Special education classrooms today are multifaceted spaces requiring nuanced approaches. Oftentimes, despite families’ commitments to the academic progress of their children and teachers’ efforts to ensure educational quality for their students, a myriad of instructional, policy, and sociopolitical challenges may limit success for students and their educators.
In this blog, we’ll delve into the common challenges encountered by special education teachers in the classroom—and how you can tap into our team’s wealth of teaching experience to find support and practical solutions.
Contextualizing current needs: A dramatic increase in the demand for special education
The landscape of special education has shifted in a remarkable way over the last few decades. According to Pew Research Center data collected from the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of students in special education has doubled in the past 45 years, now constituting a substantial 15% of the K-12 student population in the U.S. However, this surge in demand has outpaced the availability of special education teachers, straining the delivery of these vital services.
Are you facing these special education challenges in your classroom?
While there is a wide variety of challenges special education teachers face, here are some of the most common.
1. High Workload
Special education teachers tend to encounter overwhelming workloads due to workforce shortages, the varied needs of their students, extensive paperwork related to IEPs, and students’ need for personalized attention in the classroom.
2. Inadequate Training
Any teacher, even those who don’t exclusively teach in special education classrooms, will likely struggle to serve students in special education if they don’t have access to adequate specialized training in handling diverse special education needs.
3. Managing Student Behavioral and Mental Health Issues
Addressing diverse behavioral challenges and mental health needs in classrooms has become increasingly complex. Teachers must navigate varied emotional and behavioral responses while ensuring a supportive environment for all students.
4. Twice-Exceptional (2E) Students
Students who exhibit exceptional abilities alongside the need for special education services pose a unique challenge. These students may excel in specific academic areas while simultaneously struggling with challenges related to ADHD, learning disabilities, or autism spectrum disorder, requiring tailored approaches to cater to their dual needs.
5. Pressure to Mainstream Students with Disabilities
Some schools face pressure to integrate students in special education into mainstream classrooms. Balancing the diverse needs of these students while ensuring an equitable educational experience for all can stretch teachers thin. These inclusion efforts may require rethinking how classrooms are typically organized, making improvements to benefit both special education and non-special-education students.
6. Chronic Impacts from COVID-19
Interrupted learning during the pandemic disproportionately affected students with disabilities. Students with disabilities experienced sharper declines in test scores than their peers, and more states saw graduation rates decline for students with disabilities. Special education teachers are likely to see their students still struggling to catch up. Furthermore, even after in-person learning returned, educators reported intensified mental health concerns among all students, including those in special education.
How Marzano Research’s Classroom Practice team can help
We’ve been in your shoes—our Classroom Practice team at Marzano Research draws upon a combined 159 years of past teaching experience, with an average of 11 years each in the field. Our backgrounds span early childhood education through high school across a broad range of specialties including special education, STEM, ELA, and more. This wealth of hands-on involvement in addition to our research expertise has given us a profound understanding of day-to-day classroom practice.
Our current work around special education includes:
- Conducting reviews of special education systems in two South Dakota school districts
- Partnering with Oregon State University to provide facilitation and strategic planning support as it develops an Accelerating Learning Strategic Plan, with a focus on students in special education and other historically underserved student groups
If you’re seeking robust support and strategies to navigate the complexities of special education, our team is primed and eager to assist. Our suite of services includes tailored research, evaluation, and consulting. We collaborate closely with districts, and state and federal agencies, offering customized practitioner-centered solutions to enhance student outcomes.
Visit our Classroom Practice page for a comprehensive look into the array of collaborative solutions we bring to the table. Or, reach out directly to Director Caitlin Scott, Ph.D.
