Special Education Teachers are responsible for providing interventions to students with

disabilities. The majority of these students will require reading interventions. These students are

often the hardest students to remediate. Most of the time these students have already received

interventions in their classrooms, extra tutoring, and even instruction from a reading specialist.

When these students are found eligible to receive special education services as a student with a

learning disability there is often a sense of relief. The relief in part is because the teacher feels

vindicated that it is the disability and not the instruction that caused the lack of progress. There

is also relief that the student will finally start to receive the help they need. It is essential that

special education teacher preparation programs prepare teachers who are knowledgeable about

reading development and instruction (Sayeski, Budin, & Bennett, 2015). The question is how

prepared are special education teachers to take on this daunting task? Is their expertise in reading

instruction or is it in providing accommodations and modifications to help the student be

successful in the general education curriculum? Researchers have long recognized the problem

with preservice programs for special education teachers and the lack of knowledge in reading

instruction.

Many special education teachers are unaware of the many different concepts involved in

teaching reading. Reading often comes naturally and most people are not aware of many of

the underlying components of reading. Without this knowledge it is often difficult for special

education teachers to identify the source of the students reading difficulties and the instruction

that should be provided to this student (Sayeski, et.al., 2015). Research suggests that there is a

direct relationship between teacher knowledge of literacy skills and student performance.
According to Berkley, Regan, Dimitrove, Guckert, and Ray (2016), many pre-service and in-

service teachers lack adequate knowledge of reading. They suggest that college courses should

be aligned with state exams and what has been identified as important components to literacy

instruction. These include assessment and diagnostic teaching, oral language and oral

communication, and reading and writing development. In 2011, the State of Virginia recognized

this need and started requiring that elementary and special education teachers pass a state-wide

exam, Reading for Virginia Educators (RVE), that assesses teacher knowledge to provide

effective reading instruction (Berkley, et.al, 2016).

Special education teachers work with the same students that elementary education

teachers do. Stotsky (2009), suggested that licensure tests are state responsibilities and each state

should examine what tests it requires for special education teachers and to what degree these

tests reflect current research on reading instruction. The problem is that the states have come up

with creative ways to handle the quantity of special education teachers without regard to the

quality. Provisional licenses are often granted to individuals holding bachelor’s degrees if they

are enrolled in a licensure program. The teacher then has three years to complete the program.

When looking at this issue of how well prepared special education teachers are it would

be remiss not to discuss the faculty that provides this instruction. Not only are there a shortage

of special education teachers, but there is also a shortage of faculty who are knowledgeable about

effective practices in reading and can use this knowledge to form a curriculum that adequately

prepares special education teachers (Smith, Robb, West & Tyler, 2010). There is a long history

of a shortage of doctoral-level special education personnel. There is a correlation between the

shortage of special education teachers and the shortage of future faculty. The federal
government funded the 2009 Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment study to assess both

the supply and demand of new special education faculty (Smith, et. al., 2010).

What is it that special education teachers should know about reading? Research is very

clear that students with reading difficulties need systematic and explicit instruction. Systematic

meaning instruction follows a planned scope and sequence. Explicit instruction is defined as

direct instruction and modeling of skills that involves a high level of student involvement and

teacher feedback (Sayeski, et. al, 2015). According to Snow and Juel, “Explicit attention to the

alphabetic principle in early reading instruction is helpful for all children, harmful to none, and

crucial for some” (as cited in Saveski, et. al, 2015). Otaiba and Lake (2007) examined the effect

that providing tutoring and using curriculum-based assessments had on preservice teachers’

knowledge to teach reading. Their belief was that coursework should be based on evidence-

based practices and should provide high quality field experiences. They concluded that the

preservice teachers were better prepared to provide instruction based on data provided by the

curriculum-based assessments. The students were also provided with programs that allowed

them to provide explicit phonological awareness and phonics instruction. The researchers felt as

if this type of field experience was necessary because many times the field placements do not

have supervising teachers who are knowledgeable in explicit instruction.

Special Education Teachers’ roles are ever changing. Preservice teacher programs

primarily focused on the disabilities themselves. It was more important to understand how to

make modification and accommodations, so students could access the general education

curriculum. Today, special education teachers are often a struggling reader’s last hope. They are

the ones that provide the Tier 3 intervention when Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions did not work.

Therefore, I propose that universities should evaluate their preservice programs for special
education teachers. The question is are special education teachers adequately prepared to

provide reading interventions to the most difficult to remediate students? Why is that when

students are diagnosed with a reading disability they are not seen by the reading specialist, who

has expertise in reading and explicit instruction? If your child was diagnosed with a medical

condition would you want a general practitioner or one that specialized in that medical

condition? Therefore, it would seem that children with reading disabilities would be served by

someone who specializes in reading or that preservice programs for special education teachers

would provide this same amount of expertise.

 Works Cited

Berkeley, S., Regan, K., Dimitrov, D., Guckert, M., & Ray, S. (2016). Teachers'

Basic Knowledge of Reading Instruction: Insights from a Teacher Preparation

Program. Teacher Educators' Journal, 9(Spring ), 23-48.

Otaiba, S. A., & Lake, V. E. (2007). Preparing special educators to teach reading and use

curriculum-based assessments. Reading and Writing,20(6), 591-617.

doi:10.1007/s11145-007-9056-z

Sayeski, K. L., Budin, S. E., & Bennett, K. (2015). Promising Practices in the Preparation of

Special Educators to Provide Reading Instruction. Intervention in School and

Clinic,51(2), 82-89. doi:10.1177/1053451215579266.

Smith, D. D., Robb, S. M., West, J., & Tyler, N. C. (2010). The Changing Education Landscape:

How Special Education Leadership Preparation Can Make a Difference for Teachers and

Their Students With Disabilities. Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal

of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children,33(1), 25-43.

doi:10.1177/0888406409358425.

Stotsky, S. (2009). Licensure Tests for Special Education Teachers. Journal of Learning

Disabilities,42(5), 464-474. doi:10.1177/0022219409338740.