Press Releases

For Immediate Release: 2 August 2010

Report Examines How States Train General Education Teachers to Teach Students with Disabilities

Boston, Mass. — A new Issues & Answers Report from the Institute of Education Sciences examines how the nine states and territories served by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) prepare their general education teachers to teach students with disabilities. The report describes existing certification requirements for special education coursework and/or fieldwork for general education teachers in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Do States Have Certification Requirements for Preparing General Education Teachers to Teach Students with Disabilities? Experience in the Northeast and Islands Region,”  finds that eight of the nine jurisdictions require some coursework in teaching students with disabilities for initial licensure for general education teachers. Only New Hampshire does not currently mandate coursework or fieldwork in this area and its Department of Education is revising its regulations.

The report identifies eight content areas that one or more states and territories require teachers to study, including: (a) growth and development of exceptional children, which is required in seven jurisdictions; (b) instructional design, required in five jurisdictions; and (c) adapting, differentiating, accommodating, or modifying instruction, which is also required in five of the jurisdictions.

The report also describes commonalities and differences in how the states and territories require teacher candidates to develop special education knowledge:

• Four require teacher candidates to take an approved course focused on special education or teaching exceptional students.
• Four others require teacher candidates to demonstrate knowledge and skills in teaching students with disabilities but do not specify how teacher training programs meet this requirement.
• Two require general education teacher candidates to spend part of their student teaching experience working in classrooms with students with disabilities.

REL-NEI produced the report at the request of education officials in the Northeast and Islands Region. The federal 2004 U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that children with disabilities be educated alongside children without disabilities and in the “least restrictive environment.” Consequently, more than half of students with disabilities are educated in general education classrooms, and two-thirds of students receiving services under IDEA are in at least one course taught by general education teachers.

“States and territories in the Northeast and Islands Region have a range of 8 to 15 percent of their students requiring special education services,” said Project Leader Susan Mundry. “With over 50 percent of these students receiving 80 percent or more of their instruction inside regular classrooms, there is a growing need to ensure that general classroom teachers have the knowledge and training to serve these students effectively. Initial certification requirements in special education for all classroom teachers are one way this need is being addressed.”

The research team collected data from three sources: publicly available SEA documents related to certification requirements for general education teachers; a web-based database of state certification requirements, managed by the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification; and interviews with an identified certification official at each SEA in the region.

The report was written by Mundry, Candice Bocala, Daniel Mello, and Claire Morgan at Learning Innovations at WestEd, a REL-NEI partner. It can be downloaded at the IES website or relnei.org.

For more information about this report, contact agaddis@edc.org.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) is led by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Learning Innovations at WestEd. REL-NEI is one of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories funded by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. REL-NEI provides rigorous research that is relevant to national education priorities, responsive to local needs, and usable for policy and practice. Visit www.relnei.org.

This project has been funded at least in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under Contract Number ED-06-CO-0025. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) is a global nonprofit organization that develops, delivers, and evaluates innovative programs to address some of the world’s most urgent challenges in education, health, and economic development. Visit www.edc.org.