Following a national trend, the Illinois State Board of Education voted Thursday to change the way special-education teachers are trained and licensed, essentially making them generalists instead of specialists.
The unanimous vote came after two years of highly contentious discussions among state officials, special-education teachers, union representatives and education leaders. The divisiveness surfaced during a two-day board meeting as opponents and proponents of the plan offered impassioned pleas for their positions.
Separately, state education officials placed only seven schools on the annual financial watch list, the lowest number in four years. Four Illinois school districts were added to the list, including one in Cook County, Elmwood Park District 401. Six districts were removed, including Community Unit School District 300 in Carpentersville and Richland School District 88A in Will County.
State schools Supt. Max McGee said the special-education plan, which must be approved by a federal judge, would benefit the state’s 273,000 special-ed students.
“This new system will address the needs of kids, not the disability labels assigned to them,” McGee said. “Our current model is outdated. This new one represents a system that addresses how students learn.”
The vote drew immediate condemnation from the state’s largest teachers union and from some special-ed advocacy groups.
“This is going to make the special-education teacher shortage more severe and put special-education teachers into classrooms who are not adequately trained,” said Bev Johns, chairman of the Illinois Special Education Coalition. “I’m appalled at the board’s action.”
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If approved by the court, the new rules would take effect in 2003 and would not affect the 25,000 teachers who already hold special-education certificates or prospective teachers already enrolled in programs.
The new rules would not necessarily affect how special-education students are taught or where they are taught. But the educators who teach them would be trained differently.
Since the 1970s, most special-education teachers in Illinois have been trained and certified to teach students with a specific disability. Typically, a special-needs student is given a disability label and a teacher with certification in that field works with the student.
The new certification system lumps most disabilities into one category. Prospective special-education teachers would be trained across the continuum, preparing them to work with a host of learning and behavioral problems. At least 43 other states offer similar “general” licenses; many also offer specialized ones.
The new system also would offer a higher level certificate for teachers who return to college for more training or more specialized training. It also would retain specialized certifications in some areas, such as working with blind or deaf children.
“With the intensity of training that will be required under the new system, one teacher will be able to provide multiple strategies needed to help these students succeed,” McGee said.
Not everyone agrees. Across the country, the issue has divided those in special education. Some special-education advocates say the new training and licensing system will create teachers who are jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none.
“What they are creating is special-education teachers who will walk into the classroom and quickly realize they have a lot of broad knowledge but very little specific knowledge about how to teach these children,” said Camille Taylor, a member of the Illinois Education Association and a former special-education teacher.
The state has been trying to revamp special-ed certification since 1995, when it initiated a review of the state’s teacher licensing process.
But the review was spurred along by a 1997 federal ruling that found the Chicago Public Schools, and by extrapolation, the state Board of Education, was unnecessarily isolating special-ed students in separate classrooms. The judge ordered the board to make special-ed certification cross-disciplinary, unless it could find a compelling reason not to.