Evaluation of a Merged Secondary and Special Education Program

Many have expressed concerns that both content area and secondary special education secondary teachers are not adequately prepared to help all adolescents learn academic content (Blanton & Pugagh, 2007). Some argue that secondary special educators often lack sufficient content area preparation to teach the subjects they are assigned (Brouk, 2005; Washburn-Moses, 2005) or that middle and high school teachers often lack strategies to differentiate content area instruction for students' various reading levels and learning needs (McClanahan, 2008; Ness, 2008). The passage of NCLB in 2001 and IDEIA in 2004 have brought such concerns to the forefront of educational reform, by requiring that teachers be highly qualified in the subjects they teach and that schools "make good on the expectation that all students across diversities of race, class, language, or culture, as well as disability, can succeed in school" (Blanton & Pugach, 2007). If classroom teachers are among the greatest determinant of student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2000), then teacher preparation programs have a role to play improving educational outcomes for struggling learners. Since the initial passage of PL 94-142 in 1975 and the growth of the field of special education, the status quo in k-12 teacher education has been separate programs for general educators and special educators. But at the same time, the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms has steadily increased (Blanton & Pugach, 2007), along with a rise in students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Thus, it is argued that today's teachers need a wider range of skills in order to teach effectively (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). Both secondary teachers (McHatton & McCray, 2007) and secondary special educators (Bouck, 2005) have felt inadequately prepared by their teacher preparation programs for the responsibilities they face. Although 96% of classroom teachers teach students with disabilities, only one third had received pre-service training in collaboration, and less than half in adaptations (SpENSE, 2001). In discussing how to prepare new secondary teachers, experienced secondary teachers stress the importance of learning collaboration and inclusive practices, and feel that effective pedagogy is at least as important as content knowledge in order to reach all students successfully (Gateley, 2005). Professional organizations involved in teacher education have called for greater integration of general and special education pedagogies in teacher education programs (Blanton & Pugach, 2007). There are currently three established teacher preparation program models: discrete, integrated, and merged (Blanton & Pugach, 2007). In the discrete model, which is the most widely implemented of the three, general and special education programs are separate. Elementary and secondary teacher candidates are provided with only one course in special education and there is minimal faculty collaboration to merge special and general education pedagogy, and assess each candidate's competency to teach students with disabilities. In the integrated model, separate programs are retained but faculty work together to develop some courses and/or field experiences in which special education candidates learn about the general education curriculum while general education candidates learn about inclusive education. In merged programs, "faculty prepare general and special educators, using a single curriculum in which courses and field experiences are designed to address the needs of all students, including those who have disabilities" (Blanton & Pugach, 2007, p.14). Teacher licensure varies across these three models. In the discrete model, candidates seeking dual licensure in general and special education must complete one full program before beginning another. In the integrated model, general and special education program requirements are coordinated in such a way that candidates can add special education licensure more readily to their general education licensure. …