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Special Education Teacher Evaluation: Why It Matters, What Makes It Challenging, And How To Address These Challenges, Evelyn Johnson, Carrie Lisa Semmelroth

Carrie Semmelroth

There is currently little consensus on how special education teachers should be evaluated. The lack of consensus may be due to several reasons. Special education teachers work under a variety of complex conditions, with a very heterogeneous population, and support student progress toward a very individualized set of goals. In addition, special education is marked by historical rates of attrition, with a lack of highly qualified teachers entering the field, and a number of special education teachers completing alternate certification programs, leading to a combined effect that impacts overall professional quality. In this article, we first review the challenges associated …