Licensure Deficiencies: Arkansas
Special Education Teacher Preparation Policy
Analysis of Arkansas's policies
Arkansas offers a grades K-12 special education certification. Arkansas also allows teachers with a standard K-6 or 4-8 license, or a standard 7-12 English Language Arts, Mathematics, or Science license, to add the corresponding Special Education Resource endorsement.
However, because the special education license is valid for all grades, there is no guarantee that teachers teaching special education at the elementary level will have acquired the necessary content knowledge to teach at that level, or that secondary special education teachers will have acquired the necessary secondary level content knowledge.
Although Arkansas requires candidates to take a content test that results in a composite score to earn its K-12 special education certification, but the test content is geared towards general content knowledge and does not cover the core subjects at a significant depth and breadth for either the elementary or secondary level.
Recommendations for Arkansas
End licensure practices that fail to distinguish between the skills and knowledge needed to teach elementary grades and secondary grades.
The broad K-12
umbrella is deeply problematic for the overwhelming majority of high-incidence
special education students, who are expected to learn grade-level
content. Arkansas—at the very
least—should offer elementary and secondary special education licenses and
require special education teachers to have the appropriate license for the
grade level of students with whom they are working.
State response to our analysis
Arkansas recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis, and was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis. The state also indicated that Educator Preparation programs for Special Education (K-12) must ensure alignment with the educator competencies for the licensure area in order to maintain state approval. The competencies do include details for the teaching of all four content areas for learners with exceptionalities.
Updated: December 2017
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Arkansas
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General Teacher Preparation
- Program Entry
- Teacher Shortages and Surpluses
- Program Performance Measures
- Program Reporting Requirements
- Student Teaching/Clinical Practice
- Teaching Methods
Elementary Teacher Preparation
Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Middle School Content Knowledge
- Middle School Licensure Deficiencies
- Adolescent Literacy
- Secondary Content Knowledge
- Secondary Licensure Deficiencies
Special Education Teacher Preparation
Alternate Routes
Hiring
- Requirements for Out-of-State Teachers
- Provisional and Emergency Licensure
- Licensure for Substitute Teachers
- Supporting New Teachers
Teacher and Principal Evaluation
Teacher Compensation
Retaining Effective Teachers
Early Childhood Preparation
How we graded
4C: Special Education Licensure Deficiencies
- Specific Licensure: The state should require its teacher preparation programs to sufficiently distinguish between the differing needs of elementary special education teachers and secondary special education teachers by requiring distinct elementary and secondary special education licenses.
The total goal score is earned based on the following:
- Full credit: The state is only eligible for the full point if it requires teacher preparation programs to sufficiently distinguish between the differing needs of elementary special education teachers and those of secondary special education teachers by requiring distinct elementary and secondary special education licenses. The state is not eligible for any credit if it offers K-12 special education licenses either in isolation or as an alternative to grade-specific licenses.
- One-quarter credit: The state is eligible for one quarter of a point if, in addition to K-12 special education licenses, the state offers both elementary and secondary licenses.
Research rationale
Generic K-12 special education licenses are inappropriate for teachers of high-incidence special education students.
Too many states make no distinction between elementary and secondary special education teachers, certifying all such teachers under a generic K-12 special education license. While this broad umbrella may be appropriate for teachers of low-incidence special education students, such as those with severe cognitive disabilities, it is deeply problematic for high-incidence special education students, who are expected to learn grade-level content.[1] And because the overwhelming majority of special education students are in the high-incidence category, the result is a fundamentally broken system.
It is virtually impossible and certainly impractical for states to ensure that a K-12 teacher knows all the subject matter he or she is expected to teach. Further, the issue is just as valid in terms of pedagogical knowledge. Teacher preparation and licensure for special education teachers must distinguish between elementary and secondary levels, as they do for general education.[2] The current model does little to protect some of our most vulnerable students.
[1] Levenson, N. (2011). Something has got to change: Rethinking special education (Working Paper 2011-01). American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED521782
[2] Feng, L., & Sass, T. R. (2010). What makes special education teachers special? Teacher training and achievement of students with disabilities (Working Paper 49). National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1001435-what-makes-special.pdf; Levenson, N. (2011). Something has got to change: Rethinking special education (Working Paper 2011-01). American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED521782