Findings: Special education pedagogy
Because this standard is still in a pilot phase, we use it to provide only preliminary findings for four special education programs. These four special education programs—two undergraduate and two graduate—were selected randomly from the 14 undergraduate and nine graduate special education programs included in our review. The sample includes the undergraduate special education program at Illinois State University, whose education school website claims that it is the largest producer of special education teachers in the country.1
All four programs passed the first screen, meaning that they had at least one course that had a strong focus on instruction. (All, in fact, had more than one such course.)
The results for the programs differed on the second screen:
Dominican University (graduate): Three courses focus on instruction, but only one of the three courses appears to have an adequate number of relevant assignments. Preliminary rating: MIDDLE RATING
Illinois State University (undergraduate): Two courses focus on instruction, but both are field-based and neither appears to have adequate relevant assignments. Preliminary rating: LOW RATING
Northern Illinois University (undergraduate): Three courses focus on instruction and all three appear to have an adequate number of relevant assignments. Preliminary rating: HIGH RATING
Northern Illinois University (graduate): Three courses focus on instruction and all three appear to have an adequate number of relevant assignments. Preliminary rating: HIGH RATING
