Special Education Teacher Education: A Perspective on Content Knowledge

Abstract

The passage of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has strengthened the conditions for instructional accountability for all learners. The standards–based approach promulgated by curriculum and state assessments is central to the accountability of conditions in today's schools; however, national and state data continue to document a performance gap between students with learning disabilities (LD) and their nondisabled peers. Building on 5 years of experience in developing and testing the Blending Assessment with Instruction Program in mathematics, we present three basic principles that are essential to ensuring that students with LD achieve curriculum standards: (1) instruction must be aligned with curriculum standards, (2) teachers’ content knowledge is essential to translating curriculum standards into aligned instruction, and (3) instructional methodology should receive greater attention during teacher preparation.