May 2021 – Special Educator e-Journal

Table of Contents

• Special Education Legal Alert. By Perry A. Zirkel
• Buzz from the Hub
• Reframing Pre-Service Teachers’s Perceptions of Students with Disabilities through the PERMA Model. By Jemma Kim, Sang Nam, Roderick O’Handley, and Marissa Congdon
• The Need for Collaboration When Matching Computerized Assistive Technology Devices to Students Identified with Specific Learning Disabilities. By Lisa Thompson Sousa and Heather Haynes Smith
• Disproportionate Exclusionary Discipline in Florida. By Helen Flores, Arianna Barroso, Bernardina Fernandez
• Book Reviews
• • School Culture Rewired. By Larybett Pirela Moreno
  • Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement. By Eunjung Lim
  • If you Don’t Feed the Teachers, They Eat the Students. By Krystal Fernandez Diaz
• Latest Employment Opportunities Posted on NASET 
• Acknowledgements

Special Education Legal Alert

By Perry A. Zirkel

© April 2021

This month’s update identifies recent court decisions respectively illustrating (a) the interaction of IDEA with Section 504/ADA and  (b) the ongoing evolution of FAPE anaysis and remedies.  For related information about these various issues, see perryzirkel.com

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Buzz from the Hub

All articles below can be accessed through the following links:

https://www.parentcenterhub.org/buzz-march2021-issue2/

https://www.parentcenterhub.org/buzz-march2021-issue1/

https://www.parentcenterhub.org/buzz-feb2021-issue2/

Webinar | Act Early Ambassadors 2021
Just posted is this pre-recorded webinar featuring how Parent Centers can partner with CDC’s Act Early Ambassadors in 2021.

CPIR Info Suites and Resource Collections
Here’s a handy cheat sheet to speed you to the many suites and collections that CPIR has on key Parent Center and family-related topics such as behavior, early intervention, IEPs, transition planning, and much more!

Education/Training Connections
This resource is designed to help a transitioning student and members of his or her IEP team to consider the possibility of more education or training after high school—perhaps postsecondary education at a college, university, or community college; vocational education to learn a trade or specific job skill; or continuing and adult education.

Assistive Technology Act
Want to learn more about the ATA and the many ways the law and its program promote awareness of and access to assistive technologies for individuals with disabilities? Want to connect with your state-level AT project?

Considering Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities
This page was first produced as part of the Building the Legacy training curriculum on IDEA 2004. It’s a tool for IEP teams to use when they are considering whether a student with disabilities could benefit from assistive technology. In addition to updating the tool, we’ve added PDF and Word versions for easy printing and sharing.

8 Things I Wish People Knew About Parenting a Child With ADHD
This parent writes, “Eventually, I realized something that made it a little easier to handle how my son behaves in publish and in school sometimes. Most people who judge do it because they just don’t know. So here’s what I’d like them to understand about me, my son, and ADHD.”

Accepting Yourself ADHD and All
This individual writes: “I was diagnosed with ADHD and Auditory Processing Disorder when I was five years of age. By middle and high school, I became more aware of and concerned with others’ perceptions of me. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) is a condition that causes extreme emotional sensitivity to being criticized, whether that criticism is real or perceived. Although this mental health condition is gaining more attention, it is still relatively new and is not included in most diagnostic manuals.” Learn more at about RSD in this candid resource.

Rare Disorders Fact Sheet Updated!
CPIR has updated its Rare Disorders fact sheet, where you can investigate the over 7,000 known rare disorders/diseases, find genetics information, learn about relevant laws and orphan drugs, and more.

How to Grandparent a Child With Special Needs
(Also available in Spanish) | Being the grandparent of a child with special needs can bring incredible joy but is also complicated, say grandparents like Oricchio, as well as advocates and other experts. About 17% of children are diagnosed with some kind of disability, which is one reason grandparents are so important. Find out more in this article, which features the voices of many grandparents.

Advocating for Myself

Students with disabilities are learning to advocate for themselves. But advocating for one’s self takes practice. The youth you work with may find it instructive to hear tips from other students with disabilities who have learned to advocate for themselves in high school, at work, and at college. Connect them with PACER’s collection of short videos so they can hear what their peers have to say.

My IEP Owner’s Manual for Transition-Age Students
The “Advocating for Myself” page (just mentioned) also includes a wide range of written materials for youth, such as the IEP Owner’s Manual. Youth can use the manual to learn about the different parts of their IEP that will help them succeed in their plans for life after high school.

A Family Toolkit: Pediatric to Adult Health Care Transition | Webinar
Here’s another 1-hour webinar, this one discussing Got Transition’s Family Toolkit, which was developed for families to use during their young person’s transition from pediatric to adult health care.

How to Improve Engagement Efforts
When Child Trends reviewed the literature, four basic themes emerged as ways to improve on youth program recruitment, retention, and engagement. This article discusses their findings.

Youth Advisory Councils | Webinar
This 1-hour webinar is all about integrating authentic youth voice in your organization. Does your organization want to start a youth council or strengthen the way youth voice is utilized in your institution? Check out the webinar! From the National Youth Leadership Council.

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Reframing Pre-Service Teachers’s Perceptions of Students with Disabilities through the PERMA Model

By

Jemma Kim, Ph.D.

Sang Nam, Ph.D., BCBA

Roderick O’Handley, Ph.D.

Marissa Congdon, Ph.D. BCBA-D

California State University, San Bernardino

Abstract 

Teacher education programs should be tasked with producing prospective teachers as change agents toward equity in education for students with disabilities. Without substantial changes in teachers’ perceptions of the capabilities of students with disabilities, significant changes in instructional practices in special education may not be possible. This paper provides rationales for why teacher education programs should focus on undoing pre-service teachers’ preconceptions of students with disabilities and recommends a practical tool that can provide pre-service teachers with an opportunity to recognize the positive characteristics of students with disabilities by adopting the PERMA (Seligman, 2011) model. The PERMA model is expected to help prospective teachers reframe their perceptions of students with disabilities from a deficit view to a strengths-based view.

Keywords: teacher perceptions, students with disabilities, PERMA, strengths-based approaches

Introduction

Students with disabilities receiving special education services are entitled to access the same quality of education as their peers without disabilities to the maximum extent possible (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 2004). Although many students continue to benefit from special education and related services, post-school outcomes of students with disabilities have not been as positive as their peers without disabilities. For instance, results from the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) and NLTS-2 suggest that despite relative improvements across post-secondary domains in areas such as post-secondary education, employment, and independent living, students with disabilities continue to have less favorable outcomes than their peers in the general population (Newman et al., 2010, 2011).

One factor that appears related to closing this gap is the extent to which students with disabilities participate in the general education curriculum. The results of several studies suggest that inclusion of students with disabilities into the general education curriculum is associated with more positive outcomes after high school (Mazzzotti et al., 2016; Test et al., 2009). Likewise, the focus of special education for students with disabilities has shifted from simply physical access to the same educational environment as general education students (PL 94-142 of 1975), to access to the same high-quality education as general education students (Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015; IDEA, 2004). However, equal educational opportunities for special education students should be accompanied by a clear sense of mission from teachers, related service providers, and administrators who place high expectations on students with disabilities. The IDEA of 2004 and ESSA of 2015 also stress the importance of high expectations for students with disabilities, and also transition mandates that require educators to consider the individual child’s needs including their strengths, preferences, and interests when designing transition services and support systems (Biggs & Carter, 2016). In this regard, beliefs, attitudes, or perceptions of teachers and other educational professionals about students with disabilities, as well as the functions and purposes of special education, are fundamental for ensuring equity in education for students with disabilities.

Depending on teachers’ perceptions of students with disabilities (i.e., strengths-based vs. deficit view), teachers present different understandings of educational goals and instructional practices for students with disabilities. Those with a strengths-based vision of instruction appear to hold high expectations for students with disabilities and try to provide intense individualized instruction to students with disabilities aligned with their grade level’s general education curriculum by modifying it specifically in terms of meeting students’ needs, as they believe that students with disabilities must continuously learn (Ruppar et al., 2018; Urbach et al., 2015). On the other hand, the deficit view of students in special education tends to limit teachers’ instructional efforts for students with disabilities (Cameron & Cook, 2013; Feiker Hollenbeck, 2013; Morgan, 2015).

The relationship between teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and instructional practices has been well documented. Teachers’ instructional practices are strongly affected by their beliefs (Parajes, 1992). Substantial changes in educational practices often require significant changes in teachers’ perceptions of their students (Feiker Hollenbeck, 2013). Thus, teacher education programs should make deliberate efforts to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of students with disabilities so that they can guide and shape prospective teachers’ perceptions from a deficit view to a strengths-based view during their formative years (Morgan, 2015).

We assert that teacher education programs should be responsible for producing prospective teachers as agents for change toward equity in education for students with disabilities by proactively addressing the medical model of “disability as deficit” framing prevalent in special education at schools, as well as teacher education programs. Consistent with our assertion, this paper first discusses why teacher education programs should focus on constructing strengths-based perspectives on students with disabilities among pre-service special education teachers, by investigating the main factors in special education teachers’ career choices and their predispositions regarding their roles. Next, we examine relationships between teachers’ perceptions of students with disabilities, teachers’ expectations of their students’ capabilities, and teachers’ instructional practices based on their strengths-based versus deficit view of students with disabilities. Lastly, we discuss the PERMA model (Seligman, 2011), rooted in positive psychology, as a practical framework that can provide pre-service teachers with an opportunity to reflect upon their perceptions of students with disabilities and identify their positive characteristics across the five domain such as positive emotion (P), engagement (E), relationship (R), meaning (M), and achievement (A). We expect that the PERMA model will help prospective special education teachers reframe their perceptions of students with disabilities from a deficit view to a strengths-based view.

Predispositions of special education teacher candidates

Beliefs, attitudes, or perceptions of teachers and other educational professionals about students with disabilities become critical to ensure their equity in education. However, educators’ teaching philosophies, beliefs, or perceptions do not change easily (Pajares, 1992). Teachers’ beliefs about teaching tend to be already well-established by the time they reach college, developed during what Lortie (1975) called the “apprenticeship of observation” that takes place during the thousands of hours teachers spend in the classroom as students. Thus, understanding these thoughts and perceptions of teacher candidates would provide teacher educators with important information to help and determine curricular and program direction (Parajes, 1992).

Many special education teachers identify their prior experiences working with individuals with disabilities as a primary reason for choosing to pursue a career as a special education teacher (Desutter & Lemire, 2016). Indeed, their desire to help those in need seems to be their main factor in becoming special education teachers. Subsequently, special education teachers report their high job satisfaction and intention to remain on the special education career path because they perceive their profession to be rewarding, which provides them with personal fulfillment (Fish & Stephens, 2010; Stephens & Fish, 2010). In contrast, general education teacher candidates tend to avoid the special education profession because they do not have prior personal experience working with individuals with disabilities (Desutter & Lemire, 2016). Thus, it would be hard to imagine an individual without personal or work experience with individuals with disabilities being devoted to special education (Zhang et al., 2014).

Unquestionably, the majority of special education teacher candidates come to teacher education programs with their prior experience, as well as their assumptions about individuals with disabilities, in addition to their interest and commitment to serving individuals with special needs. For this reason, teacher education programs need to be vigilant about the tendency of special teacher candidates to continue conventional practices, rather than change the current special education system with the prevalent deficit view of students with disabilities (Ferri et al., 2001). Teacher education programs should acknowledge that special teachers’ perceptions of students with disabilities, and understanding of their roles as teachers, can play an important role in either changing or reproducing the education inequality experienced by students with disabilities.

Teachers as change agents

The efficacy of special education teacher education programs has been documented through studies of (a) special education teachers’ retention and attrition (Billingsley & Bettini, 2019) and the relationship between teacher training and (b) the achievement of students with disabilities (Feng & Sass, 2013). Research on general education students and their teachers consistently find that teacher effectiveness is unrelated to the type of pre-service education they received (Harris & Sass, 2011). In contrast, students with disabilities whose teachers are certified in special education score substantially better on achievement tests than observationally equivalent students with disabilities whose instructors are not certified in special education (Feng & Sass, 2013). Special education teachers with a more extended pre-service period are more likely to stay in the profession (Boe et al., 2006), indicating that teacher education programs are properly preparing their candidates, even with some reservations.

In a case study of a district-nominated effective special education teacher’s comprehension instruction (Feiker Hollenbeck, 2013), the teacher illustrated the complex interaction between teacher beliefs and practices. Although she emphasized her responsibility to provide effective instruction for students, she also excused herself from modifying and changing those practices when students’ outcomes were limited, by attributing the student’s slow progress to a student-centered deficit view. Sailors (2009) requested teacher education programs to “undo” their teacher candidates’ understandings of comprehension instruction that they have already experienced as students to ensure they learn how to effectively teach comprehension skills (i.e., instructional practices embedded in children’s active cognitive engagement). Feiker Hollenbeck (2013) also emphasized that this notion of “undoing” special education teachers’ current beliefs that were already formed before their teaching might be a prerequisite for substantial changes in practices for students with disabilities.

Leko et al. (2014) found that although pre-service teachers’ core beliefs remained steadfast, their beliefs on reading instruction were influenced by concepts within the coursework, specifically the core concepts repeated throughout several courses. Teachers who believed a learning disability was a deficit within the child changed their views throughout their professional development, moving closer to a more contextual view (Ruiz et al., 1995). Thus, teacher education programs can shape and guide teacher candidates’ beliefs, and consequently, their instructional practices as well (Morgan, 2015; Urbach et al., 2015).

When teachers have opportunities to observe students’ strengths, they are more likely to implement more inclusive instructional strategies (Shogren et al., 2014). Therefore, teacher education programs should provide teacher candidates with opportunities to recognize the strengths of students with disabilities and, accordingly, to reflect on their perceptions as early as possible during the program. Such efforts in the teacher education programs for teacher candidates prior to entering the classroom would lead to a significant reduction in teachers’ deficit views of students with disabilities (Morgan, 2015). 

From a deficit view to strengths-based view of students with disabilities

The deficit view of students with disabilities assumes that problematic behaviors or negative educational outcomes reside with the student, rather than operating as a function of the school’s failure to respond to students’ needs (Trent et al., 1998). The deficit view of students in special education tends to limit teacher’s instructional efforts for students with disabilities. Although more students with disabilities have been integrated into general education classrooms (Goodman et al., 2011; McLeskey et al., 2012), teachers’ goals and expectations for students with disabilities still appear to conform to their perceptions of the obviousness of the student’s disability (Cameron & Cook, 2013). For students with severe disabilities, teachers tend to focus more on their social development even at the potential expense of academic learning opportunities (Cameron & Cook, 2013; Carter & Hughes, 2006). For students with mild disabilities, teachers often revert to a student-deficit model (e.g., academic plateau) when their instructional methods fail to produce the desired results (Feiker Hollenbeck, 2013). Ruppar et al. (2018) illustrated that for students with significant support needs, depending on educational professionals’ personal views of students with disabilities (i.e., strengths-based vs. deficit view), educational professionals presented different understandings of special education teachers’ expertise. Those with deficit-based thinking perceived that special education teachers’ roles were to provide a safe space or a sense of security for students by caring, loving, and responding to their students’ simplistic needs.

There is growing recognition in the field of special education that enhances the quality of life as overall outcomes for students with disabilities (Turnbull et al., 2003). Reflecting the social-ecological perspective that disability is not simply a condition characterized by functional limitations but is also the product of the interaction between individuals and their surroundings, a new disability paradigm has emerged. One of the characteristics of this emerging paradigm is personal well-being (Schalock, 2004). Personal-welling has two key concepts: positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) and quality of life (Schalock & Verdugo, 2002). These two key concepts similarly focus on positive experiences and human potential, providing the framework upon which to construct quality services, decide on quality outcomes, and understand the multidimensionality of personal well-being. “These two aspects also provide the rationale and justification for individualized supports” (Schalock, 2004, p. 207). This personal well-being concept also aligns with strengths-based approaches that recognize that individuals with disabilities have personal competencies that also need to be understood. This leveraged guide supports planning in the field of special education (Buntinx & Shalock, 2010; Niemiec et al., 2017).

Researchers have examined relationships between positive character strengths and quality of life for adolescents (Biggs & Carter, 2016; Proctor et al. 2011; Shogren et al. 2006). In particular, research into character strength as a means to promote valued outcomes (e.g., post-secondary outcomes, life satisfaction, and quality of life) in adolescents with disabilities has been productively conducted in recent years (Niemiec et al., 2017; Shogren et al., 2006). Transition-age youth with autism or intellectual disabilities were found that their positive characteristics (e.g., courage, empathy, forgiveness, gratitude, humor, kindness, optimism, resilience, self-control, and self-efficacy) were more closely associated with increased quality of life across multiple domains, while most demographic and disability-related factors did not predict the quality of life (Biggs & Carter, 2016). Biggs and Carter’s findings (2016) confirm Shogren et al. (2006) and Proctor et al. (2011), in which positive traits (e.g., hope, or optimism) were predictors of the well-being of adolescents with and without disabilities.

Although special education teachers have been consistently exposed to language or terms such as strengths-based approaches, students’ strengths, personal well-being, or quality of life that underline empowering students through education (Shalock, 2004), they appear to have a limited understanding of how those perspectives can be applied to their instructional practices. When trying to identify a student’s strengths, special education teachers raise questions such as “what can this kid do?” or “what does this kid like to do?” (Ruppar et al., 2018, p. 323). The present level of performance and goals of students with disabilities in their individualized education programs (IEPs) still tend to be written in a deficit-based manner, with brief statements about what they can do and like to do (Elder et al., 2018). The concept of personal well-being should be understood as a multidimensional construct, not a substitute for personal happiness or security (Butler & Kern, 2016; Huppert and So, 2013; Kern et al., 2015). However, special education teachers with lower teaching efficacy consider supporting their students as protection, promoting their social/emotional well-being by attending to self-esteem for the “whole child” as their primary goal (Urbach et al., 2015). Such instructional practices, overemphasis of social-emotional well-being at the expense of academic curricula, have been consistently observed among teachers with lower expectations or the deficit view of students with disabilities (Cameron & Cook, 2013; Ruppar et al., 2018).

It is important for teachers to recognize and understand the strengths of their students with disabilities, in order to undo the deficit view of the disabilities they have experienced as students. Niemiec and colleagues (2017) recommend strengths-spotting as an initial step for practitioners new to strengths-based approaches. This process helps build the vocabulary or language of strengths and facilitates creating a “strengths mindset” (p.5). Thus, we propose a practical tool based on Seligman’s PERMA model (2011) that can provide teacher candidates with an opportunity to reflect upon their perceptions of students with disabilities, by retroactively recognizing the positive characteristics of students with disabilities.

Reframing the perceptions through the PERMA model

Seligman (2011) introduced the PERMA model of flourishing, in which psychological well-being is defined in terms of five domains: positive emotions (P), engagement (E), relationships (R), meaning (M), and accomplishment (A). The PERMA model is useful in that it takes the abstract concept of well-being and provides concrete domains that can be measured, developed, and sustained, while also aligning with existing school structures and strategies (Butler & Kern, 2016; Kern et al., 2015).

According to Seligman’s (2011) model, positive emotions refer to hedonic feelings of happiness (e.g., feeling joyful, content, and cheerful). Engagement refers to flow, or an extreme level of psychological engagement that involves intense concentration, absorption, and focus, as well as connection to activities or organizations (e.g., feeling absorbed, interested, and engaged in life). Relationships include feeling socially integrated, cared about and supported by others, and satisfied with one’s social connections (Butler & Kern, 2016; Kern et al., 2015). A sense of meaning can be defined as having direction in life, believing that one’s life is valuable and connected to something greater than oneself (Steger, 20120). Accomplishment involves a sense of working toward and reaching goals, mastery, and efficacy to complete tasks (Butler & Kern, 2016). 

Kern et al. (2015) tested the PERMA model with adolescents and found that except for the domain of meaning, all four domains (i.e., positive emotions, engagement, relationships, and accomplishment) were meaningful factors for the construct of well-being, as well as other life, health, and mental health variables. The PERMA domains offer more information to allow teachers to better ensure the well-being of students or classes (Kern et al., 2015). Researchers have developed a questionnaire that can measure the five domains with a relatively small number of items. For example, Butler and Kern (2016) have developed a 23-item PERMA-Profiler measure that focuses primarily on the PERMA domains while also addressing the desirability of including several items per feature, instead of just one or two (Huppert and So, 2013). Inspired by such psychometric measures, we have developed a reflective questionnaire that asks teacher candidates to retroactively evaluate the positive characteristics of one student with disabilities that they have worked with in the past or know personally (See Figure 1).

This questionnaire can also be used for teachers to identify the strengths of students with disabilities. However, we strongly recommend teacher educators use this questionnaire as a self-reflection tool for pre-service special education teachers when they start a teacher education program. If teacher candidates have no prior experience working with a student with disabilities or do not know any such students personally, they should be encouraged to complete a questionnaire considering one of their peers with disabilities from their K-12 schooling. In Part I, they will briefly describe a student with disabilities they are going to evaluate retroactively. Then they will complete a 20-item questionnaire that assigns four items for each domain of the PERMA. Teacher candidates could skip an item if they did not have a chance to observe or experience it (Part II). For Part III, they will add all scores for each domain, as well as the entire PERMA scale. At last, teacher candidates will have a chance to recognize the student’s strengths based on their perception (Part IV).

Practical implications for pre-service teachers

The purpose of this PERMA questionnaire is to provide pre-service teachers with an opportunity to reflect on their perceptions of students with disabilities and to recognize positive characteristics of these individuals. Special education teacher candidates are more likely to have prior experience with students with disabilities, sometimes having known one personally before selecting their career choice (Fish & Stephens, 2010; Stephens & Fish, 2010; Desutter & LeMire, 2016). Due to their K-16 educational experience, where the prevalent view of people with disabilities is a deficit view, they often come to the teacher education program with the same deficit thinking.

Figure 1

The PERMA questionnaire for Prospective Teachers

The PERMA questionnaire first aims to help them reflect on their preconceptions about the personal traits of students with disabilities. Teacher candidates may not be able to complete the questionnaire as they do not have enough recollections of the information some items are asking for. The PERMA underlines that a person’s well-being is not a unidimensional construct, but a multidimensional construct that all individuals should possess (Butler & Kern, 2016; Kern et al., 2015). When teachers only focus on emotional or social domains for students with disabilities because they want to promote their students’ self-esteem or happiness (Ruppar et al., 2018; Urbach et al., 2015), they are missing other important domains as a means to promote valued outcomes for their students. This questionnaire will help pre-service teachers better understand students’ strengths across multiple domains of the PERMA that they have otherwise not paid attention to before. Those special education teachers with a strengths-based vision of instruction try to understand students holistically, searching and collecting information from various sources, and seek information about strengths in multiple ways (Ruppar et al., 2018). Beyond focusing on what students can do or like to do, pre-service teachers will seek information about positive characteristics related to the PERMA domains from their students. This PERMA questionnaire can also play a useful tool for “strengths-spotting” (Niemiec et al., 2017) for pre-service teachers to understand their students during their supervised fieldwork, without relying on psychometric measures with which they are not familiar.

Final thoughts

Teacher preparation programs in the special education field have continually performed the task of preparing effective special educators in line with the reforms and transformations that take place across several fields in education. Implementation of evidence-based practices, common core standards-aligned educational goals, technology-enabled learning, and collaborative teaching are some examples of reformative and transformative movements that can contribute to equity in education for students with disabilities, as entitled by federal legislation (McLeskey et al., 2017). Teacher educators, however, consistently point out that substantial changes in instructional practices should be preceded by changes in teachers’ perceptions and expectations of their students with disabilities (Feiker Hollenbeck, 2013; Ruppar et al., 2018; Urbach et al., 2015). Studies on teachers’ beliefs and perceptions commonly show that their perceptions should be explicitly addressed during their pre-service preparation period, prior to entering the classroom (Parajes, 1992). As teachers’ pedagogical beliefs directly influence their instructional practices, teacher education programs need to provide their candidates with the opportunities to undo any preconceptions or deficit thinking about students with disabilities they had developed as students (Feiker Hollenbeck, 2013).

Research has shown that inclusion of students with disabilities into general education (Mazzotti et al., 2016; Test et al., 2009) and their personal strengths (Biggs & Cater, 2016; Niemiec et al., 2017; Shogren et al., 2006) are significant predictors of valued outcomes. As educators’ lower expectations and the deficit view of students with disabilities are inversely associated with rigorous and relevant curricula for students with disabilities and their learning outcomes, it is critical for teacher educators to reinforce strengths-based approaches in teacher education programs. Such programs should prepare prospective special educators to resist and reframe their deficit thinking about students with disabilities, to encourage high expectations so that students with disabilities can have the education they deserve. 

This paper proposed a practical tool based on the PERMA model, which teacher educators can utilize when providing teacher candidates with an opportunity to reflect upon their perceptions of students with disabilities as part of efforts to challenge their deficit thinking. By completing the PERMA questionnaire, pre-service teachers are expected to reflect on their perceptions of students with disabilities and reframe them from a deficit view to a strengths-based view. The PERMA questionnaire also can be used as a strengths-building checklist for any students with disabilities. We expect this PERMA questionnaire to inspire more in-depth discussions on teachers’ perceptions of students with disabilities among pre-service teachers.

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Disproportionate Exclusionary Discipline in Florida

Helen Flores, Arianna Barroso, Bernardina Fernandez

Florida International University

Abstract

            Exclusionary discipline unequally affects minority students, especially black males. The inception of these disproportionate measures can be traced to zero tolerance policies and are continued on by the mismatch of the teacher workforce with publc schools’ student population. The purpose of this study was to compare indoor suspension in the 2018-2019 school in Miami Dade County Public Schools and the state of Florida. We look at the difference in rates of suspension between White, Black, and Hispanic students as well as between male and female students. Preliminary results show that suspension is higher for Black students in the state of Florida, but there is no difference between White and Hispanic students. In Miami Dade County, race and ethnicity do not depend on rate of suspension. For both the state of Florida and Miami, males are suspended at higher rates than females. Limitations of the current study and implications are discussed.

Research Question 1

            To answer research question 1, we looked at the SPSS output for our chi-square analysis. With two df and a=0.05, our chi-square value was 0.752 with a significance level of 0.687. This is non-significant (p>0.05). With this information, we can conclude that, overall, race/ethnicity is not significantly associated with Miami Dade County and Florida’s number of suspensions. Given that three cells (50.0%) have an expected count of less than 5, we questioned the results’ validity. We considered the Likelihood Ratio, reported at a value of .761 and a significance of .684 ( p>.05). Therefore, the assumption that there is no significant association between race and suspensions for students in Miami-Dade County and Florida is supported. For Miami Dade County, the percentage of suspensions for black students was 33.3%, for white students, 33.3%, and for Hispanic students, 33.3%.  In Florida, the percentage of suspensions for black students was  50%, for white students 27.3% and Hispanic students, 22.7%,

Research Question 2

To answer research question 2, we conducted a Pearson chi-square analysis to determine if an association exists between gender and the number of suspensions when comparing Miami Dade County and Florida.  Using SPSS with two df and a=0.05, the chi-square value was 0.10 with a significance level of 0.919. Although the results were nonsignificant, three cells (75.0%) have an expected count less than 5; we questioned the results’ validity. We considered the Likelihood Ratio, at a reported at a value of .011 and a significance of .918 ( p>.05), allowing us to validate the assumption that there is no significant association with gender and the number of suspensions in Miami Dade County compared to the number of suspension in the state of Florida.  In Florida, females account for 35.7% of suspensions, and males account for 64.3%. In Miami Dade County, females account for 33.3% of suspensions; males account for 66.7%. 

Discussion

Race in Florida

Our results both fit into the existing literature and stand outside of it. Our analysis of Florida did agree with the extant literature in some ways. Although our chi-square produced nonsignificant results, this may be an issue of our use of the data. We only used data for indoor suspension in this analysis even though the discipline data sheet provided us with 12 different types of exclusionary discipline. Thus, our findings should be interpreted with caution. These are discussed in more detail in the limitations section. However, despite the nonsignificant results, when looking at the percentages of students suspended in the state of Florida, black males represent the highest percentage even though they only account for 22% of the total population of Florida’s PK-12 students. This falls directly in line with the research discussed in our literature review above.

Contrary to published work by Hwang (2018) and others, who state that Hispanic students were more likely to get suspended than their white peers, we did not find this across the state of Florida as a whole. The percentages of White students and Hispanic students in Florida are almost equal (37% and 33%, respectively). The portions of these groups’ suspension are similarly equal (5.56% and 5.12%, respectively). Due to our limited data and analysis, we cannot say why this occurred in our sample. Although promising, future researchers should look at all types of discipline data and larger samples to ensure a complete picture before making overarching statements about discipline in the state of Florida.

Race in Miami Dade County

The results we found for Miami Dade County were utterly contrary to the present literature. Although keeping in mind the limitations mentioned above, this is an up-and-coming trend. As per our data and chi-square, Miami Dade County is not suspending minorities at a higher rate than other races. There is no significant difference in the amount of indoor suspension based on the students’ race. Thus, to answer our first research question, there is a difference in suspension by race/ethnicity in the state of Florida and Miami Dade County. Reasons for this may be due to their focus on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support to address challenging behaviors and using exclusionary discipline solely as a last resort.

Gender

Our data analysis was similarly nonsignificant for gender in both Florida and Miami Dade County. Thus, to answer our second research question, there is no significant difference in suspension by gender between the state of Florida and Miami Dade County. The data showed that both Florida and Miami Dade County follow the same trends as the rest of the nation, with male students more likely to get suspended than their female counterparts. While male and female students are almost equal across Florida (53.37% and 48.63%, respectively) and in Miami Dade County (51.19% and 48.81%, respectively), male students are more likely to be suspended than female students.

Limitations

Some limitations for our study are that our data sources on student demographics and discipline provided limited data. The accuracy may vary due to this information coming from surveys completed at each school site and district.  The White House (2016) has recently encouraged schools to decrease exclusionary discipline to reduce disproportionality, affecting overall reporting measures. Suspension rates provided in statistical reports counted each student only once. It is possible that the data does not represent accurate information regarding CLD students that are being suspended multiple times over their white peers. Although, that is outside the scope of this study.

Regarding ethnicity data, students self-report their ethnicity and race, which may include inaccuracy in the demographic information. Finally, the categories of other or two or more races may consist of Black and Hispanic students. We did not include these categories in our analysis; we encourage researchers to consider the intersection of multiple races or ethnicities in future studies.

Further limitations are our use of only indoor suspension. Discipline data sheets provided information on corporal punishment, expulsion (with and without continuing educational services), seclusion, mechanical restraint, placement in an alternative educational site, physical restraint, other school environmental safety incidents, and change in placement. This data sheet also broke up suspensions into multiple types: in-school, out-of-school, and suspension extended pending a hearing. Although we chose indoor suspension due to the decrease in other types of exclusionary discipline and it containing the highest number of students, other disciplinary measures may also affect CLD students disproportionately and affect our analysis.

Implications for Research and Policy

            While our research sheds some new light on the state of discipline in Florida, we acknowledge that this study is limited in many ways and that discipline is complex. We, therefore, propose the following suggestions to future researchers.

In the future, research should focus on assessing when the most suspensions occur and if variables are affecting the number of indoor suspensions for students. Knowing if there is a pattern on student suspension rates could possibly assist schools with lowering suspension rates by providing these details. Furthermore, researchers can see if other factors besides race/ethnicity and gender influence suspension rates.

            Ongoing research aims to explain and solve issues related to the justice system’s disproportionality and school discipline policy. Recommendations for study include looking at additional variables such as achievement gap, school processes, climate, and cultural representativeness of faculty and staff that implement policy (Heitzig, 2014; Stewart Kline, 2016). The current state of affairs recognizes the need to reform policy practice and perceptions to decrease suspensions and increase more favorable post-school outcomes for marginalized students (Noltemeyer et al., 2015; Schiff, 2018; Skiba, 2014). School districts will benefit from more qualitative studies into implementing restorative practices or multi-tiered systems of support (e.g., positive behavior interventions and supports) to see if there is a relationship between intervention and students’ behavior outcomes.  Looking into what methods and interventions are taking place in Miami-Dade that contribute to an equal distribution of consequences can help others follow suit in their efforts to lower disproportionality rates.

References

American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force (2008). Are zero tolerance policies effective in schools? An evidentiary review and recommendations. American Psychologist 63(9), 852-862. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.9.852

Acherd, E. R. (2017).  Restoring justice in schools. University of Cincinnati Law Review, 85(3), 761-814. uclawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/85-3-5-archerd.pdf

Brown, C. A., & Di Tillio, C. (2013). Discipline disproportionality among Hispanic and American Indian students: Expanding the discourse in U.S. research. Journal of Education and Learning, 2(4), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v2n4p47

Bryant, D., & Wilson, A. (2020). Factors potentially influencing discipline referral and suspensions at an affiliated charter high school. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 10(1), 119–128. https://doi.org/10.5590/jerap.2020.10.1.08

Executive Office of the President (2016). Report: The Continuing Need to Rethink Discipline.files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED575980.pdf

Gagnon, J. C., Gurel, S., & Barber, B. R. (2017). State-level analysis of school punitive discipline practices in Florida. Behavioral Disorders, 42(2), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0198742916688652

Heitzig, Nancy(2014). Criminalizing education: Zero tolerance policies, policies in the hallways, and the school to prison pipeline. Counterpoints, (453), 11-36.

Hemez, P., Brent, J. J., & Mowen, T. J. (2020). Exploring the school-to-prison pipeline: How school suspensions influence incarceration during young adulthood. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 18(3), 235–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204019880945

Hwang, N. Y. (2018). Suspensions and achievement: Varying links by type, frequency, and subgroup. Educational Researcher, 47(6), 363–374. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X18779579

Noltemeyer, A., & Mcloughlin, C. (2010). Patterns of exclusionary discipline by school typology, ethnicity, and their interaction. Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 7, 27-40.https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ894465.pdf

Noltemeyer, A. L., & Word, R. M. (2015). Relationship between school suspension and student. outcomes: A Meta-Analysis. School Psychology Review, 44(2), 224-240. https://doi.org/10.17105/spr-14-0008.1

Okonofua, J. A., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2015). Two strikes: Race and the disciplining of young students. Psychological Science, 26(5), 617–624. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615570365

Rocque, M., &  Paternoster, R. (2011) Understanding the antecedents of the “school-to-jail” link: The relationship between race and school discipline. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 101(2), 633-666. https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol101/iss2/7

Schiff, M. (2018). Can restorative justice disrupt the ‘school-to-prison pipeline?’ Contemporary Justice Review, 21(2), 121-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2018.1455509

Skiba, R.J., & Williams, N. T. (2014). Are Black kids worse?March, 1–8.

Skiba, R. J., Horner, R. H., Chung, C. G., Rausch, M. K., May, S. L., & Tobin, T. (2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40(1), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2011.12087730

Stewart Kline, Dana M. (2016) Can restorative practices help to reduce disparities in school discipline data: A review of the literature. Multicultural Perspectives, 18(2), 97-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2016.1159099

United States Government Accountability Office. K-12 Education (2018) Discipline disparities for black students, boys, and students with disabilities. https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-258

Wiley, S. A., Slocum, L. A., O’Neill, J., & Esbensen, F. A. (2020). Beyond the breakfast club: Variability in the effects of suspensions by school context. Youth & Society, 52(7), 1259–1284. doi.org/10.1177/0044118X19896716

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Book Review: Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement

Eunjung Lim

Murphy, J. (2005). Connecting teacher leadership and school improvement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Purpose and Thesis

Over the years, school improvement has been a critical theme with ongoing efforts to reach effective student achievement and school performance. The school leadership has been considered to play a crucial role to implement the school reform plans. The leadership has been viewed mainly from the administrative roles and focused on hierarchical organizational systems. However, the perspectives on teacher leadership have emerged as an important aspect in school improvement. The book titled Connecting Teacher Leadership and School Improvement by Joseph Murphy is designed to provide the full comprehended teacher leadership as a pathway to school improvement. This book aims to unpack teacher leadership into its core components and a more evolving reform concept. In addition, the author suggests how teacher leadership corresponds to the larger array of school reform initiatives.

The thesis of this book is to examine the ideological and empirical basis of teacher leadership. The author explores the prevailing concepts of leadership, investigates the emerging concept of teacher leadership, analyzes how teacher leadership is expected to promote professionalization and to enhance the school organization, describes comprehensive elements of teacher leadership, and examines the variety of pathways to operationalize teacher leadership. Additionally, the author offers teachers and principals with strategies to create productive relationships that will involve school improvement. The book focuses on getting the context right for teacher leadership to succeed by overcoming organizational and professional barriers, exploring the critical role of the principal in support of teacher leadership, and providing a general framework on developing professional development. As a new type of leadership, the author emphasizes “the focus of this book is on teacher leadership beyond the classroom, primarily at the school level” (9).

Main Themes

The first part of the book explores the emerging core concepts of teacher leadership. Traditionally leadership has been focused on school administrators where decisions flowed downward to teachers. The author examines the dysfunctionality of traditional hierarchical structure and the struggle to rebuild the organizational foundations of schooling. Redefining school leadership draws considerable attention to teacher leadership that is nonhierarchical in nature and is considered a key element in improving the teaching profession and school reform. The book describes the embedded logic of teacher leadership into three sections- the professionalization of teaching, the strengthening of the school organization, and the promotion of classroom & school improvement-all connected to enhance the teacher leadership movement in action. As skills and attributes of teacher leaders based on a variety of analysts, the author concludes four broad domains of skills: visioning, interpersonal, collaborative, and management skills. With these skills, teacher leaders have identified their roles in helping teacher colleagues and facilitating school improvement. The author lays out a broad framework of tasks and activities for teachers “to maneuver in bring their leadership roles to life, acknowledging at the outset that the specific tasks of any teacher leader can only be known in the context of his or her own school” (74). The two broad-based pathways to teacher leadership are examined and outlined in detail. The first pathway is the role-based strategies that include teacher career-based strategies and broadened school leadership structure. The career-based approaches provide specific strategies for empowering teachers for leadership and the broadened leadership structures focus on connecting teachers to new roles and responsibilities. As the second pathway, community-based strategies are anchored in the belief that “all individuals in the school community have knowledge that can contribute to and enhance the work of the school and that teacher leadership needs to apply to all teachers in all schools” (89).

The second part of the book shows how to establish the context in schools to cultivate and support teacher leadership. As the teacher leadership approach is critical in school improvement, teachers are unlikely to engage in school leadership without support systems. Overcoming organizational barriers that hinder teacher leadership, the author organizes three broad topics of structure, support, and culture to promote shared leadership and to enhance the activities of teacher leaders. The book describes some details in the principal’s special roles in locating, planting, and nurturing the seeds of teacher leadership. The author points out the importance of the high quality of the relationship between administrators and teachers. As cited by Murphy, “the principal-teacher relationship serves as a powerful precedent for teacher participation in new school decision-making structures” (133).  The six key functions that principals engage to promote teacher leadership include crafting a vision, identifying teacher leaders and linking to leadership opportunities, legitimizing the work, providing direct support, developing leadership skills, and managing the leadership process at the school level. Another key component in supporting teacher leadership is to provide professional development that facilitates teacher leadership in school improvement. The elements of successful models for educating teacher leaders include organizing some form of learning community, providing opportunities to build collegial relationships with peers and mentors, and establishing a professional network to support ongoing learning. Additionally, the development of specific leadership knowledge and skills is a required component to facilitate effective teacher leaders.  

Weak and Strong Points

One strong key point presented in this book is that how Murphy introduces teacher leadership by exploring the shift from traditional leadership to teacher leadership as an emerging phenomenon and an important part of a school improvement plan. The author cites that “without teachers’ full participation and leadership, any move to reform education -no matter how well-intentioned or ambitious-is doomed to failure” (8). Although defining teacher leadership is complicated, Murphy suggests core components of the concept based on various definitions from the literature. 

Another strong key point is that this book describes the skills, attributes, and knowledge of teacher leaders. Uncovering personal qualities and core principles allows providing distinct functions and patterns of a task associated with teacher leaders that will bring into action. Developing successful teacher leaders enables to create strong professional cultures that are essential for teachers’ teaching practice. Improved teaching is expected to produce benefits in students’ progress which result in school improvement.

The other key points presented by the author are precise strategies to pave pathways to promote teacher leadership. One important strategy is to establish an appropriate school culture by confronting organizational conditions and cultural barriers. Reculturing the school organization includes providing support and settings where teachers are fully empowered partners in collaborating and participating in school decision making. The other critical strategy is presented in detail by defining the principal’s role to nurture the seeds of teacher leadership. The author emphasizes the importance of principals’ understanding of a new and nonhierarchical relationship with teacher leaders. An additional important strategy is to provide opportunities for teachers to fulfill their role as educational leaders through professional development. According to Murphy, “a quality program for teacher leadership development recognizes a continuum of teacher growth and challenges participants to imagine larger roles for themselves as professionals” (151).

Despite the strengths, there are some weaknesses regarding some of the strategies presented in this book. One weak point might be that the author underscores the social context to understand teacher leadership and its effects. Considering the specific context of the school, participants, the community, and the state is an important initiative in leadership. Preparing for teacher leadership within a context is an essential component to implement the leadership effectively. Another week point might be that the author fails to provide a strategy on how traditional leadership and teacher leadership can be collaborated to reach a common goal of school improvement. Considering teacher leadership is better than traditional leadership by school administrators would be a problematic assumption. As Murphy points out that shared leadership would be better than concentrated leadership in school organizations, the strategies how to collaborate both leaderships are not presented clearly. Regardless of these weaknesses, developing teacher leadership is considered an important component in school reform. Further evidence-based research could offer more effective strategies to strengthen teacher leadership.

Compare and Contrast to Other Books on Educational Leadership

Unpacking the concept of teacher leadership, Murphy introduces the concept as a fairly recent phenomenon compared to the traditional leadership that resided with school administrators. This term reflects the change of school culture to view on teacher’s role and responsibility. The only job of teachers is not only to teach students in the classroom but also to participate in policy and restructure schools. The author commences the concept from the preposition that “teacher leadership is essential to change and improvement in a school” (7). Therefore, developing teacher leadership is considered as a part of culture change although the theme of teacher leadership is still an underdeveloped topic.

Similarly, Fullan (2001) enforces to understand change, “transforming the culture-changing the way we do things around here” (p. 44). Effective leaders know that the hard work of reculturing. This author adds that “leading in a culture of change means creating a culture of change. It does not mean adopting innovations, one after another; it does mean producing the capacity to seek, critically assess, and selectively incorporate new ideas and practices (Fullan, 2001, p.44).

Under Developing Teacher Leaders, in chapter eight of his book, Murphy suggests professional development as a learning community where teachers participate cooperatively as powerful and effective learning opportunities.  The author views the professional learning community as “shared language, shared work, and focus on making historically self-contained and isolated teacher work open and public” (149).

Fullan (2001) refers to the same topic in a similar way when pointing out “school must also focus on creating schoolwide professional learning communities” (Fullan, 2001, p.64). Learning communities allow to focus on clear learning goals and to sustain over a period of time with program coherence. The role of leaders would be to create a common culture of expectations, to hold the various pieces together in a productive relationship and to hold individuals accountable for their contributions to the collective results.

Furthermore, both authors discuss similar approaches when referring to build quality relationships among administrators and teachers. Murphy points out that “relationships between principals and teachers form the cauldron in which new understandings of leadership will be forged and new forms of teacher leadership will materialize” (130). Similarly, Fullan (2001) assures the importance of relationship, “In order to share personal knowledge, individuals must rely on others to listen and react to their ideas. Constructive and helpful relationship enables people to share their insights and freely discuss their concerns” (Fullan, 2001, p.82). 

Despite many similarities, both authors discuss different approaches when referring to leadership skills. Murphy includes vision as one of four broad domains of teacher leadership skills, “vision includes a distinct strand of local insight, matching local needs and capabilities and solve problems in context” (71). While his concept of vision is very vague and abstract, Fullan (2001) emphasizes the importance of having moral purpose as a leadership skill. This author points out that “leadership, if it is to be effective, has to (1) have an explicit making-a-difference sense of purpose, (2) use strategies that mobilize many people to tackle tough problems, (3) be held accountable by measured and debatable indicators of success” (Fullan, 2001, p.20). Fullan describes the leadership skill in more specific and observable terms while Murphy presents it with an indistinct concept.

Conclusion

Research over the years has consistently identified that leadership is a critical component of school improvement. Teacher leadership is an emerging concept to extend the shared leadership within a school organization. The author’s purpose from this book is to help the reader fully comprehend teacher leadership as a pathway to school improvement. It synthesizes diverse theories and literature to provide a comprehensive view on both concept and practice about teacher leadership. The author introduces the emerging concept of teacher leadership with a core component and traces its progression into a more mature concept. The book also describes how to establish teacher leadership with structure, support, and culture. Proposal for teacher leadership may challenge long-established traditional school leadership. However, new roles and responsibilities of teacher leadership are considered effective and essential to bring change and improvement in school. It is important to make people feel part of a success story. That is why teacher leadership can play a crucial role in improving teaching and student learning which will extend to bring positive school reform in the end.

References

Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Murphy, J. (2005). Connecting teacher leadership and school improvement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

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Book Review: If you Don’t Feed the Teachers, They Eat the Students

Krystal Fernandez Diaz

The role of leadership in every sphere of life cannot be emphasized enough as times have become increasingly challenging. Pragmatic and accountable leadership is critical now more than ever before. If you Don’t Feed the Teachers, You Eat the Students by Neila Connors is packed with wisdom and inspiration to help school administrators improve their school climate and enhance school year success. The author metaphorically uses the idea of food and eating to represent learners as the real victims of ineffective and incompetent school administrators and teachers. The author makes it clear that effective leadership is essential for creating a foundation for a productive environment. Connors’ cautionary administration guide tells an important story that administrators can use to establish a healthy climate for teachers and students to enhance collective success. This article reviews Neila Connors’ “If you Don’t Feed the Teachers, You Eat the Students” to establish its themes, keynotes, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. The review will conclude by comparing Connors’ book to Michael Fullan’s Leading in a Culture of Change.

Key Themes

Effective leadership demands that leaders should be sensitive to the needs of their followers. In this context, the theme of human needs that determine the individual’s behaviors stands out in the readers’ minds. As the author provides the strategies that can help administrators create a productive and supportive climate, the need to meet the emotional and psychological needs of teachers comes out as one of the key pillars. For example, the author points out that, “Obviously, the more self-worth one has the more likely she or he is likely to reflect, analyze, and determine to improve” (p. 13). That is, it is imperative for administrators to realize that teachers have needs that extend beyond basic physiological and safety needs. There are other sets of needs including psychological and self-fulfillment needs that must be met for teachers to be well-fed or for them to have a positive impact on the learners. The psychological needs may include emotional needs, such as a sense of self-worth or accomplishment. It may also include the need for belongingness or friendship. In this context, it is noteworthy that the entire book is based on building a positive, conducive, and collaborative working environment for teachers. For example, the author says that “…educators must work together to ensure they touch the future they teach” (p. 12). The author seeks the basis for establishing a strong relationship between teachers and administrators to cultivate grounds for friendship and belongingness.

For leaders, it is important to motivate their employees or followers. Self-actualization is one of the most effective ways of keeping employees motivated. Self-actualization focuses on helping the followers to be the best version of themselves. This necessitates helping them attain growth or their peak performance levels. The reason this is effective is that it helps the followers to become the best they can be or reach their full potential. Notably, Connors’ (2000) book is about helping teachers to become ideal versions of themselves in their profession. The book points out that for teacher’s self-actualization entails having a positive impact on the future of their students by helping them to achieve their desired goals. This can be achieved by ensuring that teachers are supportive of all their students. Subsequently, the role of administrators is to ensure they establish a professional, secure, safe, and encouraging environments in which everyone feels appreciated and respected. As a result, administrators can motivate their employees by ensuring that they motivate their teachers and uplift the morale of their schools. Motivating teachers is a way of ensuring they are fed as a strategic way of helping students through their journey of success.

Writing about effective leadership is incomplete without discussing the qualities of an effective leader. In this case, the author discusses several qualities that sum up effective leadership. These qualities are crucial for a leader to possess to lead their followers effectively. For example, the author contends that a leader must be visionary and empathic. The essence of any leadership position is to move forward or to create growth and progress. To achieve this, it is necessary for leaders to be visionary for them to understand where and how to lead their followers. For administrators, this may entail leading their schools to be the best performers by establishing a conducive and collaborative environment. The desire or the drive to be successful starts with having a vision of what needs to be accomplished. Additionally, leaders must care and be concerned with the welfare of their followers. Thus, the author points out that school administrators should strive to develop and design a climate of care. Leaders must be willing to understand and empathize with their followers to foster an environment of collaboration, which also encourages self-actualization. Leaders must demonstrate that they care about various aspects of their employees’ lives, such as their health, welfare, emotional well-being, and their productivity or performance. The author asserts that people are happy when they are healthy or when they know that someone cares about their opinion and how they feel.           

Leaders must have a passion for leading their followers to the visioned future. In this way, they can set the moral or climate of vigor and enthusiasm necessary to realize the envisioned future. Therefore, it is essential for school administrators to establish work environments where teachers can become risk-takers and guide or coach their students through the journey of success. Effective administrators must guide, ask, communicate, delegate, and encourage. Hence, it is vital for administrators or leaders to be risk-takers and consistently remind their followers that they are a significant part of the vision and the plan to achieve it. Notably, this is essential because it makes the followers understand how important they are and their contribution to achieving the desired objectives. Connors’ book not only sets the morale of enthusiasm necessary for great students but also sets a framework that can help administrators understand their teachers.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Connors’ book stands out as a practical guide for educators in various ways. Besides using humorous and plain language that is easy to understand, the book is relatable in various leadership contexts. The book is suitable for all types of leaders, genders, grade levels, and geographical locations, thus making it applicable universally. The author approaches the concept of leadership competency from an angle that makes the book an enjoyable read and relates to administrators, teachers, students, and parents’ plight. Rather than stressing the need for competent leadership, Connor explains what competent leadership entails and what administrators can do to ensure they build a productive and inclusive environment in which the efforts of individual teachers are recognized and appreciated. The author offers practical suggestions that administrators can implement to adjust their leadership styles to ensure their schools are successful.

The author has a unique approach to achieving the purpose of writing the book, which is to inspire teachers to be more positive and become teacher-focused leaders. She underscores the significance of the teaching profession while appreciating the associated difficulties. In this way, the author provides a foundation for building positive experiences to promote teachers through which their efforts can be appreciated. Additionally, the book provides a goal-setting template that can help administrators and teachers transform their leadership styles. Hence, the book is a valuable tool in the leadership and change realm not only for educators but also for leaders in all aspects of life. It spells out what effective and competent leadership entails, as well as provides a change process that can help transform leaders in any sector into effective ones.

The goal-setting survey template provided by the author is also effective because it helps the leaders to identify their leadership weaknesses. In this context, the goal-setting survey template can be analyzed using the SMART goal-setting framework. The SMART framework is a significant tool for planning and achieving the desired goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound framework. In this case, the first aspect to notice when using the goal-setting template provided by the author is that there is starting time and an ending time, thus making it time-bound. The template directs the users to state the specific professional goals that are important to them, including one specific professional risk they have recently taken. The specificity of the goal-setting template can be seen in the other leadership and personal development areas, including personal activity, individual’s overall performance and leadership score, the goals individuals need to improve their overall score, as well as strengths that they have as leaders. While goal-setting is important for leaders, they require a plan or strategy to help them achieve the set goals.

Comparing Connors’ Book to Michael Fullan’s Leading in A Culture of Change

Significant similarities exist between Connors’ book and Michael Fullan’s Leading in a Culture of Change. The world has become highly dynamic. As such, the strategies and methodologies that work today may not be applicable in the future. This requires leaders to understand the intricacies of the change process. In their books, both authors challenge the tendencies of maintaining the status quo while encouraging the development of new practices or methods. For example, Connors (2000) points out that effective leaders applaud or appreciate the methods and practices made by individual teachers (p. 38). Notably, Connors elaborates that effective leaders do not confine their followers to the rules and regulations. Instead, administrators should encourage their teachers to be creative in their teaching methods and practices. In the same way, in his book Leading in A Culture of Change, Fullan teaches how leaders can adapt to the radically changing environment around them. In this context, both books are centered around the themes of change. While Connors (2000) advocates for change in administrators’ leadership mantra by providing suggestions on how to create a conducive climate for their teachers, Fullan (2007) provides a comprehensive leadership theory that can help leaders to achieve success in the phase of dynamic and complex situations. 

Both books highlight how to improve leadership through focusing on key areas or dimensions. For example, Fullan points out that all leaders, including CEOs of multinational corporations and school principals, can be more effective by developing new mindsets and focusing on key aspects of leadership. Similarly, Connors discusses various mindset and leadership responsibilities of school administrators towards their teachers. Both authors acknowledge that developing a new mindset is necessary for navigating leadership complexities and paradoxes, as well as challenges. Having a new mindset requires a change in perception of how the concept of leadership is approached. Both authors provide bases, strategies, and ideas that can help in dealing with complex leadership problems. Fullan (2007) reiterates that the purpose of leadership involves creating a positive relationship in the lives of employees, customers, and society (p. 17). On the other hand, Connors’s book focuses on improving students’ lives. The administrators can improve the childhood experiences and the future of students by establishing a favorable climate for the teachers. In Leading in a Culture of Change, Fullan (2007) elaborates that the key components of strategic leadership include building hope, energy, and enthusiasm (p. 18). These crucial components are reiterated in Connor’s book by pointing out strategies that can help administrators to build a collaborative environment in which teachers are motivated to take risks and find new methods and practices of connecting with the students.

The significance of establishing a strong relationship between leaders and employees is reinforced in both books. In Connors’ book, the concept of relationship is brought out as a critical need that administrators need to satisfy to motivate their teachers. Satisfying needs for self-actualization helps administrators to build a strong relationship with the teachers. Fullan (2007), on the other hand, asserts that improving relationships enhances productivity outcomes. In this case, both authors point out that leaders must focus on cultivating strong relationships with diverse groups and people.

 Connors’ book differs from Fullan’s in the area of focus. Connors (2000) focuses on improving the leadership of school administration and enhancing the productivity of teachers. In this case, Connors lays down strategies that can be employed by administrators to develop a supportive environment in which teachers are appreciated and encouraged to find new and creative ways of connecting with their students. On the other hand, Fullan’s book does not focus on any specific realm area of leadership. Fullan takes a general approach and examines the context of leadership in the highly dynamic and ever-changing current environment.

Conclusion

Connors’ If you Don’t Feed the Teachers, You Eat the Students focuses on leadership transformation. It provides strategies that can help school administrators to become effective leaders. Connors’ cautionary administration guide highlights an important story that administrators can use to establish a healthy climate for teachers and students to enhance collective success. Additionally, it provides self-assessment and goal-setting templates that can help teachers to improve their teaching practices, methodologies, and outcomes. The leadership components provided by Connors, including raising the energy of teachers through various motivation strategies, building their performance enthusiasm, and reinforcing their hope for growth and development are reiterated in Michael Fullan’s book. Teachers can be motivated to find new strategies of connecting to their students if they are energetic, enthusiastic, and hopeful that they can grow and develop in their current teaching positions. 

References

Connors, N. A. (2000). If you don’t feed the teachers, they eat the students. Nashville: Incentive Publications.

Fullan, M. (2007). Leading in a culture of change. John Wiley & Sons.

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Acknowledgements

Portions of this or previous month’s NASET’s Special Educator e-Journal were excerpted from:

• Center for Parent Information and Resources
• Committee on Education and the Workforce
• FirstGov.gov-The Official U.S. Government Web Portal
• Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP)
• National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth
• National Institute of Health
• National Organization on Disability
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• U.S. Department of Education
• U.S. Department of Education-The Achiever
• U.S. Department of Education-The Education Innovator
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• U.S. Department of Labor
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• U.S. Office of Special Education

The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) thanks all of the above for the information provided for this or prior editions of the Special Educator e-Journal

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To View or Download a PDF file for this issue of the Special Educator e-Journal  –  CLICK HERE

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