LU Special Education Leaders Biggest Challenge Discussion Replies

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There are 2 discussion boards. Please respond to each one.

(HJ)1. Special education leaders’ biggest challenge today is teacher pushback on evidence-based teaching practices. Even though leaders provide data to prove effective teaching strategies and even offer professional development to teachers, some still need to change their teaching practices accordingly.  Many teachers say, “That’s not how I learned.” or “I’ve taught this way for years, and my students are learning.” Although this may be true, we have learned more through science and know more than we did many years ago. Therefore, we should update our teaching practices to include this new science.

According to Billingsley et al. (2018), implementing meaningful and long-lasting educational reform requires a persistent, community-wide collaborative effort. Educational leaders must cultivate a culture that champions every student’s learning, including those who present unique instructional and assessment challenges, to achieve transformative gains in student performance (Billingsley et al., 2018). Effective leadership is characterized by cultivating an inclusive and supportive environment in which each student is valued and a shared vision for continuous development guides the collective journey toward excellence (Billingsley et al., 2018).

Billingsley et al. (2018) hit the nail on the head with these statements: we all must share the same vision for continuous improvement and not get comfortable with where we are because we can always do better! I love the quote by Maya Angelou, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”

One person who has had a tremendous impact on me as a leader is my previous principal. She was a tough cookie and expected a lot from her staff, but it was always about the kids. Her priority was always the kids. If staff had questions, requests, complaints, etc., she always asked how this affected the kids and if it helped them. If the answer was yes and positive for kids, then she always found a way to work with staff. If the answer was no and would impact the kids negatively, then she wouldn’t compromise. There are many gray areas in teaching and learning, but she was very black-and-white with this, and the staff respected her for it!

As my role is changing in my current position and as I think about where I want to be in my career in the future, I hope to always make sure my decisions affect students positively. In thinking about the challenge I mentioned previously regarding teacher pushback, by putting the students first and thinking about the best outcome, leaders can remind teachers that we are all here for the same reason and must do what is best for students. If current research indicates that this is the best way to teach students, then we need to change our teaching in a way that follows the research to help our students regardless of how we feel.

Reference

Billingsley, B., Mary Lynn Boscardin, & Crockett, J. B. (2018). Handbook of leadership and administration for special education. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

(JP) 2. The biggest challenge that I see for special education leaders is being knowledgeable about the field itself and how to lead with a view of understanding the roles they are to lead their staff in. My personal experiences with the leadership that I had within special education have been with special education directors, principals, and superintendents. I was highly disappointed with the guidance and knowledge of my special education directors (who were previous principals) as they had little understanding of the workings of special education law and how we should carry out best practices. I became aware that I had more knowledge and experience than my director and would need to make sure that I stayed abreast of the policies and procedures to support our special education programs and general education teachers with inclusion. To solve this problem of leaders not understanding special education, I believe they need to be in a leadership program that provides insight and practice to special education law, special education programs, and special education teaching methods. The Preparation programs for a leadership role are often built with a brief stint on special education as my previous director stated she had a small amount of coursework in her prep program that taught her about special education to the extent she needed. According to (DeMatthews, et al., p.305, 2020) principals report there is a deficit in the preparation programs with “effective teaching approaches for students with disabilities.” My director often confided in me that she took all the insight of how to do the tasks she was dealt with from the knowledge of her special education staff of teachers, diagnosticians, and other related professionals versus her own experiences and training. I was thankful that I was able to help her in many ways. Yet it was frustrating for a leader to not have the information they should have to help us in the areas we so desperately needed. This experience changed my outlook to wanting to be a special education leader with knowledge and experience to help others in a way that provides change for the benefit of all participants. Looking back at this experience in a Christian Worldview, I believe that we should be lifelong learners for Christ to ensure we are approaching our leadership roles through a Christian perspective to help fulfill the needs of our educational staff and students. I am thankful to have had this experience with my director of her sharing her areas of need with me as it brought such an insightful view of how I would like to provide those areas of need for others.

Reference

DeMatthews, D. E., Kotok, S., & Serafini, A. (2020). Leadership preparation for special education and inclusive schools: beliefs and recommendations from successful principals. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 15(4), 303-329. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775119838308Links to an external site.