Teacher Preparation in Moderate and Severe Disabilities: A State Tool for Intern Support

Source: Teacher Education and Special Education, 36(1), 28-36, February 2013.

This article describes the process undertaken by a higher education consortium of faculty with expertise in low incidence disabilities from across institutions of higher education in Kentucky to address the challenge of supporting 1st year teachers (i.e., interns) when assigned mentors and administrators who do not have expertise in this area.

This consortium addressed this challenge by creating two documents:
(a) an alignment of state standards to professional standards and
(b) an addendum to the state internship materials.

The intent of this article is to share the development process with others who may wish to design similar documents to address state and national standards for teacher interns.