teachers have the advantage of already being
intimately familiar with the wonders and
challenges of working with students with
special needs (Auletto, 2017). For parapro-
fessionals, the benefits of becoming a special
education teacher are not limited to intrin-
sic rewards. By becoming special education
teachers, paraprofessionals enter a pathway
for career advancement. The prospect of
entering a field that offers further profes-
sional development opportunities as well
and continued financial stability provides an
extrinsic benefit that helps motivate them to
remain in the field.
The Role of Graduate Programs and
Credentialing Institutions
Graduate programs and credentialing
institutions play a critical role in addressing
the special education teacher shortage crisis
by bridging the gap between aspiring spe-
cial education teachers and the children and
schools who greatly need them. Currently,
there is a shortage of fully prepared and ex-
perienced special education teachers, leaving
students with the most intensive needs to be
served by new and underprepared teachers
(Freedberg & Harrington, 2017). Under
these circumstances, which are compounded
by additional systems level challenges within
the education field, it is widely recognized
that students in special education are not
being afforded the opportunity to meet their
full potential and are performing extremely
poorly (Fensterwald, 2017). With the re-
cent adoption of new Education Specialist
Instruction Credential Program Standards
by the California Commission on Teacher
Credentialing, institutions that are cur-
rently sponsors of special education teacher
preparation programs, or those that seek to
develop them, are uniquely positioned to
rethink traditional approaches to preparing
special education teachers for the field.
Opportunities for Improvement and
Innovation in Special Education
Teacher Pathways
A significant change introduced with the
newly adopted Education Specialist Pro-
gram Standards is the provision of what is
being referred to as a “common trunk” of
Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs).
Advocates championed this change in hopes
For paraprofessionals, the benefits of becoming a special
education teacher are not limited to intrinsic rewards. By
becoming special education teachers, paraprofessionals
enter a pathway for career advancement.
that the new requirements would strengthen
special education teacher candidates’ foun-
dation in teaching pedagogy, putting them
on an even playing field with general edu-
cation teachers, while developing deeper
expertise in their prospective Education
Specialist Instruction specialty areas. Not
only are these changes intended to increase
the foundational and specialized skills and
knowledge of special education teachers, but
they also have the potential to transform the
perception of special education teachers and
improve respect, collaboration, and morale.
To this end, program sponsors have the op-
portunity to design or redesign Education
Specialist Programs with the end goal of
developing more dynamically prepared Spe-
cial Education Teachers. While working on
the required transition to the new Education
Specialist Program standards, there is also
ample opportunity to innovate and address
other pressing needs at the forefront of im-
proving educator preparation.
Concurrent with the introduction of new
program standards for special education
teacher preparation programs is a growing
acknowledgement of the need for trauma
informed education in schools. In a national
study, 89 percent of teachers reported that
schools should be involved in addressing
mental health needs, yet only 34 percent re-
ported having the skills to do so. Teachers
also expressed a desire for training in rec-
ognizing and understanding mental health
issues, coaching on classroom management
strategies, and guidance on working effec-
tively with families (Reinke et. al., 2011).
Teachers’ recognition of the importance of
mental health supports in schools is backed
by national statistics that reveal the preva-
lence of trauma experienced by students
even before they arrive in elementary school.
In the United States, 26 percent of children
will experience or witness a traumatic event
before the age of 4 (National Center for
Mental Health Promotion and Youth Vio-
lence Prevention, July 2012). This implies
that roughly one in five students in a given
classroom are likely to have experienced
some form of trauma in their homes or com-
munities. We also know that as these early
exposures to adverse experiences increase in
frequency, students are significantly more
likely to experience delays in language, so-
cial emotional or brain development (Sub-
stance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, April 2011). In communi-
ties where students are impacted heavily by
trauma, special education teachers can play a
significant role in ensuring that schools are
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