Special Education Administration

Abstract

The current educational environment presents legislative, ethical, and moral imperatives stating that all children shall have an equal and equitable opportunity to learn. It would appear impractical, if not impossible for these goals to be attained if contemporary school leaders lack the experience or knowledge necessary to understand the needs and demands of students with unique learning needs and the special programs designed to serve these needs. Training programs and/or professional development activities should be providing presentation and knowledge development specifically in the area of special programs and special populations. At this juncture the question arises as to what the immediate stakeholders believe is necessary for building level leaders to know, understand, and be able to do regarding this student population. The subsequent study will resolve to respond to these questions in order to better address the unique needs of student with disabilities and the programs designed to provide for those needs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Introduction to the Problem1

Theoretical Framework Design1

Statement of the Problem6

Purpose of the Study7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW9

Overview9

Educational Administration16

Educational Leadership as a Field and as a Form of Knowledge20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY31

Research Design31

Population32

Procedures32

REFERENCES34

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Introduction to the Problem

The current educational environment is one of legislative, ethical, and moral imperatives stating that all children shall have an equal and equitable opportunity to learn. It would appear impractical, if not impossible for these goals to be attained if school leaders lack the experience or knowledge necessary to understand the needs and demands of students with unique learning needs and the special programs designed to serve these needs. Training programs and/or professional development activities must ensure presentation and knowledge development specifically in the area of special programs and special populations.

Theoretical Framework Design

At the beginning of a special programs course in an educational administration class, it became abundantly clear that terms and behaviors referenced in the lecture and readings will be unfamiliar to the graduate level students. Since these individuals will be primarily practicing classroom teachers, the majority of whom had indicated teaching experience of at least five years or more, a significant concern arose regarding this apparent lack of understanding relative to inclusionary education and special education protocol. Informal inquiry elicited descriptive information that a dismal sixty-eight percent (68%) of these experienced teachers had never engaged in an Individualized Education Program of a student. Nor had a majority of these teachers (72%) actually reviewed the IEP's for each student receiving direct instruction in the respective teachers' classes. (Lake & Billingsley, 2000; Lange & Lehr, 2000; Seery, Davis, & Johnson, 2000; Tulbert, l999) Furthermore, many of these prospective building level leaders had little or no interaction with the special needs administrator nor special program teacher at the level of direct oversight regarding implementation of individual student educational goals, objectives, and course modifications. (Lake & Billingsley, 2000; Lange & Lehr, 2000; Seery, Davis, & Johnson, 2000; Tulbert, l999) For a practicing classroom educator or for an aspiring administrator, these situations will be unacceptable. This lack of interface directly impacted the potential educational ...