Meeting of the Board of Regents | October 2009

THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

TO:	Higher Education Committee
FROM:	Joseph P. Frey
SUBJECT:	Students with Disabilities Teacher Certification Changes
DATE:	October 13, 2009
STRATEGIC GOAL:	Goals 1, 2, 3, and 4
AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

SUMMARY

 

Issue for Discussion

Should the Board of Regents revise the structure of the students with disabilities certification to increase the supply of students with disabilities teachers?

 

Reason for Consideration

              Review of policy.

Proposed Handling

This item will come before the Higher Education Committee for discussion at its October 2009 meeting. 

Procedural History

This analysis is a part of the Board of Regents and Department’s commitment to review the Regents teaching policy.  At your February 2007, December 2007, March 2008 and March 2009 Committee meetings, you discussed the structure of special education teacher certification. Your discussions have been informed by supply and demand data, comments from institutions of higher education, local education agencies, BOCES, professional associations, the Department’s Special Education Work Group, and others.

 

Background Information

As a part of the 1998 Regents policy, “Teaching to Higher Standards: New York’s Commitment,” the Department made significant adjustments to the certification structure for all teachers, including those teaching students with disabilities.  Changes focused on student developmental levels and academic content areas to ensure that students with disabilities have continued access to teachers academically prepared to teach them.  The Regents established a four-tiered structure that included Students with Disabilities (SWD) Birth to Grade 2; SWD Grades 1-6; SWD Grades 5-9 Generalist and Grades 5-9 content specialists; and SWD Grades 7-12 content specialists. While the approach to prepare SWD teachers in both an academic discipline and in special education was well received, the practical implication is that it resulted in 45 separate SWD certificates.

Since the change, the Department has closely monitored supply and demand of SWD teachers, especially at the middle and secondary levels.  The number of P-12 students with disabilities is about evenly divided between those below Grade 6 and those above Grade 6, yet nearly 80 percent of teacher education candidates seeking SWD certificates are at the Early Childhood or Childhood levels.  There is a shortage of SWD teachers to fill content area special class teacher and consultative/resource room positions at the middle and secondary levels.  Compounding the State’s SWD teacher shortages are the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requirements that SWDs have a highly qualified content specialist to provide instruction in core academic subject special classes (self-contained) when SWDs cannot participate in the general education environment with non-disabled students. 

Our challenges are many:

 

• Ensure flexibility in deploying teachers while retaining high standards for certification. We must redesign the certification structure at the P – Grade 6 and Grades 7-12 levels to ensure that at the pre-elementary/elementary level teachers are appropriately prepared in Early Childhood Education and at the middle/secondary levels that teachers have a sufficient academic foundation on which to build so that they may become highly qualified in one or more core academic subjects. 

 

• Make sound educational decisions about potential changes to the developmental levels of our certification structure.  Many Early Childhood Education supporters are adamantly opposed to the recommendation to expand the Childhood certificate to include students age 3 to Grade 6.  Yet various other stakeholder groups favor this downward expansion for valid reasons including addressing the SWD preschool teacher shortage and alignment with the structure of elementary schools and the State’s learning standards.

 

• Assess the option of increasing and expanding the use of supplemental certificates for special educators, effectively permitting special educators to move between adjacent developmental levels and teach while they are completing required coursework.

 

• Consider to what extent we should align the general education level certification structure with changes in the SWD certification structure.  Does it make sense to have parallel special education and general education structures or only partially parallel structures?

 

• Increase meaningful collaboration between general and special educators to strengthen all education professionals and to encourage the greatest access to the curriculum for all students.

 

Guiding Principles

As SED has made recommendations to the Regents, guided by comments and numerous consultations with the field, we have kept the following as our guiding principles:

 

• Reduce the number of SWD certificates areas; 45 is too many and results in too limited of a scope of practice for each of the certificates;

 

• Strengthen the preparation of all teachers (teachers of students with disabilities and general education teachers) to work with special populations and to collaborate with other teachers;

 

• Increase flexibility in the developmental level of SWD certificates resulting in a more efficient use of SWD teachers;

 

• Ensure that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum to enable them to meet the State Learning Standards;

 

• Ensure that students with disabilities have access to teachers, both general and special educators, who are prepared to work with all students as aligned with their instructional roles;  

 

• Recognize it is unreasonable to expect that each middle and secondary special educator will be highly qualified to teach each core academic subject and that special education service delivery options need to be reexamined; and

 

• Align, to the extent practicable, the certification structure with IDEA and NCLB requirements.

 

Recommendation

              The complexities of the issues and disparity in stakeholder recommendations have not resulted in recommendations supported by all stakeholders. Attachment A provides a summary of comments from various stakeholders on the redesign of special education certification. It distills feedback received over the course of 30 months, as a series of Department proposals evolved in response to feedback from the field. Proposed changes to the developmental levels, specifically the expansion of the Childhood certificate to include PreK (age 3) and Kindergarten, are at the core of the differences. The Department offers the following recommendations to address the SWD certification structure:

 

1. Increase special education pedagogy in all general education preparation programs. Attachment B provides a brief description of special education coursework taken by general and special education candidates during their preparation programs, based on a sample of the colleges in each sector that recommend the greatest number of special education candidates.

 

1. Create a SWD 7-12 Generalist certificate with a multi-disciplinary core, but retain the option for dual certificate programs leading to certification in SWD and an academic discipline (e.g., 7-12 SWD and English).

 

1. In teacher education programs, increase the focus on collaboration between general and SWD teachers.  To ensure access to highly qualified core academic subject teachers, in regulation require collaboration between general and SWD teachers for special (self-contained) classes. This will require specific changes, informed by best practices in teacher collaboration, to both general and special education teacher preparation programs.

 

1. Eliminate the SWD 5-9 Generalist and SWD 5-9 content specialist certificates.  The SWD Early Childhood, Childhood and 7-12 Generalist will cover all the ranges.

 

1. Expand the SWD Early Childhood certificate by one grade (SWD Birth – Grade 3), aligning with the national definition of Early Childhood and expanding employment options for these teachers.  We recommend this change also apply to the general education Early Childhood certification structure.

 

Issues Still Under Review

 

1. Expand the SWD Childhood certificate, currently Grades 1-6, to span PreK (age 3) to Grade 6 to:

 

 

Existing programs preparing candidates for Childhood certification will need to be redefined to include age-appropriate pedagogy and teaching in Early Childhood Education.

Alternatively, the Regents may wish to consider establishing the SWD Childhood certificate to be Kindergarten to Grade 6, with the SWD Early Childhood certificate spanning Birth to Grade 3.

 

 

AND/OR

 

1. Promote the increased use of supplemental certificates for certified special educators. Such teachers could get a supplemental SWD certificate at an adjacent developmental level within a specific time period.  For example, a certified SWD PreK to Grade 6 teacher may get a supplemental SWD 7-12 Generalist certificate and must, within three years, complete the required coursework to continue teaching at the adjacent level.  In order to ensure quality, it is recommended that supplemental certificates only be earned through a registered teacher education program, not thorough the process of transcript evaluation.

 

Recommendations six and seven may be considered separately or in conjunction with each other.  If the Regents decide to increase the use of supplementary certificates for special educators there may be no need to expand the SWD Childhood certificate downward to the PreK level.

Timeline

With Board of Regents endorsement, the Department will develop preliminary draft regulations to implement these proposed changes. We would then share this preliminary draft with the field for comments (along with the options in recommendations 6 and 7 above) and provide the Board with field comments and a final recommendation from the Department at your January meeting.  Changes to the certification structure would likely occur in the following timeline.

Action	Estimated Time Period
Conceptual Approval of Board	January 2010
Regulatory Changes Approved	July 2010
Date Colleges Need to Reregister Programs	July 2011
First cohort of Transitional b teachers can be employed	September 2011
Date first cohort graduates from reregistered college programs	May 2015
Date Previous College Programs will have graduated all students	September 2017

Attachment A            

Summary of Stakeholder Comments

Since March 2007, the Department has sought comment from stakeholder groups, both formally and informally, to inform recommendations for revisions of the structure of special education certification.  The following summary provides information regarding key issues. 

Almost all stakeholder groups: 

 

• Support the concept of increased collaboration between general and special education teachers.
• Support increasing the special education pedagogy in all general education preparation programs.

 

Most stakeholder groups:

 

• Support eliminating the SWD 5-9 certificate.
• Support the use of supplemental certificates for certified special educators.
• Support a 7-12 SWD Generalist prepared with a multi-disciplinary content core.

 

Early Intervention and Approved Preschool Providers:

 

• Approved preschool providers support modifying SWD Childhood certificate (Grades 1-6) to SWD Age 3 – Grade 6.
• Early intervention providers support the use of a supplemental certificate at the adjacent level to allow SWD Childhood certificate holders to teach SWD Early Childhood.
• Support expanding the SWD Early Childhood certificate (Birth – Grade 2) to Grade 3.

 

Universal Preschool Community and Large City School District Pre-Kindergarten Administration:

 

• Support expanding SWD Childhood to SWD Age 3 – Grade 6.

 

Higher Education Community:

 

• Early Childhood educators oppose expanding SWD Childhood to SWD Age 3 – Grade 6.
• Early Childhood educators and other educators within the higher education community have not reached consensus regarding expanding to Grade 3 the SWD Early Childhood certificate.
• Some support and some oppose the use of supplemental certificates.  Concerns were expressed regarding rigor of requirements.

 

 

 

School District Administrators:

 

• The majority support expanding the developmental bands of SWD certificates.
• Support the use of supplemental certificates.

 

Teachers:

 

• Many SWD Early Childhood teachers oppose expanding SWD Childhood to SWD Age 3 – Grade 6.
• Many SWD Childhood teachers support expanding SWD Childhood to SWD Age 3 – Grade 6.

 

New York State United Teachers:

 

• Support expanding SWD Childhood to include Pre-Kindergarten.
• Support a SWD 7-12 Generalist but oppose the proposed 9 credit multi-disciplinary content core because it will not attract additional candidates and it will not meet the needs of students at the 7-12 level.
• Support the use of supplemental certificates for SWD Childhood teachers to teach at the 7-12 level provided the teachers have nine core content credits and mentoring during the initial year.

 

Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching:

 

• Support expanding the SWD Early Childhood certificate to Grade 3.
• Support a SWD 7-12 Generalist that has completed a multi-disciplinary core and is co-teaching with a general educator.

 

 

 

Attachment B

 

Sample of Special Education Coursework in General Education

and Special Education Programs

 

I. The Purpose of the Analysis:

              The purpose of this analysis is to examine the preparation of teacher candidates in general education programs and special education programs to teach students with disabilities.  Nine institutions (3 SUNY; 3 CUNY; and 3 Independent) a total of 42 programs leading to initial or initial/professional certification, representing those institutions recommending special education certification for the greatest number of special education teachers, were sampled in the review. The review included 30 programs in general education and 19 programs in special education.  Included in the 42 programs reviewed were 7 dual (special and general education) certification programs and 3 alternative teacher preparation programs.

II. Summary of Findings:  

 

• There is wide variety in the ways that registered teacher education institutions include special education content in the general education programs. Embedded in many general education teacher preparation programs are best practices for instructional approaches, strategies for teaching students with a variety of learning needs, and creating differentiated learning environments.  This embedded coursework prepares teachers for certification in general education programs to meet the needs of all students, including students with disabilities, pursuant to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.  Other general education programs offer one or more stand-alone special education courses.

 

• Generally, the credits in special education undergraduate programs range from 120-150 and the graduate programs range from 30-45. The special education specific courses in special education programs range from 15 to 21 credits in undergraduate and 9 to 33 in graduate programs.

 

• A review of the sampled programs indicates the universal categories of general education courses include foundations, assessment, curriculum and instruction, technology, content pedagogy and human development, while the universal categories of special education courses include foundations, assessment, curriculum and instruction, classroom environment, technology, content pedagogy, and collaboration. The review of course offerings sampled from the institutions with high numbers of recommendations for certification in special education titles illustrates attention to the seven universal categories.  Please refer to the chart below for the course distribution among the special education programs reviewed.  

 

 

 

Stand Alone Course Distribution in Special Education Programs

Check marks (ü) indicate content preparation is embedded in other courses.

Number of Courses
Degree Level	Foundations	Assessment	Curriculum and Instruction	Classroom Environment	Technology	Content Pedagogy	Collaboration
Undergraduate	1	1	1	ü	ü	4	ü
	1	1	3	ü	ü	1	ü
	2	1	ü	1	ü	ü	1
	1	1	1	1	ü	ü	ü
	1	1	1	1	ü	ü	ü
Graduate	1	ü	2	3	1	1	1
	4	2	ü	1	ü	2	2
	4	ü	4	1	ü	ü	1
	4	ü	2	1	1	ü	2
	3	ü	5	1	ü	1	2
	3	1	4	1	1	2	ü
	2	1	4	1	1	2	ü
	ü	ü	1	ü	ü	2	1
	3	2	ü	1	ü	3	ü
	4	1	ü	ü	1	2	ü
	2	1	ü	ü	1	3	ü
	1	1	1	1	1	ü	ü
	1	1	1	1	1	ü	ü
	1	1	1	1	1	ü	ü