The Commonwealth Special Education Endorsement Program: 13 Years of Preparing Virginia’s Special Education Teachers

1. The CommonwealthSpecial Education Endorsement Program: 13 Years of Preparing Virginia’s Special Education Teachers

2. The Commonwealth Special Education Endorsement Program is a nationally recognized success in recruiting, training, and retaining special educators.

3. 2007 Finalist, Distinguished Program in Teacher Education, Association of Teacher Educators • 2006 Recipient of the Exemplary Program Award, American Council on Rural Special Education • 2005 Recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Award for Teaching Excellence, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

4. The Commonwealth Special Education Endorsement Program (CSEEP) is a collaborative effort of the Virginia Department of Education, Old Dominion University, and Virginia’s public schools and state-operated programs.

5. The CSEEP program is a clear success: to date, CSEEP has enabled over 1,300 teachers to achieve full licensure and to acquire the skills necessary to educate their students with disabilities effectively, the overwhelming majority of whom are still in the classroom.

6. Program Goal: • Establish a collaborative relationship among school systems in the Commonwealth, the Virginia Department of Education, and Old Dominion University in order to facilitate full endorsement for all special education teachers.

8. Advisory Board Meetings Held Biannually • Regional Representatives/Special Education Directors • Virginia Department of Education representatives • Grant directors, coordinators and staff

9. Program Goal: • Identify special education teachers who currently are teaching with conditional/provisional licensure.

10. Provisional Endorsements Granted by the VDOE VDOE 11/2008

11. CSEEP: An Individually Designed Path to Full Licensure Course choices: number, timing & modality Individual advising Centralized services Tuition support

12. Classes Taken by CSEEP Participants by AY

13. CSEEP: Web Presence • Virginia Department of Education/Become One: Recruiting Special Educators in Virginia (VDOE) Teach Virginia.org • Teachers-Teachers.com: Education’s Premier Recruitment Service • National Clearinghouse for Professions in Special Education/Council for Exceptional Children

14. National Center for Alternative Certification • American Association of State Colleges and Universities • American Council on Rural Special Education • Office of Special Education Programs • Prince William County Public Schools: Teacher Certification • Stafford County Public Schools: Office of Professional Learning

15. Program Goal: • Utilize distance learning to provide high quality special education courses to identified individuals throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

16. Distance Learning at ODU • Old Dominion University is one of the largest providers of distance learning degree programs in the country. The University serves 4,000 students at 50 sites in Virginia, Arizona, and Washington, as well as Internet students and videostreamers from a variety of locations, and Navy personnel taking classes while deployed around the world. Registrations per AY are at a mean of 26,343.

17. Program Goal: • Integrate content knowledge, technology standards, instructional strategies, and Virginia Standards of Learning throughout the course work.

19. Program Goal: • Evaluate all components of the project including curriculum design, course content, teacher application of knowledge and skills, and overall success in providing full endorsement for special education teachers in Virginia.

20. Evaluation by CEC Standards Sample categories: 1. Instructional Strategies 2. Learning Environments and Social Interactions 3. Language 4. Instructional Planning 5. Assessment 6. Professional and Ethical Practice 7. Collaboration • Pre/Post Task Rating Form

21. Participant Pre/Post Rating

22. CSEEP Program Evaluation--Online

23. Program Goal: • Assess P-12 student academic and non-academic change over time in grant participants’ classrooms.

25. Program Goal: • Assess teacher retention of grant participants.

26. CSEEP Finisher Survey • 88% of the respondents remain fully licensed and teaching in their specialty areas; • CSEEP helped them to obtain full licensure • Coursework provided through CSEEP increased their ability to provide effective classroom instruction. • A majority of CSEEP participants stated that the mentor program provided appropriate support throughout the experience and, • 90% of the finishers polled indicated that the completion of their licensure through CSEEP increased the likelihood that they would remain in the field of special education. • N=450

27. How beneficial were the following CSEEP components as you completed your licensure course work?

28. Comparison of teachers who remained in special education to teachers who had left

29. The CommonwealthSpecial Education Endorsement Program ...13 Years of Preparing Virginia’s Special Education Teachers