All universities are required by the Board of Regents (BoR) and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to redesign their Special Education Programs to address new state certification requirements, state/national content standards, state/national teacher standards, PRAXIS expectations, and NCATE requirements. Once programs have been…

Surveys of 117 special education teachers and administrators in rural Louisiana identified training needs of rural special educators: (1) generic approaches to teaching rural exceptional children; (2) effective strategies for adapting curriculum; (3) working with families; (4) knowledge of current legislation; and (5) working with a wide diversity…

A learning module that focuses on problems of at-risk rural students with disabilities was developed for preservice special education teachers at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The module focuses on (1) definitions of "at risk" on the federal and state level; (2) the characteristics associated with at-risk rural special education…

Inservice teacher education offered by Southeastern Louisiana University teaches rural special educators self-monitoring techniques for their students. A critical shortage of special educators has led to the hiring of minimally trained teachers, who need more training particularly in the areas of discipline and behavior management. A review of the…

A model higher education in-service project in Louisiana, called Success and Certification for Special Education Starters, has been implemented to support and assist first-year special education teachers and noncertified special education teachers. The project is based on a faculty consultation and supervision model where students earn university…

Minority group students are disproportionately represented in special education programs and have alarmingly high dropout rates. In rural Louisiana, special educators must cope with teaching a population that is poor, ethnically diverse, and somewhat isolated from mainstream America. An assessment instrument designed to identify training needs of…