The Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act mandates that every student with an Individualized Education Program be considered for assistive technology (AT). As a result, future special educators need to have the knowledge and skills regarding AT. In this article, the authors report findings from a national study of special education teacher…

Despite a history of research in general education on novice teachers, researchers have only recently begun to investigate the experiences of beginning special educators. Many of these studies describe problems encountered, noting the high attrition rate among beginning special education teachers and emphasizing the importance of keeping qualified…

The diversity of teacher roles has been a long-standing concern in the field of special education. Role complexity has been implicated in teacher burnout and attrition and in the inefficiency of service delivery models. Recent evidence suggests that new policy may be further complicating teacher roles and that teachers may not be prepared for such…

In this study, the authors examine whether an advanced online technology can be used to give teacher trainees real-time feedback on their use of research-based classroom practices. Participants include 15 teachers enrolled in a field-based graduate special education teacher preparation program. Data include video-recorded teacher observations and…

Professional development (PD) experiences for special education teachers are designed to facilitate teacher learning and the implementation of evidence-based practices. PD should also make a positive impact on the K-12 students with disabilities that are in participating teachers' classrooms. In this study, the author investigates the outcomes of…

With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), the Council for Exceptional Children's Content Standards for Beginning Special Education Teachers (2002), and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004), the research to practice gap in special education has garnered increased attention.…

Teacher education programs typically provide pre-service teachers preparation in assessment and identification procedures used to identify students with learning disabilities. What may be missing from teacher preparation is the development of communication skills to thoughtfully and professionally teach children about their disabilities. This…

This paper presents the findings of a study of learning gains made by students with disabilities and those without disability when taught by teacher candidates completing a unified teacher preparation program. "The Student Academic Performance Sample", the culminating performance-based assessment of the program was the primary data source. This…

In response to the current federal initiative to evaluate the impact of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Personnel Preparation program, the authors summarize prior efforts to evaluate the program and identify common themes and gaps in that work. Also, the authors pose issues and questions for those who seek to understand the impact…

The authors examine the influence of autism training sessions on a group of beginning teachers. The results of the study indicate that even a limited amount of professional development and/or training, strategically placed within the confines of a teacher training program, can both significantly increase participants' perceptions and knowledge of…

A process was developed to create Web-based video models of effective instructional practices for use in teacher education settings. Three video models, created at three university sites, demonstrated exemplary implementation of specific, evidence-based strategies in reading, math, and science. Video models of strategies were field tested with…

In this article, issues surrounding the status of special education teaching as a profession are investigated. First, the authors consider what makes an occupation a profession and examine the range of views of professions in American society. Second, the authors describe the evolution and developmental history of three established professions:…

In this study, the authors sought to establish the differential effects on achievement of embedding evidence-based practice in the design of an inclusive education teacher preparation course. Embedded design involves creating self-repeating patterns in the instructional design of a course by expressing essential design features at multiple levels…

In this study, the authors investigate the perceptions of general educators, special educators, and school counselors on the topic of overrepresentation of minorities (specifically, African American) in special education programs. The study took place in a rural school district in south central Alabama, where overrepresentation of African American…

In this study, the authors evaluated the empirical properties of the 33-item Teacher Knowledge and Skills Survey (TKSS) 2.0 for positive behavioral support (PBS) in schools. Through an examination of internal consistency and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the theorized construct, the construct validity of the survey was evaluated. Results…