National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality National Issue Forum
National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
Roundtable Discussion
“Preparing Special Educators:
Critical Issues and Emerging Needs”
DoubleTree Hotel, Arlington, Virginia
June 27, 2007
On June 27, 2007, the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality offered a national invitational Roundtable Discussion focused on policy, research, and practice relating to special education teacher quality. This event, targeted for regional comprehensive centers, their states, and institution of higher education (IHE) partners, focused on recent and emerging policy, research, and practices in special education with an emphasis on teacher preparation. The goal of this Roundtable Discussion was to provide an opportunity for participants representing a variety of perspectives on these issues to come together to identify major challenges and opportunities to improve the preparation, certification, and licensure of special education teachers.
The Roundtable Discussion created a jumping-off point for more targeted and sustained activities on special education from National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality during the next year.
The purpose and goals of the meeting were as follows:
- Discuss what is currently known in response to the guiding questions that follow.
- Identify gaps in the current knowledge base.
- Develop a recommended agenda for the next set of work on these issues—not only for National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality but for participants and the field as well.
Discussion centered on the following guiding questions:
- Given the highly qualified requirements for special education teachers from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), what are the implications for how special education teachers are prepared? What are the implications for certification and licensure?
- How can the current context breed solutions? With what are states and IHEs experimenting to find solutions? What are some real priority areas related to improving preparation and certification and licensure? Now that we know more about IDEA guidance, what needs to be addressed by the NCLB reauthorization in its teacher quality provisions?
- What information and knowledge is essential to moving forward on these issues? What are the gaps?
The following information and materials from the Roundtable Discussion are available:
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