The Open Education Journal

2012, 5 : 34-38
Published online 2012 October 05. DOI: 10.2174/1874920801205010034
Publisher ID: TOEDUJ-5-34

Program Enhancement: Responding to the Call for Special Education Teachers to be Highly Qualified

Tachelle Banks
Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Ave., JH 307, 44115, USA.

ABSTRACT

The alignment of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 states that special education teachers are expected to have content area expertise in every content area that they teach and for which they are the teacher of record. The academic content requirements put in place by NCLB and IDEA have created the need to rethink pre-service education for special educators. This article will describe higher education efforts to improve special education teacher training and ultimately the educational experiences for students with exceptionalities. In addition, a brief description of the efforts of an institution of higher education (IHE) in northeast Ohio to better prepare preservice special education teacher candidates to meet highly qualified teacher (HQT) standards by enhancing their current intervention specialist high incidence program will be provided.

Keywords:

Teacher quality, highly qualified teachers, special education.