Dr. Keri C Fogle

As the teacher shortage continues to sweep the country, Grow Your Own (GYO) programs designed to attract and prepare more individuals into the teaching ranks are gaining national attention, particularly those targeting special education. Assisting paraprofessionals who work with students with disabilities has long been considered as one strategy among the array of ideas to grow more teachers and retain them. The solution includes GYOs that provide paraprofessionals with tuition support to earn their degrees and teaching certificates. Yet, little is known about outcomes of programs that fund paraprofessionals to become teachers. The state of Florida funded GYO program has compiled outcome data on more than 200 paraprofessionals who received tuition support to obtain their degrees. Data support the notion that when provided with financial assistance, paraprofessionals do earn their degrees and apply for teaching certification. Retention data also indicate that they remain certified at commendable levels.

In this article, we describe how our general and special education faculty collaborated to infuse the Universal Design for Learning framework into our special education preparation program, a dual-licensure special education and elementary education (K-6) undergraduate degree program. We describe the curriculum reform processes and outcomes of the UDL curriculum enhancement project, along with specific examples from multiple courses. Additionally, we highlight the need to continuously evaluate such efforts so that areas for improvement can be identified and addressed. For instance, we realized that our teacher candidates still needed more support to transfer what they learned about UDL from their coursework to their planning and practice in student teaching. In sum, we did not just create a plan, implement it, and consider it completed. We recognized a gap in the original plan, made improvements, and re-assessed, just as we would expect our teacher candidates to do when evaluating their own practice.

Teacher educators have focused reform efforts on preparing graduates to address increasingly diverse K-12 students. Collaboration among general and special education faculty is seen as beneficial for preparing teacher candidates who can teach diverse learners, yet it is not the norm. This practitioner research explored a curriculum reform effort that used a faculty learning community (FLC) to engage general and special education faculty in the process of integrating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into a teacher education program. Faculty perceptions of the collaborative reform process and resulting curriculum enhancements are presented. Findings indicated the process was valued by our faculty, promoted a stronger culture of collaboration, and resulted in program improvements. This study offers guidance to other teacher education faculty interested in collaborative reform.

Parents have advocated for the educational rights of their children with disabilities for decades, and more so since the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Advocating for one’s child while working as an employee in the same school district where your child receives special education services comes with unforeseen complexities. Using a heuristic case study approach, this inquiry intended to discern the experiences, barriers, and perceptions of job security of two parent-educators with children with autism. Findings suggest unanticipated experiences and challenges within their dual, parent-educator role as indicated by the theory of responsible advocacy. Perceived employment consequences related to advocating from within the school system are also discussed along with implications for such parent-educators and their role in improving parent–school partnerships in special education.

This module provides a definition of what co-teaching is and presents an overview of the various co-teaching models that teaching pairs or teams can use during instruction. Additionally, this module provides support for wrestling with the challenges associated with co-teaching including setting appropriate expectations, communicating between partners and among teams, and designing co-planned or collaborative instruction.

This paper explores a collaborative, cross-disciplinary curriculum reform effort on teacher candidate learning conducted at a regional comprehensive university in the Southeast U.S. The goal of this effort was to reform teacher preparation curriculum to prepare graduates to effectively teach students with disabilities (SWDs) in inclusive environments. Reform efforts focused on systematic integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to prepare teacher candidates enrolled in a dual certification program (elementary/special education). A quasi-experimental, static-group comparison design was used to explore the impacts of the teacher education curriculum reform on candidate learning and attitudes. Surveys of student perceived knowledge and attitudes were conducted and application of the UDL framework within lesson plans was analyzed. Results indicate improvement in perceived knowledge and usefulness of the UDL framework and a broader application of UDL strategies in lesson planning.

Parents and educators are expected under IDEIA to work together on educational decision-making for students with disabilities. While collegial relationships in this process are intended, partnerships are not always formed because both parties can struggle to understand each other’s perspective. Parents may hold their view, while educators may have another. What happens when parents are also educators? Can stronger partnerships be forged when parent-educators exist in both roles?
This paper presents the cases of three parent-educators and their struggles in advocating for their own children with disabilities. From those experiences we provide parents and educators lessons to carry forward as well as resources for improving parent–school relationships in special education.

Advocating for your child with a disability can be a daunting task for any parent. When the parent is also a school district employee, determining whether advocacy could impact one’s position as an employee becomes inherently problematic. Using a heuristic case study approach, this inquiry’s intent is to understand the experiences, barriers, and perceptions of ob security related to advocating from inside the district as a parent–educator of a child with a learning disability. Three themes emerged that describe this parent–educator’s experiences. Findings indicate this parent–educator encountered varied experiences. Specifically, these include experiences that were both positive and challenging in nature, barriers that were not anticipated by the parent–educator, and repercussions related to job security. Implications for practice and future research related to parents of children with disabilities who are also educators are discussed.