Bonnie S. Billingsley

An Analysis of Factors That Contribute to Parent—School Conflict in Special Education

Understanding factors that escalate conflict, and understanding how conflicts are perceived, particularly by parents, is necessary in developing appropriate response strategies. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that escalate and deescalate parent-school conflict from the perspectives of parents of children with disabilities, school administrators, and mediators. Data from 44 telephone interviews were transcribed and then analyzed. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze data. Eight categories of factors that escalate parent-school conflict in special education were identified: discrepant views of a child or a childs needs, knowledge, service delivery, reciprocal power, constraints, valuation, communication, and trust. Implications for preventing and handling conflict are discussed.

How Does the Quality and Stability of the Teaching Force Influence the Research-to-Practice Gap? A Perspective on the Teacher Shortage in Special Education

Although effective practices have been developed to address the needs of a wide range of students with disabilities, evidence suggests a limited use of these practices. Potential contributors to the research-to-practice gap focus on problems with pre-service teacher preparation, professional development, and the nature of research. The authors present evidence that the lack of well-qualified special education teachers, the instability of special education teachers in teaching positions (i.e., attrition and migration), and inadequate work conditions contribute to the research-to-practice gap. They also address the need for comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained efforts to reduce the teacher shortage and improve the likelihood that special educators have the work conditions needed to use effective practices.

Promoting Teacher Quality and Retention in Special Education

Qualified special educators are needed to carry out research-based practices in schools. The shortage of special educators, the high numbers of uncertified teachers, and high attrition rates threaten the practice of science in the schoolhouse and, consequently, the education that students with disabilities receive. If teachers are to use research-based practices to benefit students with disabilities, care must be directed toward teachers, what they do, and the complex conditions in which their practice occurs. In this discussion, I focus on four factors that are important to special education teacher retention—responsive induction programs, deliberate role design, positive work conditions and supports, and professional development. These retention-enhancing factors also serve to cultivate qualified special educators by providing the conditions in which they can thrive and grow professionally.

Teachers' Decisions To Transfer From Special To General Education

We investigated why some special education teachers choose to stay in teaching, but leave their special education assignments. In addition, we identified deterrents and potential incentives that might lead former special educators to reconsider teaching positions in special education. Questionnaires from 286 respondents were analyzed. The primary reasons cited for leaving special education suggest that teachers transfer from special to general education because of administrative factors and the stress involved in working with special education students. Implications for educational agencies are addressed.

Special Education Teacher Education Research: Current Status and Future Directions.

In this article, the authors propose an agenda for special education teacher education researchers, with particular attention to policy work and studies of innovations in pre-service preparation, induction and mentoring, and professional development. Because previous research is limited and unfocused, the foundation for future research is weak, but opportunities to study questions of importance and interest are seemingly limitless. The authors discuss strategies to bolster the research foundation, namely, by oversampling special education teachers in the Schools and Staffing Survey and the Teacher Follow-Up Survey and by fostering the development of models of teacher development and related measures of teacher quality.

Written Expression of Students With and Without Learning Disabilities: Differences Across the Grades

This study compares the written expression of 48 students with learning disabilities (LD) and 48 normally achieving (NA) students (Grades 4, 8, and 11). Productivity, syntactic maturity, vocabulary, and mechanics were examined using writing samples obtained in response to a standard stimulus. Results indicate that, compared to their NA peers, students with learning disabilities write fewer words and sentences, write more words per sentence, produce fewer words with seven letters or more and fewer sentence fragments, and have a higher percentage of capitalization and spelling errors. No group differences were found for the number of T-units produced or the number of morphemes per T-unit. Comparison of group differences at each grade level and differences by groups across the grades reveals persistent written expression difficulties and signals a need for a careful review of current instructional practices and how they can be improved.

What Boys With an Autism Spectrum Disorder Say About Establishing and Maintaining Friendships

Seven boys, 10 to 14 years old, with autism spectrum disorders and good verbal communication, were interviewed to determine how they establish and maintain friendships. Parents and the boys’ teachers were interviewed for supportive information. All of the boys had friends, and 6 described establishing friendships as the most difficult aspect. Reasons for difficulty in establishing friendships included the desire not to be the one who initiated contact, the intention to avoid violating the social hierarchy of the school, and concerns related to being exploited or being a nuisance. The 7th boy did not desire friendships beyond family friends. All participants described shared interests as critical to maintaining friendships. Four youth have maintained stable friendships across distances and transitions.

Critical Issues in Special Education Teacher Supply and Demand: Overview

The shortage of fully certified special education teachers, which has been described as severe, chronic, and pervasive, threatens the quality of educational services that students with disabilities receive. Over the last decade, researchers have investigated the magnitude of the special education teacher shortage problem and factors that contribute to the imbalance between supply and demand. This special issue includes research syntheses that critically evaluate the complex range of factors that contribute to teacher shortages in special education. These syntheses present a review of what is known about the supply and demand problem, provide a research base to help inform efforts to address the shortage problem, and suggest research questions needing study.

Who Is Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders?: A Profile and Comparison to Other Special Educators.

This national study of 859 teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) provides a profile of their characteristics and preparedness to teach and compares these teachers with 3,687 other special educators. Teachers of students with EBD were disproportionately male, were more diverse, and had significantly fewer years of teaching experience than other special educators. A smaller percentage of teachers in the EBD group was certified and a greater percentage entered through alternative programs than the other special educators. Only a small percentage of respondents teaching in grades 6–12 holds certification in the core academic areas defined under the No Child Left Behind Education Act (2001). Respondents felt least prepared to meet the needs of students from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds and to use technology in instruction.

Recognizing and Supporting the Critical Roles of Teachers in Special Education Leadership

Most discussions about special education leadership address the work of principals and district administrators, without reference to the collective and distributed forms of leadership that have taken center stage in contemporary discussions about improving schools. To explore the contributions of and roles for teacher leadership in special education, selected teacher leadership literature in general education is reviewed, including the emergence of new teacher roles in schools, roots and meanings of teacher leadership, and possible benefits of teachers as leaders. Although no studies were found that specifically investigated the work of special education teacher leaders, illustrations of their work are provided as they lead through school-wide collaboration, participate as clinical faculty in Professional Development Schools (PDSs), serve as mentors to new colleagues, and work in district-wide professional development. After a review of several examples of teacher leadership in special education, barriers to teacher leadership and ways of supporting the work of teacher leaders are considered.