Are You Highly Qualified? The Plight of Effective Special Educators for Students with Learning Disabilities

• Published in: Learning disability quarterly Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 187 - 188
• Main Author: King-Sears, Margaret E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Council for Learning Disabilities 01.08.2005; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications, Inc; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; The Council for Learning Disabilities
• Subjects: Academic education; Commentaries; Curricula; Educators; Federal Legislation; Learning; Learning Disabilities; Learning Strategies; Licensing, certification and accreditation; Mainstreaming; No Child Left Behind Act; No Child Left Behind Act 2001; Pedagogy; Special education; Special Education Teachers; Special needs students; Student diversity; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Qualifications; Teachers; Teachers of disabled children; Teaching; Tuition; United States
• ISSN: 0731-9487; 2168-376X
• DOI: 10.2307/1593656

According to NCLB, highly qualified teachers will have a bachelor's degree, be fully certified, and prove they know the content they teach. [...]as states are implementing plans, per NCLB requirements, for how special educators attain highly qualified status in each core academic subject they teach to students with learning disabilities, it is disconcerting that some special educators who have provided excellent instruction in core academic subjects, learning strategies, and other pedagogical areas for years can no longer be called highly qualified unless or until they have met their state's criteria for highly qualified. In that connection, we must guard against solutions that enable beginning special educators to graduate fully certified and highly qualified on paper, but not in fact. [...]quick-fix solutions do not do justice to beginning special educators who need more than a few courses to be highly qualified for any given core academic subject and for pedagogy for teaching students with learning disabilities.