A national shortage of special education teachers means many students with disabilities will enter classrooms this fall with teachers whose training is limited to a summer crash course.
Across the country there are 45,000 fewer highly qualified special education teachers than are needed, federal statistics show. In cities like Milwaukee that means that as many as one quarter of classrooms for kids with disabilities are headed by teachers with emergency credentials.
Rather than going through traditional university education programs to obtain a teacher’s license, these instructors hired through alternative teacher training programs work toward their credentials while they teach. Such teachers generally undergo a summer training program before heading into the classroom, but critics argue that they are ill-prepared to handle the intensive needs of students with disabilities.
Proponents counter that such programs yield capable teachers who are selected through rigorous application processes. What’s more, they say new educators — even those with little training — provide a much better option than the alternative of substitute teachers, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. To read more click here.
Our students with special needs deserve better than ill-prepared teachers and/or substitute teachers for their instruction. Let’s provide federal and local incentives for those interested in pursuing a career in special education and provide the intensive training necessary for such a career. One cannot prepare to become a special educator with just a summer seminar. It takes years of education and practice in the field to provide standards-based, high quality instruction to those students who are marginalized to begin with. Let’s not short-change them (or society) by doing any less.
Denise Shoaf, M.A.
It’s nice to have an opinion, but one should learn what they are talking about before they stick their foot in their . . .
One comment suggested – “Do not mainstream the so called “special ed” children!”
Actually, that is the model which is being returned to by the schools. There were no SpEd classes for these kids 50 years ago, so everyone was in the same class. It was believed that these students were lazy or ‘goof offs.’ Now we (people who pay attention to these things) realize that they have differences in how their brains work that effect how they learn, think and process info. The system thought that separating them would work, but after creating a generation of wards of the state who were coddled and passed on and cannot keep a job or live independently, the schools are finally measuring the success of these programs and realizing that they must be with ‘normal’ kids who they can learn from.
That does not mean they should be thrown into the deep end of the pool to sink or swim. The ‘old’ system meant teaching at the pace of the slowest, so nobody was left behind. It also had different ‘tracks’ for people headed for clerical or general employment, as well as college, since any ninny knows that college is a waste for many people. Today, 60% who enter college never finish. The schools know that, but love the loan guaranteed tuition that they receive and have no concern with the debt they saddle the non-grads with, which they have no chance of paying off.
The choice society faces with people on the Autism Spectrum is whether we want to pay to make them ready to enter the job force and become contributing members of society OR give them SSI, Medicaid and tons of supports for the rest of their lives. Right now we pay for both.