1. Meeting the need for special education teachers in rural areas.
Susan P. Gregory Ph. D.
Professor, Montana State University Billings
Rene Rosell Yarbrough. M. S. S. E.
Project Coordinator
Office of Public Instruction Special Education Endorsement Project

2. National need for special education teachers
National Coalition on Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services reports that in the United States:
49 states report a shortage of special education teachers and related service providers
special education teachers leave the profession at nearly double the rate of their general education colleagues
82% of special education teachers and related service providers report that there are not enough professionals to meet the needs of students with disabilities
51% of all school districts and 90% of high poverty school districts report difficulty attracting highly qualified special education teachers

3. Montana’s need for special education teachers
Montana (US) (381,156 km²) is 2.9 times as big as England (130,400 km²).
Montana’s need for special education teachers
Education Fields Impacted by Critical Shortages school year (Report to Board of Public Education by Quinlan M. and Furois S. 2016).
Rank
Education Field
Total Vacancies2
Percent Difficult or Very Hard to Fill
Weighted Score 1
Special Education
191
80%
152 2
Career and Technical Education 86
79% 68 3
Mathematics 80
75% 60 4
Music 65
82% 53 5
School Counselor 61 46 6
Science 64
63% 40 7
English 87
39% 34 8
World Languages 33
86% 28 9
Library 24
81% 19 10
Social Studies 50
30% 15 11
Art 31
49% 12
School Psychologist 13
92%

4. Meeting Montana’s need for special education teachers
Montana is rural state. It is ranked as the 4th largest state in size and 44th in population. The estimated population per square mile is 6.8.
Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is Montana’s Education Department
Special education teachers must be licensed in general education. The special education qualification is an endorsement which is added to the teaching license.
In Montana this endorsement is a general special education program.
Montana requires teachers to be in one of the following programs if they are teaching in an area for which they are not endorsed and they have 3 years to complete that endorsement.
Class 5 license
Internship program
OPI special education endorsement project

5. OPI Special education endorsement project
Criteria for admission:
Position has to be advertised statewide.
Position must be in public school, not private.
District confirms that no special education teacher applied for the position.
Teacher must have a Montana teaching license.
Teacher must commit to teaching for 3 years in the school while they are completing their special education endorsement and then a following 2 years in special education in Montana.
Benefits to teachers when they are admitted to the project
Teachers receive stipends towards the cost of taking special education coursework leading to their endorsement.
Receive mentoring in their first year in the project.
Teachers can take their endorsement coursework from a number of Montana universities participating in the project.

6. Study 1: Survey of Teachers
The purpose of this study was to gain feedback from teachers in the OPI project during the period An online survey was sent to all the teachers in the project during that period. 33 surveys were sent, 27 teachers responded and 21 of those were still in the project.
Over half the teachers were early career teachers. When asked about their previous teaching experience in general education:
7 teachers had no previous teaching experience
8 teachers had 1-5 years
5 teachers had 6-10 years
5 teachers had years
2 teachers had years

7. Findings Majority of the teachers took courses online.
Majority of the teachers were given an online mentor but preferred an on site mentor.
Majority of the teachers said they would not have pursued an endorsement in special education if they had not been admitted to the OPI project.

8. Study 2: Survey of Administrators
The purpose of this study was to gain feedback from administrators that had teachers in the OPI project during the period
An online survey was sent to 33 administrators of schools and 22 responded.
All the administrators said that they saw the project as meeting a continued need for special education teachers in the state and that they were satisfied with the preparation the teachers received.

9. Study 3: Interviews with Teachers
The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of those licensed Montana teachers as they navigated their first years teaching students in rural school districts.
18 of the 30 teachers in the OPI project agreed to participate and were interviewed by phone.
The teachers were asked what the benefits and challenges they faced in teaching special education in a rural school as they learned the role of the special education teacher.

10. Benefits of teaching special education in a rural school
Individual instruction with students: “Being in a small district and getting to work one on one.” “I love rural schools. I think your staff is tighter and you know your students better.” Connection to families: “I like rural settings just because you get to know the kids and the families and to me that’s the most important. You get to build those relationships. You see them grow. I like small schools for that simple reason.” Sense of community: “I like the sense of community. We know most of the parents. We know all the kids. We are able to spend more time with the kids.” “I love the community. It’s tightknit and there are problems associated with that but if you build good relationships they have your back.”

11. Challenges of teaching special education in a rural school
Paperwork: “It was overwhelming because I didn’t have anyone specifically sit down and help me write an IEP.” “In the beginning it’s all very confusing, all the acronyms, the paperwork and how the process works. It takes a little while to get your head around that.” Lack of resources: “That was my biggest struggle this year, not having the resources.” “The only downfall I feel is that all I keep hearing is ‘we don’t have any money to improve anything’ ‘we don’t have any money to get a new curriculum’.” Isolation of the special education teacher: “I felt like I was out in an aisle. There was no other sped teacher that I could go to…It would be nice to have someone that could come on site just to brainstorm with”. “I went from being on a team to being on my own…sometimes I consider it a lonely place, my own little island”

12. Summary
OPI Special education endorsement project contributes to Montana’s need for special education teachers in rural areas.
School administrators view it positively.
Feedback from teachers has led to a change in how mentoring is provided.
Some teachers have stayed in the special education beyond their commitment to the project.
Project is following up on teachers and how long they stay in special education.