Administrators at West Virginia University violated procedures and displayed poor judgment in their "seriously flawed" response to an inquiry about a high-profile academic transcript, according to a report issued last week by an independent panel. The harshly worded report found that when the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" raised…

In West Virginia, an alternative special education program allows students with bachelor's degrees in fields other than education to become teachers of exceptional children. This program provides a route to certification in mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, or behavior disorders, as well as to a master's degree in special…

This report describes an alternative teacher certification program developed to address special education teacher shortages in rural West Virginia. For the past 9 years, one of every three educators in West Virginia assigned to special education has worked on some type of sub-standard license. The alternative certification program allows West…