Providing Support for Rural Teachers of Students with Low Incidence Disabilities Who Are Completing the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program

The Education and Professional Standards Board (EPSB) is the governing organization for teacher certification in Kentucky. According to the EPSB (2013a), only three institutions of higher education in the state (i.e., Morehead State University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville) offer an approved alternate certificate program in moderate to severe disabilities (MSD). This work grew out of a collaboration between the EPSB and a Low Incidence Higher Education Consortium funded through a federal State Personnel Development Grant to focus on the needs of students with MSD. This manuscript describes an effort by the Low Incidence Higher Education Consortium to assess the effectiveness of the Moderate and Severe Disabilities Strategic Addendum (MSDSA) after it was placed on the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program (KTIP) website as a resource for MSD interns and their committees. The MSD survey targeted certified teachers in Kentucky who were serving as resource teachers (e.g., mentors) to new MSD teachers entering the field of special education during their KTIP year. The researchers sent the survey to all resource teachers in Kentucky as identified by the EPSB. Eight hundred and ninety-five resource teachers (39.2 %) responded to the online survey. The survey focused on basic demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, race, age, experience level, etc.), as well as qualifications to serve as a resource teacher. Findings include the following: (1) Of the 99% of teachers who responded to the question of their awareness of the MSDSA, 26.5% did indicate an awareness of the instrument; (2) A smaller percentage (16.5%) actually reported using the instrument; and (3) Of the resource teachers who had actually used the addendum (N = 148), a total of 99 reported on its usefulness, with 68.7% of those teachers rating the addendum as "helpful" to "very helpful."