For special education directors and transition coordinators choosing the right transition curriculum can be a make-or-break moment for their school or district. It can set them on the path towards improved compliance, better student outcomes and higher teacher satisfaction. Or it can lead to unexpected costs, increased workloads and mounting paperwork.
To help make this choice easier, we’ve compiled a guide to the most important considerations that go into making this decision. From flexibility and accessibility to progress monitoring and student engagement, here are the top 5 markers of a quality transition curriculum.
Key statistics related to the special education teacher shortage in the US:
65% of schools that offer special education positions report feeling understaffed in special education.
78% of schools offering special education positions report it was either “very” or “somewhat difficult” to fill them.
45% of schools report unfilled vacancies for special education teachers.
As most school and district leaders are aware, the special education teacher shortage crisis shows no signs of abetting.
Professional development is often cited as one of the steps education leaders can take to address these challenges. But we also need to consider the limited time and budgets available for upskilling and reskilling teachers.
A study carried out by EdWeek and Merrimack College found that out of the – on average – 54 hours teachers spend working per week, only 1 hour is dedicated to professional development.
This means that when choosing a transition curriculum, coordinators and directors must take into account 3 key factors related to its ease of adoption and use:
On top of that, you can consider other factors such as whether the curriculum offers age-appropriate content, enough hands-on activities and multimedia to be engaging enough for teenagers.
See what Ori Learning can do for your school or district.
With the rise of transition-related litigation in recent years, compliance has become a central issue for special education directors around the country. Among the most common legal pitfalls for special educators are inadequate IEP goal-setting and progress monitoring.
As cases such as the Endrew F. Supreme Court Ruling demonstrate, it’s crucial to have reliable progress monitoring systems as part of your transition curriculum. These must include:
Often data collection and evaluation are viewed as laborious, administrative tasks. Automated tools can change this by making progress tracking easy and reliable. As Dr Mitch Yell – a leading expert in special education law advises: “We as educators shouldn’t think about progress measurement as making a feature-length film. Rather we should think about it in snapshots.”
Find out more about the role of progress monitoring in ensuring meaningful and legally compliant transition plans in our webinar discussion with Dr. Yell and Dr. Kurt Hulett.
When it comes to the flexibility of a transition curriculum, there are a couple of things to be aware of.
Firstly, you should look for a solution that fits the specific needs of your school or district. In other words, if you want to have total control over the scope and sequence of the curriculum – it should be able to accommodate that. Alternatively, if you want a ready-made solution that your teachers can follow from start to finish with no additional input – this option should also be on the table.
Flexibility can also mean adapting easily to different instructional settings. Whether that’s a whole class, a small group of students, individual instruction, remote, in-person or hybrid – your transition program should be able to fit all these delivery modes.
All learners independent of their learning level or cultural background should be able to benefit from your school or district’s transition curriculum.
This means the program must be able to accommodate diverse learning needs and allow every student to participate in it in a way that is most engaging and beneficial to them. Curricula designed with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in mind fit this description as they are usually based on the following 3 principles:
In practice, this means choosing a curriculum that:
Additional accommodations in an effective transition curriculum might include text-enlargements, Lexile-level adaptations and read-aloud features.
Delve into the key principles of UDL and explore how they integrate accessibility to help students with diverse needs.
The long-term success of special education programs hinges on the well-being of the staff dedicated to maintaining them. Once we recognize the negative impact of burnout on special education teachers and the ripple effects it can have across the profession, it becomes imperative to adopt proactive prevention and mitigation measures, such as the ones suggested above. By making SETs’ mental and emotional health a priority, schools not only safeguard their staff’s professional fulfillment, but also enhance the overall effectiveness of special education initiatives.
Ori Learning is a great solution that can alleviate special education burnout by taking on the brunt of the workload. The platform is intuitive and easy to navigate without any additional training necessary. SETs can access a comprehensive curriculum that adapts to different instructional modes, providing them with the flexibility to customize scope and sequence or immediately implement ready-made lessons within the classroom. Moreover, administrative tasks are easier to streamline with Ori as all the data reporting is automated and easily accessible within the platform.
Book a call with one of our representatives today to discuss your school’s requirements and let’s combat special education teacher burnout together.
