Keeping Excellent Special Educators

The recruitment and retention committee of the 2021-22 Washington State CEEDAR collaborative will focus on factors and circumstances related to the recruitment and retention of special educators including but not limited to state and local trends over time, the need to support diversification of the educator workforce, and innovative strategies to help new teachers in the field of special education.

Goal:

Conduct a landscape analysis of currently available data, research, and reports to examine relevant trends in the preparation, recruitment, induction, and retention of special educators, particularly educators of color.

This work is currently underway:

Review, document, and create a visual map of data sources from OSPI, districts, and EPPs to report upon current trends in educator retention.
Identify promising practices and novel strategies being used in Washington State at the state, local, and school levels.
Conduct a literature review of scholarly and professional articles and reports related to preparation, recruitment, induction, and retention of special educators, particularly educators of color.
Create a dissemination plan to provide information about preparation, recruitment, induction, and retention of special educators.

In the coming months, the group will create a recommendations report that is informed by the landscape analysis.

Consider relevant levels of action – statewide, district wide, school based and the particular stakeholders who could action those levels and create a stakeholder map.
Develop initial recommendations and conduct targeted focus groups with stakeholders identified in the mapping.
Write a recommendations report to suggest possible means of addressing the problems identified in the landscape analysis at multiple points in the system.

KESE/Title IIA Competitive Grant

A KESE/Title IIA Competitive Grant is available this year only for LEAs – Improving Systems to Support and Retain Beginning Special Educators.

The grant opportunity is offered in cooperation by two teams at OSPI, Title IIA and the Keeping Exceptional Special Educators (KESE) teams. This competitive grant focuses on increasing the retention of K-12 special education teachers by building upon existing district systems of support to educators entering the workforce, particularly the Beginning Educator Support Team (BEST) induction network. Grant goals are to 1) ensure that educators have the skills, knowledge, and support to deliver high-quality education to students in partnership with their families and 2) to meaningfully address key drivers of special educator attrition and enact strategies to support their retention.

Professional Development for KESE/Title 11 A Competitive Grant

Watch the video below to learn about the factors and circumstances related to the recruitment and retention of special educators including but not limited to state and local trends over time, the need to support diversification of the educator workforce, and innovative strategies to help new teachers in the field of special education.

Quick Overview of the video:

This training provides district special education directors and leaders strategies to retain special education teachers through survey results from novice special educators who clearly describe their needs for mentoring and support.
This training also provides information on how qualifying district leaders can apply for up to $60,000 in grant funding to research and apply strategies to recruit and retain exceptional special educators.

Presenters: