Special Education for Teachers

The Washington Post magazine has a very interesting article this week written by a special education teacher in DC.* Samantha Cleaver's story is not unusual--it's really hard being a first year teacher, probably harder still if you're alternatively certified, and even harder yet to teach special education.

What makes her story powerful is the painstaking detail of the challenges she faces as a new teacher serving students with significant disabilities. The lack of resources are a big problem, but almost a backdrop to the enormously challenging learning and behavioral challenges that her students face. The showdown with 5 year-old "Spidey" exemplifies exactly how difficult each day can be.

I think overall the story raises several important policy lessons.

One is that I think we need to consider carefully the type of training alternatively certified teachers who are placed in special education settings receive. There is extensive research on teaching students with various types of disabilities and that is a lot to master in a summer. I know there is a teacher shortage in special education and we need to fill those slots, but sending hastily prepared people to help kids with the greatest needs seems unfair to all involved. At the very least, school level mentors with special education experience seem essential.

Two is that classroom management is critically important, not just for special education teachers. I think policymakers often fail to recognize how essential this is and teacher training programs (both traditional and alternative) similarly fail to emphasize it. Yes, it is not student achievement focused, but go into a classroom with poor management and you are hard pressed to find much if any learning. The best lesson in the world goes untaught if no one is listening.

Three, I'm not sure many of the education policy proposals on the table right now will address the situation raised in the article. Not that any individual situation necessitates a policy intervention, but this one is far too common to be ignored. New teacher + challenging school situation + inadequate support = teacher attrition. From the article, it seems that the most effective intervention was support from the school guidance counselor who was able to both provide advice and model effective techniques in the classroom--ideally the role of a mentor.

To me, an important and overlooked area is how to help teachers become better teachers. I fully support requiring teachers to be highly effective as opposed to highly qualified, but the reality is that clearly everyone is not. Pushing out the worst and most apathetic teachers makes sense, but considering the size of the teaching force, helping mediocre, new, and struggling teachers improve is a lot cheaper, politically feasible, and more sensible than trying to radically overhaul the teaching force.

Professional development has a well deserved bad reputation and is totally not en vogue, but if done well, it can improve teachers' feelings of preparedness, including how to work with special populations. If teachers don't know how to raise achievement they need support, whether professional development, mentoring, or something else--carrots and sticks are not going to make them magically improve.


*Disclosure: The Post article author is a DC Teaching Fellow, an alternative certification program for which I interview applicants.