What Should Special Education Teachers Know and Be Able to Do?

Submitted by Judy Hanning on Tue, 2017-08-01 03:00
Special education teachers are beginning to be taught 22 high-leverage practices which have been proven through research to deliver greater results. Oregon’s director of special education Sarah Drinkwater says the high-level practices have given schools of education a “common language” for use when preparing well-qualified teachers. These practices enable teacher to better identify where each student’s strengths are.

A newly-minted special education teacher should be able to collaborate with professionals to increase student success; use multiple sources of information” to understand a student’s strengths and needs; and systematically design instruction toward specific learning goals.

Along with the 22 high-leverage practices, newly-minted special education teachers are expected to collaborate effectively with their contemporaries and systematically designed instruction toward specific learning goals. There was a challenge when deciding on 22, as Deborah Ziegler, director of policy and advocacy for the CEC, said. Those 22 high-leverage practices address the fundamental aspects of competent special education instruction.
“A newly-minted special education teacher should be able to collaborate with professionals to increase student success, use multiple sources of information to understand a student’s strengths and needs and systematically design instruction toward specific learning goals.”
~ Education Week

Key Takeaways:

1
New debate is arising over what special education teachers need to know. Parents want to express their concerns about the abilities of these teachers.
2
Make sure that special education teachers can collaborate with professionals. That should ensure student success is always increasing in the classroom.
3
They can also use multiple sources of information to understand student needs. Student needs are at the centre of a lot of debate in the schools.
Read the full article here:
http://www.readingrockets.org/news/what-should-special-education-teachers-know-and-be-able-do