At its core, the American educational system is about democratization of knowledge for all students, regardless of their circumstances. In 2011, 22 percent of non-institutionalized adults with disabilities had less than a high school education. If this statistic was applied to the general population, my suspicion is that there would be an outcry to reform K-12 education to have better graduation results. But for students with disabilities, there is no shock or outrage and that is something that has to change. The key to improving the educational experience for students with disabilities is better accommodations in schools and continued improvements in assistive technology.
Assistive technology in K-12 classrooms, by definition, is designed to “improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.” While the word “technology” automatically conjures up images of cutting-edge electronics, some assistive technology is possible with just simple accommodations. Whether high-tech or simple in design, assistive technology has the ability to transform the learning experiences for the children who benefit.
With so much talk about mobile devices at K-12 desks and teaching technology for the majority of students, it can be easy to overlook the strides also being made for students with disabilities when it comes to assistive technology. Here’s a look at strides being made in some common assistive technology areas:
Alternative input devices: These tools are designed to allow students with disabilities to use computers and related technology easily. Some alternative input devices include touch screens, modified keyboards and joysticks that direct a cursor through use of body parts like chins, hands or feet. Some up-and-coming technology in this area is sip-and-puff systems, developed by companies like Microsoft, to perform computer functions through the simple process of inhaling and exhaling. On-screen keyboards are another area of input technology that is providing K-12 learners with disabilities better use of computers and mobile devices for learning.
Speech-to-text options: This technology is making mainstream waves through its use in popular cell phones like the Android-platform Razr M. While it is a convenience tool for people without disabilities, speech-to-text provides a learning advantage for students who have mobility or dexterity problems, or those who are blind. It allows students to speak their thoughts without typing and even navigate the Internet. speech-to-text options can also “talk back” to students and let them know about potential errors in their work.
Sensory enhancers: Depending on the disability, children may need to learn differently than their peers. Instead of ABCs and numbers first, a child with language hindrances may benefit from bright pictures or colors to learn new concepts. Sensory enhancers may include voice analyzers, augmentative communication tools or speech synthesizers. With the rapid growth of technology in the classroom, these basic tools of assistive technology are seeing great strides.
Screen readers: This technology is slightly different from text-to-speech because it simply informs students of what is on a screen. A student who is blind or struggling to see what is on the screen can benefit from the audio interface screen readers provide. Students who struggle to do what so many other Americans accomplish so easily – glean information from a computer screen in a matter of seconds – can learn more easily through technology meant to inform them.
Assistive technology is important for providing a sound education for K-12 students with disabilities but benefits the greater good of the country too. Nearly one-fourth of a specific student population is not being properly served and with so many technological advances, that’s a number I believe can drop. Assistive technology in simple and complex platforms has the ability to lift the entire educational experience and provide a better life foundation for K-12 students with disabilities.
A shortage of special education teachers is threatening the ability of schools in many states to provide high-quality education to students with disabilities. On a national level, 49 states identified a shortage of special education and related service personnel during the 2013-14 school year.
In Arizona, for instance, where districts reported a 29 percent increase from 2013 to 2014 in the number of positions that remained vacant, special education was one of the areas with the highest vacancy rates.
Special educators serve students with significant learning and behavioral needs. To effectively serve their students, they must have sophisticated knowledge and skills about content, pedagogy and students’ learning. Special educators who are fully qualified in special education through a teacher preparation program provide more effective instruction, resulting in stronger achievement among their students.
When no qualified special educator can be found, open positions may be filled by substitute teachers who are not qualified to teach at all, by prospective teachers who have not yet completed their teacher preparation or by teachers who are licensed in other areas, but have no specialized preparation for special education.
Dr. Loretta Mason-Williams from SUNY Binghamton analyzed a nationally representative survey of teachers; 16 percent of special educators were not certified in special education. This rate was higher in high-poverty schools, which have greater difficulty attracting and retaining all kinds of teachers.
In this context, special education teacher attrition is a major problem – for when a qualified special educator leaves, schools struggle to find a skilled replacement.
So the question is, why do special educators leave their schools?
Here’s why we left
In the mid-2000s, we began our careers in education as emergency certified teachers – that is, we were hired to teach students with disabilities through “provisional licensure programs” (such as this one) that allowed prospective teachers to be considered highly qualified without full preparation or licensure.
We both served as special education teachers for students in middle and high school settings in high-poverty, urban communities – Elizabeth in Tucson, Arizona, and Kristin in New York City.
We served students who qualified for special education because of emotional disabilities. Most of our students had been identified with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders. Many had histories of trauma and abuse.
Our students relied on us to teach them grade-level standards in all areas. They also relied on us to teach the foundational skills they had missed, such as phonics and math facts. In addition, they relied on us to help them develop the social and behavioral skills necessary to live healthy lives and build positive relationships.
In other words, in our first year as uncertified teachers, we were responsible for the totality of our students’ learning experiences during the school day, for everything they needed to know to be successful in school and beyond.
We struggled to meet these responsibilities with sparse resources – we had few books and curricula, limited mentorship and minimal professional development opportunities. We were planning and delivering instruction in all content areas completely on our own, despite the fact that we had never been trained to do so. We knew our students needed far more than we were capable of providing.
We both improved our skills over time, yet within five years, we both left our schools. We were committed to our students, but we left because we knew that no matter how hard we worked, no matter how much we grew as educators, we couldn’t provide high-quality instruction in all content areas – the kind of instruction our students deserved – without better support.
Our failure to adequately meet our students’ needs was not our failure alone – it was the failure of an educational system that systematically places unqualified teachers in classes serving students with the most significant needs. And then it fails to support them.
As academics, we now study the systems that lead to difficulty recruiting and retaining effective special educators, including how schools can support them, so they can better serve students.
And here are stories of teachers
In our research, we find that our own experiences are not unique.
In one study, we interviewed eight special educators in classes for students with significant emotional disabilities. Like us, they felt deeply committed to providing high-quality instruction and being a constant source of safety for students with serious social-emotional needs.
Many special educators report feeling overwhelmed by their workloads. woodleywonderworks, CC BY
They also spoke about the challenges of planning high-quality lessons in all content areas for students in multiple grade levels while meeting students’ social-emotional needs and fulfilling all of their other responsibilities as teachers, such as bus duty, lunch duty, administrative paperwork and so on.
These challenges left them feeling as though they were failing their students.
Take Diedre (name changed), an elementary school special educator. She was responsible for teaching all content areas to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Diedre had no scheduled planning time, limited curricular resources (e.g., math and reading curriculum) and no lunch break away from her students.
Whereas the general education teachers in her school coplanned instruction for all students within a single grade level, Diedre was planning, completely on her own, for students in every single grade level. She didn’t have colleagues with whom she could share resources and ideas, or go to for help when a student struggled with a standard.
Further, she had extensive extra responsibilities – she planned professional development for all of the teaching assistants in her school, supervised afterschool activities and did bus duty, among other things.
In her interview with us, she shared,
[As a consequence], I end up feeling like I’m never really doing my job, and I’m always letting the kids down.
Exhausting workloads
Other studies confirm that Diedre’s experience is not unique.
For instance, when Dr. Susan Albrecht and her colleagues from Ball State University surveyed 776 special educators who teach students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, they found that more than half felt they had inadequate time to fulfill their responsibilities.
Similarly, Dr. Bonnie Billingsley from Virginia Tech and her colleagues found in their analysis of a survey of new special educators, more than 75 percent reported that routine duties (such as paperwork, supervising students in nonacademic activities, etc.) interfered with their teaching.
In a recent (not yet published) study, we worked with Dr. Nathan Jones from Boston University and Drs. Mary Brownell and Maureen Conroy from the University of Florida to analyze data from a surveyDr. Peter Youngs from the University of Virginia conducted with 245 special and general educators who were in their first three years teaching in urban districts in Michigan and Indiana.
Unsurprisingly, teachers who felt more overwhelmed were more likely to be emotionally exhausted, and more likely to plan to leave. And, new special educators were significantly more likely to report feeling overwhelmed than new general educators.
Working conditions matter
A growing body of research indicates that, when teachers work in more supportive conditions, their students show better academic achievement gains.
For instance, when Dr. Susan Moore Johnson and her colleagues at Harvard University analyzed data on all schools in Massachusetts, they found that schools in which teachers rated their administrative support and their school culture more highly had stronger student achievement gains in reading and math. This was so even when controlling for school demographic characteristics, such as the proportion of students living in poverty.
Being supported by skilled colleagues makes a difference. Army Medicine, CC BY
Teachers whose schools had more collaborative cultures become more effective more rapidly than teachers whose schools were less collaborative.
Studies have shown that special education teachers are also more likely to want to continue teaching when they work in a culture of collective responsibility for all students, when they can trust their colleagues and have opportunities to collaborate with them.
In our study of new special educators in Michigan and Indiana, we found that special educators felt less overwhelmed when their schools had cultures of collective responsibility for students with disabilities, and when they interacted with their colleagues around instruction more frequently.
Teachers need support
Special educators often choose to teach because of their commitment to serving students with more significant needs.
And, as we know through our research and experience, they often leave, not because of their students, but because of the unsupportive conditions in which they are expected to serve those students.
Retaining special educators in their schools over the course of their careers is essential for ensuring that students with disabilities are served by qualified and skilled special educators.
For that to happen, our educational system must fulfill its commitments to them – by providing them with adequate time to do their jobs, administrative and collegial support for learning to teach, high-quality professional development opportunities and the material resources necessary to teach.
**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
A guest post by Philip Murphy
The advancing technological landscape in which we live is changing ways we educate our children, and assistive technology is creating a world that helps special education students learn just like everyone else.
Broadly defined, assistive technology is any device or piece of equipment that helps compensate for a person’s disability.
In special education, assistive technology could be audio books and screen readers for students with visual impairments, hearing aids and visual learning tools for the hearing impaired or voice dictation software for students unable to move their limbs.
All are examples of how this technology is changing modern educational techniques, and particularly special education.
Providing a more productive learning experience for students in need of these devices was part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) revision of 2004. The revision requires Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams to consider what assistive technology can do for individual special needs students.
A variety of apps are available for iPad and iPhone serving as learning assistants and the number is increasing. Here are five popular ones:
Read2Go: Partnered with Bookshare, this software opens a digital library of over 170,000 books to students with dyslexia and impaired vision. The software requires a membership, but the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs can provide free memberships to students and schools meeting certain requirements.
Dragon Dictation: For students with disabilities that prevent them from being able to write, this free app enables the students’ mobile device to capture what they say.
Draw Free for iPad: Teachers say this software works well for kids who struggle with fine motor skills. It is a tool that can be used on any project that entails an artistic element.
Talking Calculator: Featuring large colorful buttons and a voice that informs the student which buttons they are touching, this interface makes using a calculator easier for children with visual disabilities. Performing a calculation on this app leads to a vocalized answer, turning math into a more enjoyable experience for the user.
Notability: A note-taking app that includes an audio recording function that can help visual and audio learners. It also allows users to mark-up photos, PDFs and store notes on iCloud.
Where assistive technology once caused special education kids to stand out, the integration of mobile devices that use apps is actually causing the opposite to happen.
“It has changed the way people look at people with disabilities,” Karen Gorman, director of Assistive Technology for New York City Public schools said in a 2014 interview with NPR.
She went on to say parents of children with special needs now feel that because their kids are using something that looks cool and modern, the social playing field is more level and “other kids will come over to them and interact with them.”
The number of devices is growing to the point that students have a wider variety of innovative electronics at their fingertips. A 2013 Arizona Republic story highlighted an 11-year-old’s use of assistive technology to compensate for her struggles holding a pencil. Her use of a $200 word processor called The Forte provided the freedom to keep up with a fast-paced sixth grade class.
Jan Cawthorne, director of special education for Mesa Public Schools in Arizona is well-versed in assistive technology and how far it’s come. She cited a coolness factor to these devices since the iPad came out that wasn’t there before.
“Assistive technology used to mean big, clunky things that kids were embarrassed to be seen with,” Cawthorne said. “Now, it’s a cool thing to use.”
The way that K-12 learners are taught is in rapid flux, particularly when it comes to students in special education programs. According to a report by the Fordham Insititute, special education participation by K-12 students represented 13.1 percent of the nation’s student population in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, students in special education categories like learning disabilities, mental retardation and emotional disturbances dropped in numbers. Cases of autism spiked dramatically, though, quadrupling over the 10-year span. Combine these statistics with the way classroom technology has changed since the year 2000 and it makes sense that special education is in an adjustment period. The way that students are served through special education initiatives is evolving, as it should. Here are a just a few of the current trends in special education:
LAMP
Language Acquisition through Motor Planning, or LAMP, is an approach that connects neurological and motor learning in a way that makes communication easier for students with autism and related disorders. These principles are proving especially helpful for students who do not speak or have very limited verbal skills. Paired with technology, LAMP principles empower a growing student population with autism to effectively communicate and reach higher academic achievements. LAMP is present in technology – from specially made computers to learning apps.
Assistive technology
The tools needed for academic success when it comes to students with physical disabilities are progressing. The same is true of students that may have learning disabilities, or a combination of both. Assistive technology can help any student with any number of issues. The technology can be as common as using an e-reader instead of a traditional book or as advanced as a computer that responds to the eye movements of the student as commands. It can be argued that while assistive technology certainly enhances the learning process for traditional students, it gives those in special education access to learning that would not exist without the technology.
Early detection
Of course, discovering disabilities early in life is nothing new but it has become more than simply a labeling game. Groups like Easter Seals are behind the cultural push to fund programs that specialize in early detection of developmental delays that can often be helped with intervention programs. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 11 percent of the children who are served in federally funded early intervention programs (before Kindergarten, as young as 24 months) end up not needing any special education in the school years. Despite this, the CDC also reports that the median age for diagnosis of spectrum disorders like autism is older than 6. It will take a change in thinking at all levels – from parents to lawmakers – for kids to receive the help they need in early childhood and improve special education through adulthood.
Classroom integration
Long gone are the days when special education students were placed in separate classrooms, perhaps even in completely different parts of a school. Special education students are often now sitting alongside their traditional student peers for at least part of the day. The amount of time spent in a “normal” classroom is determined by the particular disability but more special education students are in classrooms than in the past – giving them the common school experience of their classmates.
Student-led planning
When special education students reach high school, they are being called upon more and more to have input into their individual learning plans. This is to prepare these students for more independence in adulthood. It also gives teachers more insight into the methods these students favor when it comes to learning. Instead of dictating what and how special education students should learn, student-led input helps chart the course toward academic and life skills.
Overall, special education is becoming a more normalized experience for the students. Our tech-hungry culture is the perfect backdrop for the tools that these special education learners need to succeed in K-12 classrooms.
What changes have other educators noticed in special education over the past decade or so?
Across the nation schools are trying to locate and hire qualified special education teachers. The open positions are abundant and many teachers are not equipped to handle the challenges this difficult job presents. Schools often settle for inexperienced or under qualified candidates who may not last even a year or two.
The Lee Pesky Learning Center, in conjunction with Boise State University, believes that adequate teacher preparation can make all the difference. This nonprofit organization is working to overcome the teacher shortage by preparing individuals for the unique demands and challenges of working with special needs students.
The Pesky Center in Boiseprovides one-on-one instruction for special needs students after school hours, studying with an “education specialist.” Students of all ages come to work on anything from multiplication to reading comprehension with a mentor. Attention is placed on instructional components, how the student is responding and if goals are being achieved.
Founded in 1997, The Pesky Center was established to help students with learning disabilities. At the moment, the most pressing issue is locating and developing quality special education instructors. The center is helping to address this teacher shortage with a new training program. Students working toward a master’s in teaching at Boise State can apply to spend one year at the center as an instructor, while taking classes. The training and classes of this Special Education Collaborative program are covered by a scholarship from the founders of the center, Alan and Wendy Pesky.
Over the coming years, the hope is to grow the program and train even more teachers on the intricacies of working with special needs students. Professional development opportunities and training programs such as this will only help to tackle the special education teacher shortage by equipping educators with the skills necessary to be successful in their profession long-term.
It is estimated that over 6.5 million children in the U.S. have disabilities. Meeting the needs of these students poses special challenges. This is one area of education that is a priority for many people and entities. In this article, I will talk about five advancements and findings that are specifically related to special education in this country.
Special education preschoolers learn better in mainstream settings.
A study from Ohio State University found that preschoolers categorized as having special needs or disabilities learned more with at least some time in mainstream classrooms than outside of it.
“We found that children with disabilities get a big boost in their language scores over the course of a year when they can interact with other children who have good language skills,” said the study’s co-author and a teaching professor, Laura Justice.
To reach these conclusions, 670 preschool children enrolled in 83 different programs were observed and analyzed. Of those numbers, half had a disability. Classrooms with a combination of special education and mainstream students, as well as classrooms with 100 percent special education students were studied and compared.
In the classrooms where special education students were placed among more highly-skilled peers, language scores were 40 percent higher at the end of the preschool year than those in special-needs only classrooms. The study also found that the mainstream students were not negatively impacted by the presence of special needs students, and showed the same levels of improvements as previous classes with no special needs students.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, about half of the nation’s special needs preschoolers are in classrooms with higher-skilled peers, but as this study points out, all preschoolers could benefit from the inclusion.
D.C. has worked to change special education in their schools.
In 2014, the District of Columbia Council moved forward with three bills to revamp special education in the city. The bills will work together to provide more information for parents of special needs students and to speed up the process of receiving services.
Most significantly, the legislation would reduce the amount of maximum time between a referral and when an evaluation must take place from 120 days to 60 days. The 120-day mandate is the longest in the nation.
Early intervention programs would also receive extra support and resources, and the transition to adulthood classes will begin at the age of 14 instead of the previous 16. Parents would also receive more rights as a result of the bills, with the ability to be allowed to observe current or future classrooms of their children.
Charter schools would also be encouraged to develop special-needs programs with a new preference in enrollment lotteries for students that a have a disability that their school specializes in addressing.
In D.C., over 13,000 students are classified as having disabilities that impact their studies, and only one in five are proficient in reading (only one in four are proficient in math).
Bethune-Cookman University aims to create more special education teachers.
Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida received a $1.25 million grant from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services through the U.S. Department of Education that will be used to launch a program called Project Child. The initiative aims to graduate 70 master level special education teachers through a fully online program to meet the growing demand for these educators.
The Council for Exceptional Children reports that there are 49 states, including Florida, with a shortage of teachers in classrooms where there are 6 million children or youth with disabilities.
According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal online, Willis Walter, dean of the school’s college of education said, “There is a critical shortage throughout the nation. And one of the ways that we’re hoping to assist with that battle is giving more students an incentive to go into the field.”
The U.S. Department of Education has raised the bar in measuring special education benchmarks.
Factors like state graduation rates and test scores will now be considered more heavily when determining which states are helping, and what states are failing, their special education students.
States that are unable to meet the new benchmarks set forth for three years or more could face losing some of their special education funding.
How difficult will it be for states to achieve the benchmarks when it comes to special education students? To put it in perspective, 41 states met the requirements of the old system. Under the new requirements, only 18 states meet the standards.
In speaking about the reason for this shift in policy, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan implied that by setting a higher bar for special education achievements, students will benefit.
“We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to the general curriculum in the regular classroom, they excel. We must be honest about student performance, so that we can give all students the supports and services they need to succeed,” he said.
The mayor of New York vowed to fix the special education reimbursement program.
Mayor Bill de Blasio assured state lawmakers that his administration would streamline the process of applying for and receiving aid for families with special education students who chose private school programs. Though NYC public schools do offer special education programs, some families feel that the specific disabilities and skill levels cannot be met through the public school offerings.
The mayor’s verbal commitment came just shy of the State Assembly nearly passing a law that would force de Blasio to change the system in favor of families with special education needs. The bill already passed the State Senate. Among other things, the legislation would put an end to the annual review process that forces families to re-enter their information and paperwork for reimbursement.
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who spoke directly to de Blasio, says that the Assembly will pass the bill if the NYC administration falls short of its promises on the matter.
The latest bill came after a string of others with similar intent over the past three years — none of which have passed. Among the opponents to the removal of the annual review process was the New York State School Boards Association that argued that the yearly requirement is necessary since children’s needs change over time. In addition to special education families, New York City’s Orthodox Jewish Community supports easier reimbursement for private and religious school tuition for the special education students that need it.
I think that any reimbursement program outside the public school system that uses tax dollars should be subject to scrutiny, but it seems the families of special education students are facing unfair treatment. I hope that de Blasio is able to live up to his promises regarding the streamlining of this process.
I am excited to see all the efforts to improve special education in our country — special education is a necessary component of education.
