Program Completers’ Perceptions of Accelerated Special Education Licensure Program Effectiveness
In what areas do our online accelerated special education initial licensure graduate program completers indicate they feel prepared? What are some program shortcomings? We’ll share!
Presented by:
Nikki Logan, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Sydney Bueno, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Sawyer Stevens, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Abstract:
Our traditional, mid-sized public university with a growing graduate student population developed an online, accelerated graduate program for initial special education teacher licensure. To evaluate program effectiveness and identify areas of improvement, we surveyed four cohorts of program completers. Results indicated most completers feel “very prepared” to manage student behavior, work with students with disabilities in K-12th grade, use educational and assistive technology, and identify and use evidence-based practices. Participants who indicated they feel less than “very prepared” responded they need additional real-world experiences, a deeper understanding or additional breadth of disabilities, technologies, behavior management techniques, and evidence-based practices.
Keywords:
Teacher preparation, accelerated teacher licensure program, online cohort graduate program
Learning Outcomes:
1. summarize published research highlighting various models of, strengths, and shortcomings of teacher preparation programs.
2. describe actions an online accelerated special education initial licensure graduate program can take so completers feel prepared to manage student behavior, work with students with disabilities in K-12th grade, use educational and assistive technology, and identify and use evidence-based practices.
3. state reasons why students enrolled in an online accelerated special education initial licensure graduate program feel unprepared to manage student behavior, work with students with disabilities in K-12th grade, use educational and assistive technology, and identify and use evidence-based practices and the institution’s subsequent changes and recommendations for additional adjustments.
Program Completers’ Perceptions of Accelerated Special Education Licensure Program Effectiveness
Hear it from the author:
Transcript:
As a way to evaluate our program effectiveness for our online graduate level accelerated special education initial licensure program, we sent completers a Qualtrics survey asking how prepared they felt to manage student behavior, evidence-based practices, using educational and assistive technology, and working with students with disabilities in K through 12th grade. A majority of students in all four areas marked they felt very prepared or extremely prepared. If they didn't, we asked them to write a narrative response. They wanted more instruction on working with students with physical behaviors, severe behaviors. They wanted some more hands-on experiences with curriculum and with educational/assistive technology, and that they just wanted additional learning on transition, autism, and middle and high school students. In addition, we felt like our next steps based on that data were to continue to evolve some of our courses, such as our educational technology course, look at how we continue to provide exposure for our students in various curricula, educational technology and disability areas, and then decide what is within the scope of our program and what might be outside the scope of our program and also sharing those results with instructors who teach in the program.
References
Darling-Hammond, L., Chung, R., & Frelow, F. (2002). Variation in teacher preparation: How well do different pathways prepare teachers to teach? Journal of Teacher Education, 53(4), 286-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053004
Greenberg, J., McKee, A., & Walsh, K. (2013). Teacher prep review: A review of the nation's teacher preparation programs. SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2353894
Rosenberg, M. S., & Sindelar, P. T. (2005). The proliferation of alternative routes to certification in special education: A critical review of the literature. The Journal of Special Education, 39(2), 117–127. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00224669050390020201
Tissington L. D., & Grow, A. (2007). Alternative certified teachers and children at risk. Preventing School Failure, 51(2), 23-27. https://doi.org/10.3200/PSFL.51.2.23-27