CEC Releases New Standards for Advanced Roles in Special Education

CEC’s recently developed standards for advanced roles in special education break new ground. The standards outline the knowledge and skills special educators who are experienced, seeking an advanced degree or certification, or going into administration or higher education should know. CEC will also use the standards in the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) review process for college and university special education advanced programs.

CEC’s advanced standards provide a benchmark to ensure experienced special education professionals are able to practice at an accomplished level of skill. They cover knowledge and skills in six different areas (see below), which define what any special educator who is in an advanced role should know and be able to do. CEC also has validated knowledge and skills for four specific advanced special education roles: special education administrators, technology specialists, educational diagnosticians, and transition specialists.

“CEC’s advanced standards are about professional development and teachers improving themselves,” says Kathlene Shank, chair of CEC’s Professional Standards and Practice Committee. “They also promote professionalism as well as program integrity.”

In fact, CEC’s advanced standards move the profession forward in several different spheres. First, because they have been validated by the profession, they “provide for congruence across states and programs,” says Shank. As a result, hiring officials can be confident that a special educator from an NCATE preparation program has met the standards.

CEC’s advanced standards should also help prepare special education teachers who are applying for certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Teachers who complete an advanced special education program that meets CEC’s standards should be well prepared to receive National Board certification, says Shank.

Additionally, CEC’s advanced standards will guide special education teachers who want to sharpen their skills but do not want to get a degree or go through a certification program. The standards enable these teachers to design their own professional development.

“All career paths don’t result in new roles,” says Shank. “A teacher who loves what he or she is doing isn’t going to be the same teacher who just finished a teacher preparation program. These standards say what a really good teacher 10 years later looks like.”

“Career-oriented special educators are life-long learners, and the CEC advanced role standards are an important part of the special education professional’s career ladder,” adds Richard Mainzer, CEC’s associate executive director for Professional Standards and Practice.

CEC plans to develop professional development events, including online seminars and publications, on the Advanced Standards.

What Are CEC’s Advanced Role Content Standards?
CEC’s Advanced Role Content Standards address six different areas. An abbreviated description of each area follows.

• Leadership and Policy: Advocate for legal and ethical policy that supports high quality education for individuals with exceptional learning needs; provide leadership to create procedures that respect all individuals and positive and productive work environments.
• Program Development and Organization: Improve instructional programs at the school and system levels; develop procedures to improve management systems; design professional development to support the use of evidence-based practices; coordinate educational standards with the needs of children with exceptionalities to access challenging curriculum standards; use understanding of the effects of cultural social, and economic diversity and variations of individual development to help develop programs and services for individuals with exceptional needs.
• Research and Inquiry: Use educational research to improve instructional and intervention techniques and materials; foster an environment that supports instructional improvement; engage in action research.
• Student and Program Evaluation: Design and implement research to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional practices and program goals, apply knowledge and skill at all stages of the evaluation process for student learning of the general education curriculum and individualized IEP goals.
• Professional Development and Ethical Practice: Safeguard the legal rights of students, families, and personnel; plan, present, and evaluate professional development that focuses on effective practice; continuously broaden personal professional knowledge, including expertise to support student access to learning through effective teaching strategies, curriculum standards, and assistive technology.
• Collaboration: Understand the importance of collaboration and foster the integration of services for individuals with exceptionalities; understand the role of collaboration for internal and external stakeholders to promote understanding, resolve conflicts, and build consensus to provide services to these students and their families; understand the interactions of language, diversity, culture, and religion and use collaboration to enhance opportunities for individuals with exceptionalities.

How the Advanced Standards Were Developed
The Subcommittee on Knowledge and Skills led the development of CEC’s Advanced Standards. After undertaking an extensive study of advanced standards for teaching currently in use, including those of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, state standards, and NCATE, the committee identified the knowledge and skills that are expected of special educators in advanced roles. The proposed knowledge and skills were evaluated by the CEC leadership, including the Board of Directors and CEC committees, in survey format. The survey results were used as part of the decision-making process as the standards were identified and refined. The standards were developed from the validated statements.