A National Assessment of Staff Development Needs Related to the Education of Students with Disabilities

Among the many factors that contribute to staff unravelling needs for experienced teachers are IDEA compliance, curriculum standards, faculty turnover, high-stakes testing, and increased expectations among policymakers and academy patrons. As teachers pursue personalized staff disclosure plans, they seek opportunities to enhance their skills and expand their knowledge. Typically, if they are engaged in a graduate-degree program, they are likely to be pendent on their home institution of higher education (IHE) as the source for their professional extension experiences. If they are not pursuing a stage program, they may look to their employer to provide staff exhibition opportunities or, on their possess seek opportunities that best fit their exigencys and aspirations.

With the emerging see the verb of the Internet access to professional exhibition opportunities is increasing at an unprecedent rate. Offerings through IHEs on the Internet are increasing, professional associations are developing web sites to present staff development, and e-learning in the commercial sector is evolving as a source for staff disentanglement Thus, the Internet has dramatically changed the potential for accessing staff unfolding anytime, anywhere.

The ne for staff unravelling among teachers to fully implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is exacerbated by dint of the growing shortage of trained personnel and the disposition for states to allow push waivers for noncertified teachers to penetrate the field when the store of certified teachers does not fit the demand. In particular, educators trained to work with learners with disabilities continue to be in short endue (Brownell & Smith, 1993, Brownell Smith, McNellis, & Miller, 1997); Lauritzen & Freidman, 1993) a shortage that is wait fored to become even more acute in coming years, for several reasons.

First, the public place of education population, ages 5 through 13 rose to approximately 385 million in 1998 and continues to increase. Further, the U Department of Education throw outs the need for an additional 2 million teachers above the next decade as veteran teachers (i.e., the baby drone generation) retire. This critical personnel shortage is particularly significant when considering the chronic shortage of special education teachers above the past decade.For example, the Twentieth Annual Report to Congres upon the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1998) reports that from 1987-88 to 1995-96 shortages for teaching positions nationally for scholars aged 6-21 with disabilities have averaged about 27000 completely certified teachers per year. The training of novel teachers is inadequate to qualified projected personnel needs. This means that large numbers of teachers will penetrate the profession with significant staff unfolding needs.

The logic for employing online technologies as a major option for delivering staff disclosure evolves from the context surrounding the national ne for staff unfolding by teachers. This need has grown as a result of legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Without a systematic approach to staff disclosure nationally, practicing teachers are unlikely to be prepared to suited the emerging expectations for pupils with exceptional learning needs. Online technologies provide the capacity to enhance the efforts of states and districts in addressing these urgencys The staff-development needs of teachers related to improving performance results for students with exceptional learning requires a major investment in creating staff exhibition initiatives that can be taken to scale. Online technologies present that potential.

FEATURES AND ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Features of online staff disclosure that illustrate what makes online staff exhibition available as options are:

* 24/7 access

* National dissemination

* easy in mind experts involved in development

* Rapid reply time

* Revision capabilities

* Accountability

Clearly, the ability to move to scale national distribution and 24/7 access are important features, as they help to make sure that teachers will have access to the opportunity for professional disclosure at times that are greatest in quantity convenient to them. Because all contented must be in final form when posting to online technologies, especially those of an asynchronous nature, the satisfied can be reviewed, and juried if necessary. This adds a measure of accountability that is not as easily achieved in other forms of staff disclosure Once revised, the changes can be made available nationally, which quickly adds to the potency of this option for staff development

Some advantages of online staff unravelling that contribute to this pattern for delivering staff development warrant special consideration when making decisions regarding the use of online technologies for staff disclosure Advantages of the self-paced nature of online staff unfolding cannot be overestimated. Teachers maintain busy professional schedules and usually have significant demands upon their time. This complicates the probability that their schedules will match a rigid schedule for participating in staff development