Professional Development for Novice Special Education

Teachers:

15 Effective Strategies for a Successful School Year.

Dr. Jan Jones Wadsworth, Consultant in Special Education and Transition Dr. Nilsa J. Thorsos , Professor Special Education: Azusa Pacific UniversityDr. Eric Mendrano, Special Education Teacher and Adjunct: Azusa Pacific University

AgendaDiscuss Current issues :Teacher Attrition and

Retention in the field of K-12 .

6 Effective strategies for transition and self determination, effective parental involvement (Life after K-12) .

6 Effective classroom management and educational strategies

6 effective brain-based strategies to increase student engagement, memory, and motivation

Why Do Teachers Leave?

A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn, Dr. Ken Futernick of the California State University’s Center for Teacher Quality finds that “critical problems in the teaching and learning environment are literally driving teachers from the classroom.” 

Teacher Attrition: A Myth?

Too many teachers leave the profession prematurely. Too few remain teaching in our most challenging schools.

22 percent of California teachers leave the profession after the first four years.

Ten percent of teachers in high poverty schools transfer to other schools each year

Special Education Teachers

are most likely to leave special education because of inadequate system supports as well as an all-too-often hostile teaching environment created by parents and student advocates.

too little time for the complex and constantly changing IEPs (Individualized Education Program) they are required to write.

Many leave because of dysfunctional professional relationships with their colleagues in general education.

Special v. General Education Teachers

Special education teachers are more likely than general education teachers to transfer to a different teaching position (Billingsly, 2003).

Vacancies in special education are ongoing each year forcing school districts to hire new unqualified teachers in place of a lost teacher (McLesky & Billingsly. 2008).

Demands under IDEAUnder IDEA, special education teachers that

teach core academic subjects must be highly qualified by the end of the 2005 – 2006 academic school year.

To meet these requirements one must possess a full State certification as a special education teacher, or pass the State license examination of a special education teacher and carry a State license to teach as a specialized instructor (Wright & Wright, 2007).

AttritionAttrition of special education teachers is

increasing and she places these teachers in four categories. Special education teachers will return to their position, transfer to a different special education teaching assignment, transfer to a general education teaching assignment, or carry a non-teaching position (Billingsly, 2003).

AttritionIn a similar study from the Schools and Staffing

Survey (SASS), Boe, Cook, and Sunderland (2008) found that at the end of the 1999 – 2000 school year the attrition of special education teachers was greatest in exit attrition, or having a new career away from education. As high as 9.3% of special education teachers will leave their position after their first year of teaching (Sach, 1999) and would leave teaching 2.5 times higher than general education teachers (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004).

Special Education AttritionRegardless of the attempts to train special

education teachers, four out of ten special education teachers leave their position in the first five years of teaching (Kozleski, Mainzer, & Deshler, 2000).

These teachers leave their positions due to several reasons including isolation from their colleagues and poor special education teacher preparedness programs (Billingsly, 2003).

Assess and address specific challenges in retention of special

education teachers:Many factors responsible for special education teachers leaving or staying are the same for teachers working in general education classrooms.

However, there are school conditions that are uniquely problematic for special education teachers that must be addressed.

Problems in the Working Environment are Driving

Teachers from the Profession

Twenty-two percent of new teachers in California leave the profession within their first four years (The Public Policy Institute of California)

Dissatisfied teachers who left the profession cited serious problems with their working environment ( Futernick). 

More than half of these teachers expressed concerns over inadequate supports, such as a lack of time for planning or professional development, and bureaucratic impediments such as classroom interruptions, unnecessary meetings, and too little say over the way their schools are run.

  Teachers also pointed frequently to a lack of collegiality as a key reason for leaving the classroom or transferring to another school.

Bureaucratic impediment was the factor cited most frequently by dissatisfied teachers as a reason for leaving (57%). 

Excessive paperwork, too many meetings, and frequent classroom interruptions.  One teacher said, “I feel as though I teach between the interruptions.”

Teachers also expressed concern with the emphasis on standardized testing and heightened calls for accountability that place further constraints on teaching. 

One in four dissatisfied teachers leaving the profession said that an overly scripted and narrow curriculum contributed to their decision to leave. 

A Lack of Support

Fifty-two percent of dissatisfied teachers cited poor administrative support as a reason for leaving the profession. 

These teachers pointed to basic problems such as poor hiring procedures and unresponsive payroll departments, as well as to more complex problems such as inadequate professional development as reasons for leaving. 

Forty-two percent cited a lack of resources such as not enough textbooks, inadequate technology and a lack of basic supplies.

Cultivate better collegial supports for Special Educators

Great progress has been made in integrating special education students into general education programs.

The findings from the retention survey suggest that far less progress has been made to fully integrate special education teachers with their general education colleagues.

Special educators often feel isolated and ignored, and many find themselves at odds with school principals and their general education colleagues when advocating for their special education students.

This aspect of special education is a significant contributor to the high turnover rate among special educators.

6 Effective strategies for transition and self

determination, effective parental involvement

Know the specific disability’s characteristics.

Collaboration

Parent Involvement

Self Advocacy

IEP/ITP Goals

Expectations/ Outcomes

#1 Know the specific disability’s characteristics.

#2 Collaboration

#3 Parent Involvement

#4 Self Advocacy

# 5 IEP/ITP Goals

#6 Expectations/Outcomes

6 Effective classroom management and educational

strategies

6 Effective classroom management and educational

strategiesUnderstanding Classroom Behavior Implementations

Assessing and Creating Individual behavior systems

Effective Environment for the unique needs of students

Learning Centers

Lesson Presentations

Ongoing Motivation and Encouragement for students with disabilities

Understanding Classroom Behavior Implementations

Systematic approach to positively reinforce general rules for ALL students.

Must be used throughout the day

Ongoing

Objective is to encourage positive/wanted behaviors for all students.

Stoplight Behavior Management

Assessing and Creating Individual behavior systems

Informal assessments for all students

Must find the unique reinforcements of students

Positive Reinforcement

Effective Environment for the unique needs of students

Students learn differently

Ongoing assessing of classroom environment

Communication with all members of the multidisciplinary team to understand student interest, learning styles, and behavior

Learning Centers

Modify and accommodate assignments

Timed stations

Opportunities for direct instruction

Reward based instruction

Lesson Presentations

Clear objective and expectationsVisual scheduleEnlarged printBeginning/End

Overplanning Lessons

Activate student interest

Ongoing Motivation and Encouragement for students with

disabilities

Students need to be positively reinforced throughout the day.“Good Job”High fivesThumbs up

Find at least one thing a student has completed and encourage

6 effective brain-based strategies to increase student engagement, memory,

and motivation Adapted from:Judy Willis, MD, M.Ed www.RADteach.com

R.A.D.

R IS THE RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM

A IS THE AMYGDALA

D IS DOPAMINE

YOU WILL WORK SMARTER,

NOT HARDER

BECAUSE YOU KNOW MOST OF THESE

brain-based STRATEGIES ALREADY,

RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM (RAS)

All information enters the brain through the senses.

All sensory input must pass through the RAS filter to enter the higher brain

RAS directs attention

RAS determine where input goes: reactive or reflective brain

ADHD is not necessarily an attention disorder

RAS less filtering so unproductive input impairs focusing on “important” input

If survival needs are met and stress is down the RAS conducts information into the Reflective brain

Survival First - React with Fight/Flight/Freeze

RAS Interventions

stability anD familiarity

THEN you can stimulate curiosity with change, novelty, and surprise!

Stability and familiarity through repeated experiences

Songs Routines Jobs Quiet zone Consistent enforcement

Create a non-threatening climate

with low stress,then captivate the

RAS with brain-research based

strategies such as a..............

.....................................

......................................................................

.......... Suspenseful Pause

To build curiosity and captivate RAS attention

Strategies that influence RAS information

intake and flow

Surprise! discrepant events

Prior knowledge activation

AdvertisingColor

Costumes-MusicMovement

Start Class With Surprising New Information

Novelty and MemoryTest subjects viewed a variety of photographs

Participants then given series of words to sort according to meaning.

The next day one group viewed new images and the control group viewed the familiar ones.

They were all then asked to recall as many words from the previous day’s list as they could.

Recall was significantly better in the group that had just viewed new images. (Fenker, D. and Schultz, H.)

Novelty in Vocabulary

Practice

haughty

tall, taller

, talles

t

ADVERTISE

Homework

Group 1: Bring in 1/2 cup flour

Group 2: Bring in 1/4 cup salt

Group 3: Bring in 1/3 cup water in a jar

PHYSICAL ACTIVITYTO MAINTAIN

RAS ATTENTION

ANYTHING MOVING?

Attention and Focus

children are criticized for not paying attention. They may just not be paying attention to what teachers or parents think is important because they don’t know why it is

important to them.

Draw Attention Important Information

When students have to search for what is important they cannot devote full mental resources to processing the information.

Scaffold students with cues.

For students to remain engaged in the learning, the

information needs to be personally meaningful.

Interest survey helps personalize

for RAS

Take attendance with personal choices (take notes)

What color was your first bicycle?

Prime Their Connections & Interest

Something about a country or author

Attentive Focus • Students are most focused when they know they will have to do something with the information. (PET scan and reading study)

• Knowing a think-pair-share follows will increase active focus.

alerts to information that connects with

personally valued

GOALS

RAS

STUDENTS VALUE THE KNOWLEDGEPunctuation Lesson

? ! “ ; : . ,

Now they value the learning

personally meaningfulGoal directed learning

students value the information so it passes through the Brain Filters (RAD)

Reading Study (They know they will do something meaningful with the information)

For students to pay attention the information needs connect

with personally meaningfulGOALS.

“Marshmallow Test” longitudinal study by Michael Mischel at Stanford University beginning in the 1960s.

Individual four-year-old children were brought into a room where a marshmallow sat on a table in front of them.

The examiner told the child she had to go down the hall to do something, but if the child needed her to return immediately she or he could push a button.

She also told the child if he/she waited to eat the marshmallow until she returned, he/she could have two marshmallows.

For students to pay attention the information needs connect

with personally meaningfulGOALS.

Strengthen Goal-Directed Behavior measured as the ability to delay immediate gratification in exchange for long-term goal achievement.

The ability to persist in the face of obstacles is at least as important a factor in success as talent.

Scholarly success was more than twice as dependent on self-discipline as on IQ.(Duckworth and Seligman, 2006)

-Goal Progress Tracking: Students see the connection between their work and practice and their progress.

Effort=Progress to Goal

Self-Monitoring to Build Self Mastery

Conduct experiments My best conditions for learning (lighting, music, alone, time of day)

Experiment with different sensory learning

(Borich & Tombari, 1997)

-They discover their learning strengths and keep records of successful strategies

Graphs of their progress

Develop association of effort to goal-progress Self-monitoring

Development of RAS focus-directing strategies

Perseverance and future goal setting

Effort = progress to MEANINGFUL GOALS