Critical teacher shortages in special education have led to revisions in certification and licensure policies in some states and implementation of initiatives to attract special education teachers in other states. Some of these revisions have allowed unendorsed teachers to be assigned to special education classrooms. The reliance on unendorsed teachers to fill special education vacancies means those working with students with the greatest educational needs may have the least amount of training or teaching experience. However, there have been no investigations of unendorsed special education teachers. / Ed. D.

There is little agreement regarding the identification procedures, characteristics and the definition of emotional disturbances even though the child-serving agencies often share the same clients and the same mandates. Because of these commonalities, a broad range of services are duplicated, lack coordination, and are provided by scarce personnel. The net effect may be no one receives services (LaCour, 1982). Interagency collaboration, touted as a management tool, is a vehicle by which lack of service delivery may be eliminated. According to state and federal mandates, interagency collaboration is to be used, whenever and wherever, services are needed to effectively serve students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed (SED). The purpose of this study was to identify the current level of interagency collaboration available to students within the Commonwealth of Virginia for students labeled seriously emotionally disturbed, ages 5-18, as perceived by special education directors and teachers serving students labeled seriously emotionally disturbed. A School Personnel Perceptions of Interagency Collaboration for Students Identified as Seriously Emotionally Disturbed survey was developed to measure the current level of interagency collaboration for this study. Items included were based on a review of the literature; information generated from informal interviews with special education administrators, special education teachers, and professionals in related fields; and, comments from expert reviewers. Questionnaires were mailed to a sample of thirty six school divisions, which translates into a total of 80 surveys sent to directors of special education and teachers of students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed. The sample was determined by: 1) designating school districts within the Commonwealth according to their Average Daily Membership into large-, medium-, and small- sized districts, and 2) selecting a sample from each size school district. Directors were then contacted and asked for the names of teachers within their school district currently teaching students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests and one way analyses of variance. Post hoc tests were used to determine which means were significantly different from each other. Major findings include: 1) special education directors and teachers of students identified as SED agree that availability of a variety of services is very important to the success of their students. Few significant differences between directors and teachers were found; however, differences did occur with services that focus on the family rather than the child. Teachers found these services to be more important to the success of their students than did directors. 2) While directors and teachers across school district sizes indicated a variety of services were currently available to students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed, there was little agreement between directors and teachers within district sizes as to how much any one service was currently provided. 3) Teachers and directors indicated that, in many cases, they did not know whether or not a certain agency provided a specific service to students identified as in need of services. / Ed. D.

Staff development, which is designed to help individuals grow personally and professionally in a supportive environment, is an important responsibility of supervisors in state and local education agencies. For teachers entering the field, staff development is particularly important since beginners often find the first years of teaching difficult and overwhelming. However, research related to the training needs of beginning special education teachers is limited. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify competencies which beginning and experienced teachers of students with mild disabilities (emotionally disturbed or ED, educable mentally retarded or EMR, and learning disabled or LD) perceive as being necessary for effective special education teaching and (b) determine differences in training needs among beginning and experienced special education teachers. Survey methodology was used to gather information to answer the research questions. A staff development questionnaire was developed that contained 80 items under 7 broad categories: assessment/diagnosis, individual educational programs and planning, integration and collaboration, curriculum, instructional strategies, behavior strategies, and advocacy issues. The questionnaire was based on Virginia certification requirements, the professional literature, teacher interviews, and expert reviews. Teachers were asked to judge the relevance of the 80 skills to their teaching positions and to rate the extent to which they felt a need for additional training in each of the skill areas. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,056 ED, a EMR, and LD teachers in Virginia. Six hundred two teachers responded for a response rate of 57%. Data were analyzed* using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Major findings of the study include the following: (1) special education teachers perceived that the 80 competencies were extremely relevant to their jobs; (2) both beginning and experienced teachers indicated moderate training needs in the seven areas; (3) beginning LD teachers rated the need for IEP skills higher than experienced teachers; (4) experienced EMR teachers perceived that 5 of the 7 broad categories were more relevant than did beginning EMR teachers; and (5) EMR teachers rated need for training in curriculum higher than LD teachers. Implications for educational agencies, such as information on training priorities and teacher preparation programs are discussed. / Ed. D.