Survey: Highly Qualified Teachers

Impact of "Highly Qualified" Requirements on Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments Introduction & Directions: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation are expected to have a significant impact on the credentials that will be required of teachers in both general and special education. This brief survey is intended to assess how states are beginning to grapple with these new requirements. Additionally, answers to these short questions will be helpful in evaluating both the anticipated and unintended consequences of these new requirements on the work of teachers of students with visual impairments. Specifically, the so-called "highly qualified" requirements of the new law may have far-reaching effects on specialized education for students with vision loss. If you serve as a teacher of students with visual impairments, you are welcome and encouraged to respond to this survey by March 15, 2006. Please do not leave any of the fields in the survey blank—if you do not have an answer for a particular question, please so indicate. AFB will be collecting and synthesizing responses to this survey and will be working in collaboration with individual and organizational partners to develop strategies to address implications of the "highly qualified" mandate. A summary of survey results will be published on this site later this Spring. If you have any problems submitting your answers to this survey, please contact Barbara LeMoine, Policy Analyst, AFB Public Policy Center, blemoine@afb.net. In what state do you serve as a teacher of students with visual impairments? [Required] Select Answer Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming How many years have you been teaching? [Required] Select Answer 1-5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years 16-20 years 21-25 years 25+ Name & Contact Information (optional): What is your work setting? Itinerant serving public schools, resource room, specialized school, other (please explain). What credentials (education, license, certification, etc.) does your state require to allow you to teach students with visual impairments? Do you currently possess the credentials you describe in the question #5 above? Select Answer Yes No N/A Under IDEA, special education teachers must be "highly qualified," and the application of such requirements will vary from state to state. Do the credentials that you describe in your answer to Question #5 make you "highly qualified" in your state? Are there other factors? Please explain. If you live in a state where the issue described in the question above has not been determined, how do you think it will be resolved? Under the law, special education teachers who teach core academic subject matter must also be considered "highly qualified" to teach such subject matter. Does your state require you to possess such general education qualifications in addition to your special education qualifications? Are other teachers in your state so required? (Please describe.) Under the federal law, special education teachers who do not teach core academic subject matter may be regarded as "consultants." Do you teach core academic subject matter? If so, what subject matter do you teach? Are the services you provide classified as "related services" in your state? Select Answer Yes No I don't know. N/A If federal and/or state law formally classified the services you provide as "related services," how do you believe such classification would impact the work you do? If you were required to get additional credentials to continue teaching children with visual impairments, would you do so? (If not, what would you do professionally?) Please share any other thoughts or concerns you may have about the "highly qualified" requirements under IDEA and NCLB.