Samantha Martyn

ENG 111: Synthesis Paper

Paul Anderson
Mid Mich Community College
11/19/2014

Special Education Teaching

Where do we draw the line for special education teaching?There is a debate about
this for as long as special education has existed and how much or how little higher education is
needed for making a good special education teacher. The debate has become more prominent
when two acts were made to help improve special education. These two state acts are ineffective
in determining special education teacher quality and proper guidance. I will be going over the
state qualifications for teachers, what is lacking in the acts, mentoring, and general educators and
their influence in special education.The authors I will be using are Noel Ed. White, David L.
Westling, National Center to Inform Policy and Practice in Special Education Professional
Development, Marilyn S Kaff, Robert H Zabel, and Morgan Milham. Parents, educators, and
anybody interested in special education is my audience. My own experience of dealing with
special education teachers due to a younger brother diagnosed with Autism influenced my need
to research this subject.
In Noel Ed. Whites article called "Special Educators: Responding to Shifting
Definitions of "Highly Qualified" he explains how the requirements set by the No Child Left
Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB) mandates that the state level the qualifications for a special education teacher area
are a bachelors degree, full state certification and licensure, and competency in each core
academic subject that he or she teaches (White ,3). Under the Individuals with Disabilities Act
(IDEA) teachers would also have to provide individually designed instruction and supplementary
aids/services for disability students. There is still no clear way to define the quality of a special
education teacher accurately yet but states have already come up with plans and put them into

Samantha Martyn
ENG 111: Synthesis Paper
Paul Anderson
Mid Mich Community College
11/19/2014

action. The only problem is that the NCLB act and the IDEA act have differences about what a
special education teacher must have. Those differences show up when general and special
education teachers try to work together which can be seen in David L. Westlings teacher
experiment.
David L. Westlings article "Teachers and Challenging Behavior: Knowledge, Views,
and Practices" is about an experiment with 38 special education teachers and 32 general
education teachers. His thorough results and note taking showed special education teachers have
been having trouble with their students.They feel at least a part of this shortcoming may be
related to insufficient knowledge and skill levels of teachers necessary to effectively address
challenging behavior (Westling, 1). Many of the reports have shown that teachers do not feel
they have properly been prepared for challenging behavior due to lack of support, and feelings of
being ineffective. White states that right now special education is a multifaceted field that is
quite hard for teachers to get into and stay due to NCLB raising the requirements.In other words
a teacher would have to have credentials in special education and one core subject to be a well
rounded special education teacher. David L Westling agrees with this because of his experiment
with teachers his results showed that most special education teachers and general education
teachers were not effective in helping with students with disabilities. Meaning that teacher were
lacking proper knowledge, confidence, and mentoring.
The National Center to Inform Policy and Practice in Special Education Professional
Development (NCIPP) believe mentoring is a very thorough and easier way for new special
education teachers to be taught. Describing it as strong mentoring programs influence novice
special education teachers determination to remain in teaching (NCIPP, 1). Showing that those

Samantha Martyn
ENG 111: Synthesis Paper
Paul Anderson
Mid Mich Community College
11/19/2014

who have high levels of support tend to have greater job satisfaction and success in teaching
disability students. Good mentors can provide new teachers with the proper professional
development and instructional support. NCIPP also promotes differentiating between special
education teachers and general teachers in order to help special education by promoting policies
and support programs that increase the supply of new teachers and that help to ensure their
retention (1). Still policies are not the same as Acts which are on a broader level of importance
as far as adhering to and White and Westling believe that the policies are not doing much for
helping special education teachers. To make things more complex IDEA has allow general
teachers to get involved.
Marilyn S Kaff, Robert H. Zabel, and Morgan Milham article "Revisiting Cost-Benefit
Relationships of Behavior Management Strategies: What Special Educators Say About
Usefulness, Intensity, and Effectiveness" discusses how general teachers used to rely on special
education teachers to keep the disability students under control. Explaining how it changed under
the IDEA Act which directed general and special educators to share responsibility for
developing and implementing behavior intervention plan (Kaff, Zabel, Milham, p 3). The
problem is that along with complicating what special education teachers should know it also
allowed general teachers with no knowledge on the subject to help without doing any further
research on disabilities of the students. A teacher in ignorance can be more harmful for the
teacher, school, and students involved. Many general educators receive little or no preparation
for addressing the behavioral and academic needs of students with disabilities (p 4). In one
current study less than 20% of general educators said they are prepared to properly help
disability students. How can general educators deal with disability students and have less of an

Samantha Martyn
ENG 111: Synthesis Paper
Paul Anderson
Mid Mich Community College
11/19/2014

education than special education teachers? Kaff, Zabel, and Milham believe the IDEA act needs
to be changed to stop general educators from influencing the special education system so much.
White and Westling would agree with this because they have extensive knowledge on what is
missing for proper teaching of special education. While NCIPP would disagree saying that
mentoring would solve the problem.
There are no programs that can be used at this time to help inexperienced teachers
become experienced until they are hired and have been teaching for years. If there was such an
education program in college that could help realistically prepare a special education teacher it
would be very useful. All these sources have to deal with proper teaching of special education
teachers in the special education field. That includes general educators now that IDEA has been
put into effect and has ruled that general educators must help in teaching disability students. The
problems are that special education teachers have such high education requirements but are low
in experience. While general educators with little or no experience can waltz in with less of an
education and damage what the special education field stands for. Which is helping teach special
education teachers who can then give proper instructions and deal with difficult situations
efficiently.
Each of my sources deals with a different aspect of special education showing how much
IDEA and NCLB acts are lacking in what a special education teacher and their knowledge and
experience. White, Westling, Kaff, Zabel, and Milham all agree with each other on how special
education teachers need more support and knowledge to proper succeed and the acts should be
more specific. NCIPP disagrees believing instead that mentoring would solve most of the
problems. Which include lack of experience, proper knowledge, and general educators

Samantha Martyn
ENG 111: Synthesis Paper
Paul Anderson
Mid Mich Community College
11/19/2014

interfering and unknowingly making situations difficult. In order to properly help special
education teachers get the experience they need and guidelines the IDEA and NCLB acts should
be changed to include what's needed for special education teachers to teach. If this happened if
would make special education teachers more confident in teaching and handling problems
leading to happier students and a more efficient special education system. If the acts were
changed a little bit for the special education teachers benefit it could provide parents a more
stress free life, provide new ways to better improve what needs to be taught to teachers or needs
to be experienced and students would leave with the life skills needed to be successful. Teachers
make the world work, nobody knows everything when they are first born so teachers play an
important role in helping nurture and improve society one student at a time.

Samantha Martyn
ENG 111: Synthesis Paper
Paul Anderson
Mid Mich Community College
11/19/2014

Works Cited

Kaff, Marilyn S., Robert H. Zabel, and Morgan Milham. "Revisiting Cost-Benefit Relationships
of Behavior Management Strategies: What Special Educators Say About
Usefulness, Intensity, and Effectiveness." Proquest.com. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
<http://search.proquest.com/docview/228529671/58BE12E02A9045C8PQ/1?accountid=
35715>.
NCIPP."A Model to Address the Challenges in Special Education Teacher Induction. Induction
Insights. Supporting Special Education Teachers - Teacher Educators."
ncipp.education.ufl.edu. Eavy Warger and Associates. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
<http://ncipp.education.ufl.edu/files_9/teachereducators/TEII7%20A%20Model%20to%20Address%20the%20Challenges%20in%20Spec%20Ed%20Tchr%2
0Induction.pdf >.
NCIPP."Unique Challenges in Special Education Teacher Induction--Why a New Model Is Needed.
Induction Insights. Supporting Special Education Teachers - Policymakers."
ncipp.education.ufl.edu. Eavy Warger and Associates. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
<http://ncipp.education.ufl.edu/files_9/policymakers/PII7%20Unique%20Challenges%20in%20Spec%20Ed%20Tchr%20Induction-Why%20a%20New%20Model%20is%20Needed.pdf >.
White, Noel Ed. "Special Educators: Responding to Shifting Definitions of "Highly Qualified"
When Special Education and General Education Unite, Everyone Benefits. 1st ed.
Vol. 6. wested.org. San Francisco, California: WestEd, 2004. 1-12. Web.9 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/RD-04-01.pdf> .

Westling, David L. "Teachers and Challenging Behavior: Knowledge, Views, and Practices."
Proquest.com. Sage Publications INC.Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
<http://search.proquest.com/docview/236328761/58BE12E02A9045C8PQ/24?accountid
=35715>.