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Given the national shortage of special educators, many are entering the profession through alternative certification, assuming full responsibility for classrooms or caseloads before they are fully licensed as special education teachers. This qualitative study explores the support provided to beginning alternative certification teachers in a special education program. Through several sources of data, we describe the perspectives of first-year versus second-year interns about the frequency, helpfulness, and nature of support they received from their assigned mentors, other sources of support at their school sites, and their university intern program. The findings illustrate the need for universities and schools to immediately identify a school site mentor for first-year interns and the need to provide more intensive support for an initial period when the intern first assumes responsibility at a school.

The Individual With Disabilities Education Act mandates that parents should be active participants in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. This qualitative study looked at the IEP process from a critical lens that focused on diverse participants' experiences at their child's IEP meeting. What distinguishes counterstories from a majoritarian story is that a counterstory incorporates the five elements of critical race theory (CRT). The authors used the composite narrative to tell the story of four Latinx parents' experiences in two urban schools during IEP meetings. Findings highlight how the participants could have used Yosso's notion of community cultural wealth to better navigate the IEP meeting and create more understanding and responsiveness among school personnel. Counterstories are recommended as a culturally relevant instructional tool that has the potential to help parents increase their involvement and create a more open dialogue with professionals at IEP meetings.

This study investigated how 8th-grade civics teachers kept their students engaged in learning during the abrupt shift to remote teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. We analyzed the interview transcripts of 10 teachers who were piloting a new civics curriculum during the 2019-2020 school year. We found that three of 10 teachers leveraged technological tools to offer more authentic learning experiences for their students, which led to increased student engagement online. Implications for practice are discussed.

To better prepare students for active and thoughtful participation in a democratic society, civic education should foster an array of civic competencies. Cultivating student civic agency--an under-studied civic competency--is of particular importance to equip students to authentically use their voice in their communities. But what does it look like to foster student civic agency in a classroom setting? This article leverages a social and emotional learning (SEL) framework to uncover the active curricular ingredients and educational mechanisms through which a student-led civics curriculum has fostered civic agency. In this multi-site case study, we analyze the implementation of an eighth grade student-led civics curriculum in a northeastern U.S. state. We outline how implicit SEL processes in these classrooms, stemming from a pedagogical focus on "changemakers," supported development of civic agency. We found that the changemakers theme facilitated student exploration of their own civic identity and values, while prompting students to critically examine political power structures. Notably, the theme also helped students to develop a narrative of self as changemakers and to envision themselves actively engaged in civic spaces. This study adds insights to growing evidence on the multi-faceted benefits that civically-oriented SEL may offer to preparing young people to engage in democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the shortage of special education teachers has led to increasing numbers of teacher candidates enrolled in alternative certification programs, there is a need to provide systematic mentoring and coaching. The relationship between support providers and novice teachers enrolled in an alternative certification program in a diverse, urban university was explored in this study. Sources of data included logs documenting weekly contact between support providers and intern teachers, surveys of support providers, and focus groups with both support providers and interns to determine the types of support received by novice special educators seeking alternative certification. Results showed that interweaving emotional and teaching support and strategies form the cornerstone of the support provider-intern relationship.

Special education teachers today must demonstrate effective skills in collaboration and often engage in co-teaching with general education colleagues to meet the needs of students with disabilities. In this study, we describe a university-based early fieldwork in which university students seeking teaching licensure in special education taught children from the local urban community, thus developing their collaboration and co-teaching skills under the supervision of university faculty. Although citing challenges such as time constraints and overcoming personality differences, the majority of these preservice special educators reported growth in their teaching skills as the main outcome of this fieldwork in co-planning and co-instructing lessons to meet the diverse learning needs of children from the local community. These preservice special educators' perceptions of this co-teaching fieldwork experience highlight the importance of special education teacher preparation programs that explicitly train students in collaboration and co-teaching skills.

The debate emerging over collective bargaining in the public sector of Australia's economy, and in particular the effects on higher education, are discussed. National policy and productivity issues are considered. Resistance to academic collective bargaining, especially in the collegial context of higher education, is foreseen. (MSE)

Children in foster care compose a population of students very vulnerable to school failure. Placement and school instability and lack of collaboration between the school and child welfare agency are some of the barriers that impede their school performance. This study focused on the classroom context and questioned beginning general and special education teachers in urban schools about their experiences instructing students living in foster care. Findings revealed that foster youth present serious challenges to "beginning" teachers that go largely unaddressed because of lack of information about the child, lack of teacher preparedness for such challenges, and lack of supports by the school and collaboration with the child welfare system. (Contains 4 tables.)

Historically, neither a positive nor a supportive relationship existed between the population of students designated English language learners (ELLs) and the field of special education. Children's lack of English proficiency was often misinterpreted as a disability and they were referred for special education, whereas others who actually had a disability were misdiagnosed as lacking English proficiency and denied special education services. This article delineates the many problems experienced by ELL students at the identification/referral, evaluation, and placement phases of special education and describes a set of preservice modules that were designed for special education teacher candidates to learn about and develop strategies for working with students of diverse language backgrounds. (Contains 1 table.)

Children in foster care comprise a population of students at great risk for school failure. The child welfare agency, schools, and home must all work together to provide the services and supports required to achieve better results. The purpose of this study was to conduct focus groups with participants from each sector to discuss their views on the educational problems and needs of students in foster care and their recommendations for what is needed to improve the academic prospects of foster students. The article provides details of the distinct themes identified by caregivers, school liaisons, and agency advocates and reveals how each group--while recognizing that foster students face substantial school problems--operates independent of each other and lacks a shared view on what is needed. The article concludes with recommendations for designing a model program that involves all the sectors and provides an arena for strategically addressing barriers to school success.

Background: Although a large number of children in foster care in the United States are receiving special education services, little is known about their educational experiences. Method: This exploratory study used focus group research to look more closely at the complexity of the problems and needs that this population experiences with the special education system. Results: Five major procedural issues, relating to identification and placement in special education and provision of appropriate services, were identified. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to address the complex problems that children in foster care experience with the special education system. Recommendations are presented for closer collaboration between the child welfare and school systems, and for the training of educators, social workers, court personnel, and caregivers in special education rights and services.

Foster children are an educationally vulnerable population that is over represented in special education. This article describes a collaborative effort among a child welfare agency, a local education agency, and a nonprofit law office to improve the educational outcomes of children in foster care. Program procedures and the role of the education liaison as advocate and problem solver are described, as well as evaluation data and strategies for managing problems associated with multiagency collaboration.

Many children in the foster care system are at great risk of academic difficulties and school failure. The purpose of this study was to bring together individuals within the foster care system to discuss the challenges to obtaining an appropriate education for foster youths and how best to provide the supports and structures needed for educational advancement. Four focus groups were conducted with foster youths, caregivers, education and child welfare agency representatives, researchers, and policymakers in different geographic areas of California. The article provides details of the six major themes identified by the participants: placement instability; treatment/education programs; records transfer/database; accountability/monitoring outcomes/advocacy; interagency collaboration/coordination; and confidentiality. Participants' recommendations for reforming the education and social services systems to improve educational outcomes and potential for future success are included.

Objective:: The main aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Education Initiative, an intervention program in one of the largest urban counties in the US seeking to increase the responsiveness of social workers to the educational needs of foster children. Method:: A pre-post test control group design was used. Data from case files and social workers were examined at the start of the project and 18 months later to determine changes in social workers' (a) knowledge and practices regarding school programs and services and (b) maintenance of educational records for children on their caseloads. Results:: Data were analyzed from approximately 300 case files and over 200 questionnaires completed by social workers. Findings indicated that social workers who received training and had access to an education liaison (1) increased their knowledge about the school system and (2) were more likely to gather current educational data and comment on schooling needs in the case files. On questionnaires measuring knowledge and practices, supervisory social workers showed no gains while case workers increased their levels of knowledge and involvement. Conclusions:: Evaluative data from both sources support the effectiveness of this collaborative model between the school and child welfare agency for addressing the educational needs of foster youth. Social workers in the pilot offices knew more and focused more on the school experience of youth on their caseloads than workers in the control offices. They reported more educational information in the case files and solicited current progress reports from the schools. Discrepancies between worker and school reported performance data raise questions as to whether social workers by themselves are the most effective advocates for foster children.

Children in foster care represent one of the most vulnerable, academically at risk populations in the United States. Aside from lower standardized achievement test scores, higher grade retention numbers, and a greater dropout rate than non-foster youth, between 30% to 50% of children in foster care are placed in special education programs, generally related to either a learning disability or an emotional disturbance. This study investigated the effectiveness on school performance of an education liaison from the school system who worked with social workers to resolve educational barriers to learning and achieving. Advocacy by the education liaison led to positive results in terms of school performance of foster youth. Recommendations are made for better addressing the educational needs of children in foster care.

The purpose of this investigation was to document the magnitude of the problem of retrieving school records of highly mobile foster youth residing in one of the largest counties in the nation. Results indicate that it took between 3 weeks to 8 months to track down records and that, for many youths, social workers and case files had inaccurate information on the current school attended. Most files, when retrieved, lacked critical school data for identification of appropriate programs and services. The implications of the findings for foster youth are discussed as well as recommendations for increasing school and child welfare agency accountability. (Contains 1 table and 3 notes.)