Special Education

By:
Stacie Pancoast
Paul Meyerhoefer
 Special Education Definition
 Specially designed instruction, at no cost to the
parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with
a disability, including instruction conducted in the
classroom, in the home, in hospitals and
institutions, and in other settings; and instruction
in physical education, and includes the terms
specified in federal regulation at 34 CFR 300.39.

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Special Education Philosophy
 The Mandate -- Inclusion
 Free and Appropriate Public Education
(FAPE)
 In the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Special Education Philosophy
 The Reality
 Less than 11% of students with Intellectual
Disabilities are in regular education
classrooms
 Less than half of students receiving special
education services are in regular education
classrooms

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Function of Special Education
 Specially designed instruction to meet the
unique needs of a student with a disability.
 "Free and Appropriate Public Education" (FAPE)
– IDEA mandates that special education
services will be no cost to families.

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Relation to developmental
disabilities
 Special Education (SpEd) serves students from
birth until age 22.
 The majority of SpEd teachers work with
student with mild-to-moderate disabilities (ex:
learning disabilities).
 Use or modify the general education curriculum to meet the
student’s individual needs.
 Some SpEd teachers work with students with
moderate-severe disabilities (ex: mental
retardation or autism)
 More emphasis on life skills and basic literacy.

Stacie Pancoast
 Special Education Settings
 Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
 Opportunity to be educated with typically developing peers as
appropriate
 Access to general education curriculum or school activities.
 Settings where Special Educators may be
employed:
 General education classroom
 Resource rooms
 Occupational, physical, and speech/language therapy
 Sensory rooms or rooms with special physical equipment
 Adapted physical education
 Self-contained classrooms

Stacie Pancoast
Specialized schools
 Assessment Information
 Standardized tests given to students to determine if
they qualify for special education services.
 Once the request for assessment is received in writing,
the school district has 15 days to prepare an
assessment plan.
 This plan is required to include assessments in all
areas of suspected needs.
 Once the parent signs this plan, the school district has
60 days (not counting school breaks) to conduct the
assessments.

Stacie Pancoast
 Types of Assessments
 There are a wide variety of assessments
available designed to:
 Measure "cognitive ability" (intelligence).
 Determine the student’s education level.
 Determine psychological challenges faced by the student.
 Determine what special needs a student might have (ex: speech, social
skills, physical).
 Assessment results can be from independent
sources:
 Therapists, doctors, social workers, etc…
 School districts need copies of all assessments
so that they can be included in determining what
other assessments to administer and in preparing
their recommendations.
Stacie Pancoast
 Assessment Results
 Special educators work in collaboration with
other staff members to gather educational
assessments and report on the student’s
present level of performance.
 Assessment results are presented at an IEP
team meeting
 The student’s special education eligibility is
determined.
 A placement recommendation is presented by the
district.
Stacie Pancoast
 Educational Requirements
 Many colleges and universities offer programs in SpEd at
the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree levels.
 SpEd teachers usually undergo longer periods of training
than general education teachers.
 Most bachelor’s degree programs are 4-year programs
that include general and specialized courses in special
education.
 However, many programs require a 5th year or other
graduate-level preparation.

Stacie Pancoast
 Educational Programs
 Sample coursework:
 Educational psychology
 legal issues of special education
 child growth and development
 knowledge and skills needed for teaching students with disabilities
 Some programs require specialization
 OSU offers intervention programs in: Early Childhood, Mild-
Moderate and Moderate-Severe.
 Other programs offer generalized special education
degrees.
 The last part of the program is spent student
teaching in a classroom supervised by a certified
teacher.
Stacie Pancoast
 Licensing Requirements
 All states require teachers to be licensed, which
requires:
 The completion of an approved teacher training program
 Supervised student teaching
 At least a bachelor’s degree
 Passing scores on professional assessment tests (Praxis)
 However, many states now require a master’s degree
in special education.
 Involves at least 1 year of additional course work
 A specialization, beyond the bachelor’s degree.
 Many states have alternative licensure programs to
attract people who do not have the qualifications to
become SpEd teachers under normal procedures.
Stacie Pancoast
 Ohio’s Licensure Process
 A provisional teacher license (valid for two
years) is issued to an individual who:
 holds a degree required by the license
 who has completed an approved teacher preparation program
 who is of good moral character
 who has completed an examination prescribed by the State
Board of Education (ex: the Praxis I and II)
 who has been recommended by the dean of education at an
approved teacher preparation program
 who has completed at least six semester hours in the teaching
of reading, (including at least one course in the teaching of
phonics).

Stacie Pancoast
 Ohio’s Licensure Process
 After completing an Entry-Year (EY) program, which
is a formal year of support while teaching full-time,
teachers can be issued a professional license.
 A professional license is valid for five years and is
issued to an individual who:
 holds the appropriate provisional license and a baccalaureate degree;
 is of good moral character
 completed an approved teacher preparation program
 Completed an EY program
 Passed the Praxis III assessment

Stacie Pancoast
 Licensing: Highly Qualified Teachers
 IDEA requires that all public special education
teachers be “highly qualified.”
 To be considered highly qualified:
 All special education teachers must hold full certification or
licensure in special education in the state where they teach
 Have at least a bachelor’s degree
 A special education resource teacher who
only consults with regular education teachers
does not need to demonstrate competence in
core academic subjects

Stacie Pancoast
 Highly Qualified Teachers
 Teachers who are teaching above the elementary school
level must have subject matter knowledge appropriate to
the level of instruction to effectively teach to those
standards.
 A special education teacher who is highly qualified has two
years from the date of employment to demonstrate
competence in the core academic subjects s/he teaches.

– English, reading or language arts – Civics and government

– Mathematics – Economics
– Science – Arts
– Foreign languages – History and geography
Stacie Pancoast
 Special Education
Professional Jargon
 Related to Mandated Education
 IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
 IDEIA: Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act
 FAPE: Free and Appropriate Public Education
 LRE: Least Restrictive Environment
 IFSP: Individualized Family Service Plan (birth to
3 years)
 IEP: Individualized Education Plan
 MFE: Multifaceted Evaluation

Stacie Pancoast
 Special Education
Professional Jargon
 Inclusion: Definitions vary
 Education in a classroom where the percentage of
those with and without disabilities is proportional to
the general population
 High Stakes Testing
 Testing where major educational and/or policy
decisions depend upon the outcome of a single test

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Current Issues in Special Education
 High Stakes Testing
 The myth of accountability
 Poor test scores = poor schools
 The consequences of failure
 Lack of promotion
 Diploma vs. Certificate
 Test Issues
 Validity?
 Bias?

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Current Issues in Special Education
 Inclusion
 Despite FAPE in the LRE being mandated for
more than 30 years percentage of students
fully included is dismal
 Debate: Is inclusion a place or a practice?
 Is full inclusion appropriate for the majority of
students?

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Current Issues in Special Education
 Preservice Education
 Fostering a commitment to inclusive
education
 Development of respect for differently-abled
students

Paul Meyerhoefer
 Special Education Websites
 Ohio Department of Education -
www.ode.state.oh.us
 Council for Exceptional Children -
www.cec.sped.org
 Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) -
www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.h
tm
 Special Education Law and Advocacy -
www.wrightslaw.com

Stacie Pancoast
References
 Affenbach, P. (2005). National Reading Conference
Policy Brief: High stakes testing and reading assessment.
Journal of Literacy Research, 37, 151 – 162.
 Boling, L. (2007). Yeah, But I still don’t want to deal with it.
Changes in a teacher candidate’s conceptions of inclusion.
Teaching Education, 18, 217-231.
 Invernizzi, M., Landrum, T.J., Howell, J., and Warley, H.
(2005). Toward the peaceful coexistence of test
developers, policymakers, and teachers in an era of
accountability. The Reading Teacher, 58, 610 – 618.
 Manning, J.P. & Gaudilli, W. (2006). What teacher educators
should know about poverty and special education.
Teacher Education and Special Education, 29, 236-243.
References
 Ohio Dept. of Education, Office of Exceptional Children (2007).
Whose IDEA Is This? A Resource Guide for Parents.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.
aspx?
page=3&TopicRelationID=968&ContentID=11128&Content=36973
.
 The Ohio State University, College of Education and Human
Ecology
 Special Education undergraduate program.
http://ehe.osu.edu/paes/newacademic/undergrad/specialed/specialed.htm
 Special Education Masters of Arts program.
http://ehe.osu.edu/paes/newacademic/speced/masped.htm
 The Praxis Test Series www.ets.org/praxis
 Smith, Phil (2007). Have we made any progress? Including
students with intellectual disabilities in regular education
classrooms. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 45, 297-
309.
References
 Titone, C. (2005). The philosophy of inclusion. Roadblocks
and remedies for the teacher and the teacher educator.
Journal of Educational Thought, 39, 7-32.
 U.S. Dept. of Education (1999). How a student is
identified as having a disability and needing special
education services. Downloaded from
http://www.ldonline.org/article/6226 on 26 October 2007.
 Vorhaus, J. Respecting profoundly disabled learners.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 18, 313-328.
 Wasburn-Moses, L. (2003). What every special educator
needs to know about high-stakes testing? Teaching
Exceptional Children, 35(4), 12-15.