An innovative center at the University of Illinois at Chicago is looking to train more minority special-education professionals nationwide to help children struggling with disabilities achieve academically.
Part of a five-year $8.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, the UIC-based Monarch Center will train more than 1,300 higher-education faculty members. The center is a cooperative agreement between the College of Education and the Office of Special Education Programs and has partnerships with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.
The Monarch Center will support higher-education faculty in developing practices to better equip teachers-in-training and related personnel who serve children with disabilities, according to Norma Lopez-Reyna, associate professor of education and principal investigator on the project.
Lopez-Reyna hopes the center will also draw more African-Americans, Latinos and people of American Indian descent to fill special-education jobs in urban communities -- areas where the teacher shortage is at a crisis and minorities are especially in demand.
"We want to offer faculty in special education the necessary resources to help better prepare educators to work with children with disabilities from diverse backgrounds," Lopez-Reyna said. "We also want to teach faculty how to obtain grants for scholarships, which can serve as tools for recruiting qualified minority students to the field."
Experts, including several from UIC, will provide workshops, seminars, mentoring, and program support to faculty at two- and four-year higher education institutions that have special-education curricula and a minority student population of at least 25 percent. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions are among the center's clients.
Adults entering special education become teachers, school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, and paraprofessionals, or teaching assistants. They serve a variety of students whose disabilities include mental retardation, deaf-blindness, hearing impairments, emotional disturbances or autism.
Statistics show there is an overrepresentation of minorities in special-education classes. One of the reasons given for the overrepresentation is that some teachers may be unable to distinguish cultural differences from clear disabilities.
As a result, teachers may be inappropriately referring minorities to special education due to a lack of understanding between the student and teacher.
Because of the overrepresentation issue and because qualified minority special-education teachers are in short supply, experts believe the faster more minorities are trained, the sooner more minority special-education students can get the appropriate attention they need to succeed.
"Right now, the Chicago Public Schools need about 350 special-education teachers, which doesn't include speech pathologists and other related services," said co-principal investigator Mary Bay, associate professor of education and coordinator of capacity building and systems change. "There are kids all over the city who are not getting the proper educational services because CPS doesn't have the personnel to hire. We have examples like this across the nation."
Other co-principal investigators at the Monarch Center are Barbara Guillory, coordinator of grant-writing services and new clients, and Judy Smith-Davis, coordinator of partnerships.
The UIC College of Education is deeply committed to serving the community by using its knowledge to improve the educational opportunities of all students. For more information about the college, visit www.uic.edu/educ
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