What Every Must Know Special Educator - Council for Exceptional ...

Figure 2.2 Minimum CEC Expectations for Entry-Level Special Educators
Standards-Based
Curriculum Content
These knowledge and skills sets are the foundation
upon which CEC builds its work at both the state and
national levels to ensure that preparation programs
incorporate CEC standards into their curricula and
that state and provincial jurisdictions incorporate
the standards into their licensing requirements. It is
through professional standards used by preparation
programs and aligned with licensing systems that
the public can be assured that special educators are
appropriately prepared for safe, ethical, and effective
practice (CEC, 2002a).
At the entry level, CEC preparation standards are
developed around 10 initial roles and 6 advanced roles
content domains that describe the knowledge, skills,
Subject-Matter
Content
Individualized
Pedagogical Content
and dispositions shared by all professional special
educators. At the advanced level, CEC preparation
standards are developed around six content standards
that describe the knowledge, skills, and dispositions
shared by all professional special educators practicing
at advanced levels. Although the content standards
cross special education specialty areas, the specific
sets of knowledge and skills inform and differentiate
the content, context, and issues of the respective
specialty areas (e.g., early childhood, mild/moderate,
developmental disabilities, and learning disabilities).
They provide the knowledge and skills that special
educators must master for safe, ethical, and effective
practice. The knowledge and skill sets are located in
the Appendix. CEC continuously conducts validation
2 CEC standards are not intended to identify and prescribe at a micro level of detail all evidence-based interventions along with all components
of each for which preparation programs should be required to account. CEC professional preparation standards do not identify specific
methods or strategies, (e.g., the xyz learning strategy or the xyz reading method). CEC does not use such a heavy-handed top down approach
in validating its professional preparation standards. This decision was based on the dynamic nature of evidence bases. Additionally, CEC felt
that such an approach was inconsistent with the collegiality across professions.
This does not imply that CEC eschews the value of evidence-based practice. In fact, the fifth edition of What Every Special Educator Must Know
states, “A foundation assumption of the CEC standards is that all special education professionals will use evidence-based research in their
decision making.” The CEC standards frequently use the term “effective practice” specifically to connote that preparation programs will
teach the current state of knowledge for evidence-based practices. There are also Initial and Advanced Common Core Standards that deal
specifically with this issue. CEC initial common core standards make clear that candidates for special education licensure should know how
to access and use evidence-based practices. The language does not attempt to delineate every evidence-based practice and its components.
Rather knowledge and skills, along with the balance of the CEC Content Standards, affirm the significance of evidence-based professional
practice broadly.
Although the CEC Standards are not designed to identify specific evidence-based practices along with their components for which preparation
programs might be required to account, the CEC Standards make clear the expectation that special education teacher candidates should
understand appropriate research methods for special education practice, know validated evidence-based practices, know how to evaluate and
modify their practice, and engage in evidence-based practices.
SECtion : aSSuring WEll-prEparEd SpECial EduCation proESSionalS