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

access to the evolving knowledge base of effective
practice is essential to maintaining programs that can
respond to the needs of all students with exceptionalities.
To this end, CEC calls upon the federal government
and professional associations, states/provinces,
local school districts, institutions of higher education,
and other relevant entities to commit the necessary
resources to professional development programs that
are grounded in adult learning principles and reflect
professional standards for continuing education.
Because effective special education is dependent on
the continuous improvement of what special educators
know and are able to do, CEC believes that all
special education professionals must be committed
to and engage in ongoing professional development
that advances their practice. We further believe that
professionals must have the opportunity to acquire
knowledge and skills through a broad array of venues,
including, but not limited to, institutions of higher
education, professional associations, state/provincial
education agencies, and local school districts. We
further encourage collaboration among all of these
entities in designing and implementing high quality
professional development. Employing agencies must
provide resources, including release time, to enable
each special educator to engage in continuing professional
development throughout her/his career. We
further believe that employers and professional organizations
should recognize and reward special education
professionals for improving their knowledge and
skills.
Paragraph 3 - Federal Role in
Personnel Preparation
Through legislation, the federal government has
played a dominant role in supporting initial efforts to
prepare personnel for educating children and youth
with exceptionalities. The Council believes that the
federal government should continue and expand its
efforts to train high level leadership personnel, assist
through leadership and financial support the development
of agencies to prepare personnel, and conduct
research in new systems of preparing and utilizing
personnel and meeting personnel needs. Definitive
data are needed concerning personnel utilization and
retention and other factors of personnel usage.
Paragraph 4 - State, Provincial, and
Local Role in Personnel Preparation
In recent years, state, provincial, and local governments,
in order to improve professional competencies,
have made greater efforts to support formal training
274 whAt every SpeCiAl eduCAtor muSt Know
programs in colleges and universities and facilitate
inservice and workshop efforts. The Council believes
that such activities should be increased and that
greater state, provincial, and local financial support
should be given to their development and operation.
The Council advocates extension of state, provincial,
and federal funding to new and emerging special
education services.
Paragraph 5 - National Recruitment
Further efforts need to be undertaken to develop a
national program to attract more qualified and motivated
individuals into the field of special education.
Such a program should include efforts to recruit more
members from ethnic and multicultural groups into
the field and to provide employment opportunities
for those persons trained. The Council believes that
such a program must be conducted through national
leadership with full involvement and participation of
all levels of government and professional organizations.
It is only through such a well coordinated effort
in recruitment that the field’s needs for qualified and
motivated personnel can ever be met.
Paragraph 6 - Responsibility
of Higher Education
Colleges and universities have an obligation to develop
and coordinate their resources in support of programs
for exceptional children. The obligation comprises a
number of factors:
a. To provide through scholarly inquiry an expanded
knowledge base for special education programs.
b. To provide training for various professional and
paraprofessional personnel needed to conduct
programs for students with exceptionalities.
c. To cooperate in the development and field testing
of innovative programs.
d. To provide for the coordinated development of
programs across disciplines and professions so that
training and service models are congruent with
emerging models for comprehensive community
services.
e. To provide all students, whether or not they are
in programs relating specifically to children with
exceptionalities, a basis for understanding and
appreciating human differences.
f. To exemplify in their own programs of training,