…must be challenged to excel within the general curriculum and be prepared for success in their post-school lives, including college and/or careers….Therefore, how these high standards are taught and assessed is of the utmost importance in reaching this diverse group of students.” (www.corestandards.org) • Assessment consortia must address students with disabilities through accommodations and there are additional consortia developing Alternate Assessments

  11. Implications for Special Education • The reforms are expected to lift many children out of low achievement which would then reduce the need for special education to act as, “the ambulance service of an accident-prone system” (Golby& Gulliver,1979) . • The reforms attribute children’s poor performance to the teachers and schools in which they are educated. Low reading achievement is due to poor literacy instruction not children’s innate difficulties.

  12. Implications for Special Education • How should special education teachers support equal access to the standards? • Procedural. Ensure legal and procedural compliance • Remedial. Provide instruction in missing or underdeveloped skill areas • Compensatory. Provide programs and instruction, over and above what is expected in the standards (i.e., strategy instruction, etc.) • Translational. Serve to translate knowledge and research to improve general practice and instruction in the standards

  13. Implications for Preparing Special Educators What should preparation programs consider?

  14. Implications for Preparing Special Educators • A preparation program needs to be conceptualized in relation to the broad goal of the reform…to ensure full and equal opportunity for all children to learn the core standards • Not driven by a particular specialty • Not driven by a particular disability category • Based on role and function of special education within the larger general education curriculum

  15. Some Concluding Thoughts • There have been and continue to be debates regarding whether all children may benefit from or need the same standards. • These debates, however, are always bounded by time and social and political contexts (Ladd,2008). • The dilemma as Green (1983) argues, is that, “We cannot [provide] an education that is uniquely suited…for each individual and at the same time give to each an education that is as good as that provided for everyone else.”

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