Shortage Of Special Education Teachers Research Articles

The Supply of and Demand for Special Education Teachers

There is a critical shortage of special education teachers in the United States. This shortage is chronic and severe and exists in every geographic region of the nation. This article provides an analysis of factors influencing the supply of and demand for special education teachers. Initially, the magnitude of this shortage is addressed, considering variances that exist by personnel type, locality, and job description. This is followed by an analysis of trends in the supply of and demand for special education teachers, considering factors such as student enrollment, production of teacher education programs, and the reserve pool. Finally, illustrative examples of strategies used by specific states and districts to resolve shortage problems are provided. The article concludes with a list of priorities for future research.

CLD Position Statement: Alternative Routes to Certification in Special Education

Special education continues to suffer from chronic and persistent teacher shortages. For example, in 2000-2001, nearly 53,000 special education teachers, 12% of the teaching force, were less than fully certified, affecting more than 800,000 students with disabilities. In addition, many school districts lose special education teachers as the school year progresses, particularly in urban and rural areas. Since traditional sources of teacher supply, college and university preparation programs, have been unable to meet the growing demand for special education teachers, alternative routes to certification (ARC) have proliferated. Recognizing that there is a need for highly qualified special education teachers, it is essential that we develop innovative and creative alternatives to get interested individuals prepared, licensed, and into classrooms serving students with learning disabilities. As noted in the following statement, the Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) agrees that strategies for recruiting and developing highly qualified professionals are necessary. Still, we must ensure that ARC programs deliver research-based teacher preparation and that graduates of such programs meet agreed-upon professional standards. ********** No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the proposed Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act (IDEA) have encouraged the development of alternative routes to certification (ARC) in special education. Even prior to these legislative efforts, ARC in special education had become a growth industry. In 1995, Buck, Polloway, and Mortorff-Robb found that 24 states offered ARC programs in special education, an increase of 19 states since 1991. Recently, it was found that 34 states offer more than 175 different ARC options, with California and Texas accounting for the largest number (Rosenberg, Boyer, Sindelar, & Misra, 2003). Analyses of the School and Staffing Survey (Connelly, 2003) indicate that over 15% of those who hold certification in special education earned it through an ARC; among those who are uncredentialed and seeking certification, 24% report being in an ARC program. Factors contributing to the proliferation of ARC in special education include (a) the persistent and growing shortage of special education teachers affecting over 800,000 students with disabilities, (b) the acute need for personnel from underrepresented groups, and (c) criticism from political action groups outside the profession and professionals within the profession (e.g., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 1999) that traditional approaches to teacher preparation are self-serving, bloated, and over-regulatory. Unfortunately, our collective knowledge base of ARC programs in special education does not match either the growth or current levels of interest in and advocacy for such programs. Rosenberg and Sindelar (2001), in a comprehensive review of the literature, found very little on the nature and efficacy of specific programs in the professional literature. They asserted that the avail able literature represented merely the tip of the ARC iceberg and that a large underground economy for teaching credentials is in place in many areas of the nation. CLD recognizes the need for highly qualified general and special education teachers. For those responsible for the recruitment and retention of qualified special education professionals, in particular, there is a most troubling trend: As the number of children with special education needs increase, it is increasingly difficult to find highly qualified personnel who want to pursue a career in special education. …

Critical Issues in Special Education Teacher Supply and Demand

The shortage of fully certified special education teachers, which has been described as severe, chronic, and pervasive, threatens the quality of educational services that students with disabilities receive. Over the last decade, researchers have investigated the magnitude of the special education teacher shortage problem and factors that contribute to the imbalance between supply and demand. This special issue includes research syntheses that critically evaluate the complex range of factors that contribute to teacher shortages in special education. These syntheses present a review of what is known about the supply and demand problem, provide a research base to help inform efforts to address the shortage problem, and suggest research questions needing study.

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity and the Special Education Workforce

The need for special education teachers from culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds has become a national concern. The majority of school districts nationwide list the recruitment and retention of teachers from diverse backgrounds as a priority. Many cite difficulties with finding adequate personnel, a problem that is complicated by current special education teacher shortages. The authors of this article synthesize research findings on the current demographics of diverse teachers and the impact on student outcomes. They also summarize qualities of teacher preparation programs that successfully prepare CLD teachers according to the following themes: recruitment, retention, alternative certification, and post—teacher preparation. Recommendations for future research are provided.

New Models of Cooperative Teaching

increased access to general education classrooms by students with disabilities, how can less restrictive instructional alternatives like co-teaching be expanded in light of special education teacher shortages and tighter budgets? This article describes the challenges and benefits of new models of co-teaching that work in schools today. Although concern has been expressed in the special education literature regarding the need for more research on the instructional benefits of cooperative teaching (Zigmond, 2001), new laws and regulations call for full access to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities—with highly qualified teachers. In fact, this is a time to increase and not retreat from general education initiatives in our schools. Moreover, as school systems are significantly changing instructional programs in response to the standards-reform movement (Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000), and at the same time experiencing an increasing shortage of certified special education teachers (Kozleski, Mainzer, & Deschler, 2000), we need to develop alternative and additional means to support students with disabilities to successfully access general education classrooms. After reviewing the benefits of cooperative teaching in the public schools of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, on the basis of parent, teacher, and student surveys; academic outcome data; and classroom observations, we propose four alternative models for co-taught classrooms that rely on flexible teacher schedules and the use of paraprofessionals. We describe the advantages and challenges of each model based on classroom teacher comments and experience.

Availability of Special Education Teachers

A national shortage of fully certified special education teachers has been a persistent concern over the years. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher availability by analyzing data from the annual reports to Congress over a 10-year period. Findings indicate (a) that there is a nationwide shortage of teachers who are qualified to teach across all disabilities, including a particularly disproportionate shortage in the area of emotional and behavioral disorders, and (b) that there has been a dramatic decrease in the teacher shortage rate, beginning in the 1993—1994 year and continuing in subsequent years. Possible explanations for this decrease may be the expanded reliance on the proliferation of alternate or emergency certification, inclusionary practices, personnel preparation training grants, and noncategorical certification. In the short run, alternate or emergency certification routes may decrease the shortage of special education teachers; however, we caution against the use of these routes to teacher certification, if they become an institutionalized alternative to a comprehensive teacher education program.

Web-Based Certification Courses: The Future of Teacher Preparation in Special Education?

The continuing shortage of special education teachers, the problems they typically encounter, and high levels of stress, burnout, and attrition among these teachers are all well documented conditions. In light of this situation, and notwithstanding the need to change many aspecs of teachers' work environments, we developed and implemented the Western Carolina University Teacher Support Program. This multi-component program offers different forms of assistance with the purpose of reducing stress and burnout, improving retention, developing problem-solving strategies, and improving the effectiveness of teachers. In this paper we descibe the program and provide participation and evaluation results for the first year of the project.

Supporting the non-traditional student teacher: a community learning centre model

Significant personnel shortages in all areas of special education are being experienced throughout the USA, and in California in particular. This substantial shortage of trained special education teachers hampers the efforts of school districts to staff schools with well-prepared teachers, and to develop programmes and approaches that best serve children and youth with disabilities. Currently, great numbers of special education teachers are employed without the proper credentials. As large numbers of teachers on emergency permits or waivers enter teacher preparation programmes, university faculty must design practical experiences that are supportive of the candidate's teaching situation, but also allow for development of specific instructional and professional competencies. This article describes an innovative approach to providing support to non-traditional teacher candidates as developed by faculty in the Division of Special Education at California State University Los Angeles. The unique aspects of the programme are described.

Preparing Personnel with Expertise in Severe Disabilities in the Electronic Age: Innovative Programs and Technologies

Teacher shortages in special education in general and, specifically, in severe disabilities continue to be acute, despite concentrated personnel preparation efforts. The application of telecommunications technologies is viewed as a potentially effective way to systematically impact these shortages. We describe two federally funded distance education programs in the area of severe disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte project (UNC Charlotte) and project UPLIFT (Utah Consortium for Low Incidence Faculty and Teachers), each of which uses a multi-university consortium. We also discuss the technologies employed in each project. Preliminary data illustrating the use of end of course student evaluations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of distance education course delivery in the area of severe disabilities. The potential benefit of preparing personnel via distance delivery through using multi-university consortia is discussed and topics for future research are suggested.

Two Routes to Certification: What Do Student Teachers Think?

Alternate routes to certification have assumed increasing importance for teacher education since A Nation At Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) brought teaching and teacher education under public attack. There are an increasing number of alternate routes to teaching--including state, university and college, and district-based initiatives--as well as programs such as Teach for America (Feistritzer & Chester, 1998). Alternate routes may be linked to the university, but they typically seek to fast-track or circumvent traditional university-based teacher education. Some see alternate routes as a serious threat to university sponsored professional preparation (Roth, 1986). Others maintain that the issue is not over professional preparation per se but over the timing and institutional context for teacher preparation, and about the mix of professional knowledge and skills to be acquired (Stoddart & Floden, 1996, p. 90). Alternate routes are established for a variety of reasons (Feistritzer & Chester, 1998): to provide accessibility to the teaching workforce for nontraditional entrants, attract teachers to underserved geographical areas, recruit teachers for subject areas of perennial shortage such as science and math, attract high potential individuals who might otherwise pursue different careers (Darling-Hammond & Cobb, 1996). In California in particular, they have arisen to lessen the historical shortage of special education and bilingual teachers (Gunderson & Karage, 1992; Institute for Education Reform, 1996; McKibben & Schrup, 1995). In California, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing and teacher education programs at public and private institutions have historically discouraged the use of emergency permit teachers (EPTs) as an entry into teaching. The preferred route has been for preservice students to complete their field experiences, including student teaching, in the classrooms of credentialed teachers. However, beginning in 1996, class-size reduction opened hundreds of classrooms to alternate-route teachers, that is, teachers with little or no professional preparation prior to assuming teaching responsibilities. Districts no longer needed to show special hardship to put EPTs in classrooms (McKibben, 1996). A large percentage of EPTs are walk-ons, possessors of an undergraduate degree who have passed the required basic skills test but lack professional preparation. Some come from private and parochial schools seeking larger salaries and improved benefits; they bring teaching experience, but most are uncredentialed. A small number of people who left teaching years earlier are returning to the field, but their credentials long ago expired. Preservice program students who take emergency permit positions before they complete their professional preparation are a large source of uncredentialed teachers. In the changed climate of teacher hiring in California, preservice programs with the traditional structure of coursework followed by student teaching face the predicament of how to accommodate students who take emergency permit jobs before completing the program. Programs ask, How can student teaching be accomplished when the student is already a classroom teacher? How do traditional notions of student teaching conflict with program students who have skipped student teaching and begun teaching before program completion? What is the role of a university-supervised student teaching semester for program students who are classroom teachers of record, some of them teachers of several semesters' experience by the time they get to the student teaching phase of the program? In this article, we report a 2-year study of a preservice program that, since 1996, has used both emergency permit teaching and traditional student teaching as the culminating field experience in the professional preparation sequence. Our purpose in this study was to investigate the perceptions traditional student teachers (STs) and EPTs hold of their different ways of completing their professional preparation. …

Using Distance Education Technologies for the Supervision of Student Teachers in Remote Rural Schools

To alleviate the dire shortage of special education teachers in rural areas, teacher preparation programs must address the teaching requirements and environments in rural schools and encourage student teaching experiences in such settings. Long commutes to remote sites present obstacles to the frequent supervision of the student teachers. Today, technology enables such placements and faculty supervision via two-way, live, audio, and visual communication. In this article, we describe one university's efforts to supervise student teachers, utilizing a distance education system known as GSAMS (Georgia Statewide Academic and Medical System). The costs, technical aspects, and processes are discussed. Results show that the North Georgia College and State University's method provides benefits to the pre-service teacher, to the university supervisor, to the cooperating teacher, and to the school district.

The Expanding Role of LEAs in Special Education Teacher Preparation: The View from a Local School District

Increasingly local school districts are implementing alternative certification (AC) programs to alleviate the shortage of special education teachers. We situate special education AC programs in the context of an earlier AC movement in regular education, discuss important differences between the two, and attempt to clarify the terminology. Following a review of published reports of AC programs based in universities, state education agencies, and local school districts, we report the Volusia County Alternative Add-On Certification Program (VCAAP), emphasizing the importance of IHE collaboration in the development and progress of the program. We conclude with a discussion of necessity and collaboration, the paper's dominant themes, and suggest how the interplay of these themes can influence the future course of teacher education in special education.

The Alternative Basic Certification Program in Special Education: In Search of Quantity and Quality in Special Education

Teacher shortages in special education generally result from variables (e.g., fewer teachers entering the field and others exiting due to personal and organizational factors, lack of administrative or other support, role ambiguity and role conflict) that may impact negatively on the provision of quality educational programs to students with disabilities. As a result, universities and state departments of education are joining forces to design and implement alternative teacher certification programs as an attempt to reverse the downturn in the availability of qualified special education teachers. In this article, we discuss the Alternative Basic Certification Program in Special Education (ABC-SE) offered by the Department of Special Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in collaboration with the Hawaii Department of Education, including program characteristics, implementation, and aggregate outcomes for the years of operation.

Special and General Education Teachers in Public Schools: Sources of Supply in National Perspective

In view of the chronic shortage of qualified special education teachers and the pauciij, of data on the sources of supply of entering teachers, this research provides such data from a national probability sample of 46,599 public-school teachers from the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey. The analysis focused on two main teaching fields (special and general education) and five main sources of supply of public school teachers (first-time teachers who recently graduated, first-time teachers who delayed entry to the teaching profession, reentering experienced teachers, teachers migrating from private to public schools, and public school teachers continuing from the prior year). Results showed significantly, greater annual inflow of entering teachers in special education (8.5%) than in general education (5.9%). The main source of entering public teachers in 1990-91 was the reserve pool (68% in special education; 69% in general education), composed of (a) delayed entry first-time teachers and (b) reentering experienced teachers. The other sources of entering public teachers were first-time teachers who recently graduated from college (24% in both special and general education), and migrant teachers from private schools (8% in special education; 7% in general education). Although special and general education were more similar than dissimilar in their respective sources of supply of teachers, these two fields differed somewhat in the following respects: (a) there was a greater percentage demand in special education for teachers to fill open positions, and (b) special education filled a higher percentage of open positions with reentering eaperienced teachers Implications for teacher shortage, recruitment, and teacher education are discussed

A Partnership to Alleviate Special Education Teacher Shortages: University and Public School Collaboration

Collaboration between a university (IHE) and a local education agency (LEA) resulted in the selection and training of 12 nontraditional individuals to teach students with serious behavioral and learning problems. Candidates, recruited from within the LEA, participated in a two-year graduate program consisting of ten courses and two practica. The goal of the program was to alleviate teacher shortages in special education, particularly in regard to minority teacher underrepresentation. This paper details (a) the collaboration between the IHE and the LEA, (b) the specifics of the graduate program, (c) logistical issues involved in the implementation of the program, and (d) future directions planned for this successful collaborative effort.

Success and Certification for Special Education Starters

Innovative inservice teacher training programs are needed to address the growing shortage of special education teachers. Such programs must also consider the varying needs for professional development and support for beginning special education teachers and the complex demands facing the working educator trying to acquire special aducadon teacher competencies. This articie describes a model higher education inservice Project in the state of Louisiana that addresses these concerns for beginning special educators. The project is based on a faculty consultation and supervision model where students earn university credit for independent study. The advantages and disadvantages of implementing this project are discussed, with implications for similar project development.