Special education continues to be the most litigated area of education with minimal requirements for the local education authority, typically an administrator, to have a fundamental understanding of special education law and practices. Additionally, federal, state, and local accountability measures indicate a significant achievement gap between students with disabilities and their peers. Given these concerns, there is a need for research on ways to improve administrator’s knowledge about special education as well as close the achievement gap between the two groups.
This qualitative study aims to explore perceptions about the role of an administrator for special education programming in order to identify specific areas of special education programming knowledge administrators need to be effective for special education. Interviews were conducted with three key stakeholder groups: special education teachers, general education teachers, and administrators, in order to ascertain converging and diverging perspectives about the role of an administrator for special education programming.
Findings in this study supported prior work around the lack of knowledge administrators had about special education law and practice. However, the findings went further to explore the skills needed to implement the knowledge administrators need in order to be effective for special education programming. Specifically, this study found that educational philosophy was an influential aspect to overall effectiveness of administrators for special education. Additionally, the ability to advocate (or champion) for the betterment of all stakeholders, and growth mindset were identified as key themes participants felt were necessary for an administrator to be effective for special education programming. These findings support the need for additional training that education administrators should receive to not only understand special education law, but also how to be an effective administrator for special education programming.
KEY WORDS: Special education, School administrators and special education, Administrator preparation, Systems Thinking Theory, Administrator roles