Handbook of Leadership and Administration for Special Education

Jean B. Crockett, Bonnie Billingsley, Mary Lynn Boscardin, Jean B. Crockett, Bonnie Billingsley, Mary Lynn Boscardin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351849937
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Handbook of Leadership and Administration for Special Education brings together research informing practice in leading special education from preschool through transition into postsecondary settings. The second edition of this comprehensive handbook has been fully updated to provide coverage of disability policy, historical roots, policy and legal perspectives, as well as effective, collaborative, and instructional leadership practices that support the administration of special education. It can be used as a reference volume for scholars, administrators, practitioners, and policy makers, as well as a textbook for graduate courses related to the administration of special education.

Section IV

Instructional Leadership and the Evaluation of Educational Outcomes

Section IV Introduction

Educating students with disabilities is an important dimension of school improvement, and special education is now a major concern for educational leaders responsible for ensuring that students have equitable opportunities to learn in the context of challenging standards and accountability. There is growing evidence that gains in academic achievement and social growth are closely tied to school leaders who make instruction and learning the driving force behind their leadership. Although educational leadership is only indirectly linked to student learning, it is “second only to classroom instruction among all school related factors that contribute toward what students learn at school” (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004, p. 5). The chapters in this section inform the practice of effective instructional leadership that fosters the learning of children and youth with disabilities from early intervention services starting at birth through postsecondary transition to adulthood. How instructional leaders carry out these practices, and interact with others in the process, may be what is most important in influencing what teachers do to deliver equitable and beneficial special education.

If the goal of reform is to improve the quality of education that students receive, then school leaders would do well to target teachers for support because education cannot improve if instruction remains the same. Cornett, Knackstedt, and Deshler (Chapter 14) highlight important changes made by Congress in policy and legal requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Cornett and his colleagues point out that many of these changes can be used to support meaningful reforms designed to improve teaching and learning and foster the adoption of evidence-based practices. However, they also caution that change is never easy, and for states, school districts, or schools to avail themselves of these supports requires political courage and leadership to discontinue prior practices in favor of evidence-based practices that hold greater promise for improving teaching and learning. These authors also discuss a conceptual model for providing ongoing job-embedded support to teachers along with leadership strategies that make high-quality instruction the top priority.

In Chapter 15, Billingsley, McLeskey, and Crockett draw on several strands of research from the general and special education leadership literature to conceptualize principals’ work in supporting the achievement of students with disabilities in inclusive school contexts. School principals lead instruction in the context of evolving educational policies as they work with others to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Although strides have been made in teaching students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms, focused efforts are needed to help these students achieve at high levels. Billingsley and her colleagues identify key leadership practices considering inclusive leadership, instructional leadership, and the support of parent and family partnerships. Although their focus is on the principal’s role as the designated leader of special education in their school, the authors also consider the importance of shared leadership and decision-making, emphasizing the contributions of teachers, other service providers, and parents. Consideration is also given to how local special education administrators, responsible for district-wide programs and services for students with disabilities, can provide support to school leaders.

Over the past several decades, trends in federal and state policy have dramatically changed how special education teachers are prepared, evaluated, and retained in schools. Alternative routes to the classroom proliferated and enrollments in teacher preparation declined, particularly as a lackluster economy reduced the demand for teachers. Once again, however, states are facing potentially dire shortages of special education teachers. Further, states are given greater latitude through the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to address these shortages without any federal mandates to ensure these teachers are highly qualified or effective. Brownell, Bettini, Pua, Peyton, and Benedict (Chapter 16) contend that these changes will challenge resolve to maintain a strong special education teacher workforce while maintaining an adequate supply to meet demand. Within this context, they ask how can district and school administrators strike a balance between addressing shortages without sacrificing access to effective teachers? Brownell and her colleagues suggest that maintaining an effective special education teaching staff in the face of pending shortages requires administrators to take a comprehensive approach. These authors outline how districts might implement a comprehensive talent management framework, supported through research, to assist their efforts to secure, develop, and retain optimal candidates to fill special education positions.

Cook, Haggerty, and Smith (Chapter 17) address instructional leadership by examining the use of evidence-based practices in special education. The use of highly effective instructional practices is imperative when teaching students with disabilities, and administrators play an important role in facilitating the appropriate implementation of effective instruction. In this chapter, the authors describe the research-to-practice gap in special education, including primary reasons for its existence. They define evidence-based and promising practices, and provide resources for identifying both. Cook and his colleagues conclude the chapter with discussions of important caveats to consider when identifying and implementing practices supported by the best available evidence, and recommendations for facilitating the appropriate implementation of those practices. They also provide a vignette to illustrate how these recommendations might be applied in a typical school setting.

Ensuring safe and productive learning environments is also a high priority for educational leaders, and Sugai, O’Keeffe, Horner, and Lewis (Chapter 18) highlight the role of leadership and the implementation of prevention-based approaches, like school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS). The authors provide a best-practices set of guidelines for school leaders that is based on the existing literature and the implementation needs of schools. Thus, Sugai and his colleagues provide individuals in positions of school leadership with suggestions for how they might support the accurate and sustained implementation of SWPBS. In doing so, they describe (a) a sample of the literature on effective school leadership, (b) an overview of the elements that define the practices and systems of SWPBS, (c) a conceptual model and logic for the role of school leadership in SWPBS, and (d) a set of guidelines for promoting and assessing effective leadership skills.

Snyder, Bishop and Crow (Chapter 19) extend the discussion of effective leadership practices and the evaluation of educational outcomes to the education of very young children. In this chapter, the authors focus on responsive practice-focused instructional leadership for early intervention. They highlight contextual factors that shape how this practice-focused leadership should be defined and applied in early intervention. They review historical models that have influenced leadership scholarship in general education and special education and present implementation science as a framework for conceptualizing and defining responsive practice-focused leadership. Key features and categories of action are aligned to core components of an implementation science framework, and current recommended leadership practices in early intervention and advanced standards for special education administrators are examined with respect to these features and categories. Snyder and her colleagues illustrate how principles and practices from organizational behavior management might be used to specify responsive practice-focused instructional leadership actions. They also propose four categories under which leadership actions should be organized to advance the application of responsive practice-focused instructional leadership in early intervention to achieve instructional quality and effectiveness.

Test, Mazzotti, and Mustian (Chapter 20) shift the emphasis from young children to young adults by discussing leadership for transition-focused education. Transition-focused education is one strategy that has been suggested to help improve post-school outcomes for students with disabilities. Test and his colleagues provide school leaders with information on related educational policy, evidence-based practices and predictors for secondary transition, and strategies for their use at classroom and school levels. In conclusion the authors discuss implications and recommendations for leaders in secondary transition about ongoing program evaluation, college-ready programs for students with disabilities, school reform, and improving school completion rates.

Reference

Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). How leadership influences student learning. Minneapolis, MN and Ontario, ON: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, University of Minnesota and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

14

Leading Change to Improve Inclusive Teaching and Learning

How the Law Supports Evolving Practice in Professional Development, Leadership, and Administration

Jake Cornett, Kimberly M. Knackstedt, and Donald D. Deshler

During the past 30 years there has been a marked decrease in the amount of time students with disabilities spend outside of general education classrooms (Snyder & Dillow, 2010). Whereas in 1989, 31.7 percent of students with disabilities spent 80 percent or more of the school day in general education classrooms, by 2015 at least 62.7 percent of students with disabilities were served inside the general education classroom for 80 percent or more of their school day (U.S. Department of Education, 2017). Because students with disabilities spend a larger portion of the school day inside general education settings, these classrooms are more academically diverse today than at any time in the preceding 30 years.

The gradual and continual shift toward greater inclusion of students with disabilities into the general education setting has not been accidental or a coincidence of evolving practice—it is rooted in changes in policy set by the U.S. Congress through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and federal civil rights laws. However, as Skrtic (2012) rightly pointed out, the IDEA is often twisted at each stage of implementation and over time through the courts, to become less meaningful than Congress or the parents who advocated for these laws intended. That is why as educational leaders and administrators responsible for ca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Section I Setting the Context and Development of Leadership for Special Education
• Section II Leadership, Policy, and School Reform
• Section III Collaborative Leadership for Special Education in Multicultural Contexts
• Section IV Instructional Leadership and the Evaluation of Educational Outcomes
• Section V Challenges for Educational Leaders
• Index