Karen D. Hager

Teaching Core Content with Real-Life Applications to Secondary Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities

P Many students identified as having moderate and severe disabilities (MSD) benefit from a curriculum that includes instruction on the functional skills that they will need to successfully transition to adulthood. In particular, this includes students with cognitive disabilities who are most likely to qualify in the 1 % who are eligible for the alternate assessment developed by states in compliance with the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Because of the need to teach both functional and core content, teachers of students with MSD may find themselves in a quandary when prioritizing skills and designing instruction. Although functional skills (e.g., communicating, establishing and following schedules, performing daily living tasks) may be prioritized by the team developing the individualized education program (IEP), teachers also need to balance these skills with core content that must be addressed. In addition, whereas core content is most often addressed in inclusive settings with peers without disabilities, there may be a need to supplement the

Using Alternate Assessment to Improve Educational Outcomes

All students, including those with significant cognitive disabilities, must participate in accountability testing under NCLB regulations. Each state must provide an alternate assessment for students unable to participate in general accountability testing. Carefully designed alternate assessment systems have the potential to go beyond meeting federal reporting requirements by providing meaningful information about student progress that can guide decision making at the classroom and district level. In this paper, we discuss issues related to alternate assessment, including (a) balancing standardization and individualization, (b) setting performance criteria, (c) establishing links with progress monitoring and instruction, and (d) addressing special challenges of rural school systems that must be considered in designing and implementing an alternate assessment system that can fulfill this vision.

Building the university/public school partnership: A workshop for mentor teachers

Abstract Strong teacher education programs acknowledge the importance of a partnership between teacher education and public school faculties and the important role mentor teachers play in the education of student teachers. Studies suggest that mentor teachers trained in supervision are more effective than those who are not. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a workshop for mentor teachers that reflects the collaborative effort of university and public school faculties. The particular focus of this workshop was on giving feedback to student teachers. Evaluation data suggest that mentor teachers felt the workshop provided helpful information.

Remote Teacher Observation at the University of Kentucky.

Faculty and staff from three university departments (Special Education, Distance Learning Programs, and Distance Learning Networks) collaborated to develop a system for remote observation of student teachers. Colleges across the campus currently use the system. The development process from inception to implementation is described, and the specific technologies utilized are identified. Recommendations for research on remote observation are provided.

Self-Monitoring as a Strategy to Increase Student Teachers' Use of Effective Teaching Practices.

Student teachers in classrooms for students with moderate-severe disabilities used self-monitoring to increase their use of effective teaching strategies. In the first study, the participant videotaped daily instructional sessions and collected data on her use of varied praise statements and the number of opportunities to respond in a multiple baseline across behaviors design. Next, a student teaching assignment targeting self-monitoring is reported as a series of case studies in which student teachers monitored a self-selected teaching behavior. Research with student teachers, use of videotaping for such research, and implications for use with teachers in rural areas are discussed.

Web Conferencing with Distant Alternate Certificate Student Teachers

Many alternative routes to certification in special education serving rural populations incorporate distance-learning technology. Participants in these programs may feel isolated because they do not regularly travel to campus to attend courses or meet with their instructors. This article describes a strategy in which regularly scheduled individual video conferences were held between the instructor and five distant student teachers enrolled in an alternate certificate program. Results of a questionnaire completed by the student teachers are presented, along with descriptive statistics of the conferences and a description of the benefits for the course instructor.

Commentary on Classic Articles from Issue One of RSEQ's 30-Year Retrospective

While my association with ACRES does not span the entire 30 years (I attended my first ACRES conference as a graduate student in 2002), my association with rural education began when I entered kindergarten in a K-6 elementary school with a grand total of seven classrooms. At some point during my elementary years they added a special education classroom. I clearly remember some of the students in that classroom because even though there was no inclusion, or even mainstreaming for any classes, we all had lunch and recess together. Based on what I now know, the students in this classroom had moderate and severe disabilities, and the interactions we had at lunch and recess likely had some influence on my future career decisions. After elementary school, we joined with neighboring towns for middle and high school, resulting in my graduating class having 96 students. After college, I taught in rural communities for several years. When I taught special education in Moab, UT, the occupational therapist traveled from Grand Junction, CO (115 miles, one-way), so she provided services only once/month. Clearly, we used a different model than I used when I taught in a larger district and the occupational therapist was in my building every day to help with lunch. Currently, I work with student teachers in an alternate route to certification program, and most of these students are in rural school districts in Kentucky. Given this long association (from various perspectives) with rural education, I enjoyed reading the Classic RSEQ Articles. Issues addressed in these articles include attracting and retaining teachers in rural areas, preservice and inservice training for teachers in rural schools, and the use of technology in these endeavors. Most of these issues are still pressing, but not to have resolved them is not to say we have not made progress. Filling special education positions continues to be a challenge in rural schools, with 27% of rural schools reporting that filling such positions is very difficult and 4% reporting that they could not fill special education vacancies ( Provasnik et al., 2007). While these statistics are troubling, they are reflective of the field in general, with city, suburban, and town districts reporting similar difficulty with special education positions. As noted by the authors of these Classic Articles, however, even when the issues are the same, effective strategies for addressing them may vary across rural, suburban, and urban districts. In the case of filling special education positions in rural areas, programs that incorporate distant education to train individuals who already live in these areas and wish to remain in them, may resolve the issue. Our Alternate Certificate in Moderate-Severe Disabilities (MSD) program at the University of Kentucky almost exclusively trains teachers in rural areas. Part of the requirement of this 3-year program is that the students obtain employment as a teacher in a classroom for students with MSD. Thus, by the end of the program, these individuals have been employed for three years in their school (in many cases, in the town in which they have lived for some time); this connection to the community may make it more likely they will stay. …