Meeting the Need for Special Education Teachers for Culturally Linguistically Diverse Students with Disabilities

Overview & Synopsis

Significant personnel shortages in special education have been noted in the 23rd Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of IDEA Act (USDE, 2002). With predictions of even more serious teacher shortages, there is an especially critical need for additional special education teachers for students with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in rural areas (USDE, 2002). In addition, the current emphasis on providing nondiscriminatory assessment procedures and assessing the effectiveness of multicultural instructional programs is drawing attention to the efficacy of traditional special education and general education teacher training programs which typically do not offer systematically integrated coursework and practicum experiences specific to the multicultural characteristics of students with disabilities. This paper presents innovative approaches to recruiting and training culturally responsive special education teachers.