Special Education Teacher Burnout Analysis

Mrs. Alice McLoughlin-Doro is a Special Education teacher at Downers Grove South High School in Downers Grove, Illinois. The community is known for its excellent school districts. According to the 2010 census there were 47, 833 people living in Downers Grove with approximately 19,000 households and 13,000 families. The racial makeup of the school was reported to be 88% White, 3% African American, 5% Hispanic, 0.2% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 5% Asian, and 1.6% from two or more races. About 1.7% of families were below the poverty line. The school district report card reports the following racial/ethnic background for the school: 68.1% White, 10.3 African American, 11% Hispanic, 7.3% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, and 3.2% two or more races. The elementary schools, middle schools, and high school all perform very well academically receiving above state average scores on standardized tests. She has been working there for 10 years and is currently a Case Manager of 17 students, all with an IEP, all with different needs and goals in the LD department. She co-teaches two general education classes in English intervention, all freshman. Although she is a Special Education teacher, she works with all the students. She also teaches a READ 180, Tier 3 reading and english intervention. This is where we will be focusing on for this

Special Educators are greatly needed in our school systems all over the United States. It takes a special person to be a Special Educator. In most jobs you are in need of patience, but with this career a requirement is patience. Some people are cut out for this career and some are not. Emotionally and physically this job can take a toll on someone.

One of the reason people chose a career in special education is job satisfaction. Special education teacher perceived their job to be rewarding. They get personal fulfillment and gratification in teaching special need students. “It truly must be passion to continue working in special education because we all know it is a tough job.”(Participate 2010,”Motivational factor towards pursuing a career in special education”)They have the opportunity to make a positive difference in the students’ lives. When the student who is struggling in school graduate it brings great satisfaction to the educator. The most important part of this field is to help a child develop to their highest potential.

The author performed two separate interviews face-to-face, selecting two individuals with different backgrounds in order to obtain unique perspectives. The first interviewee, named Jennifer Hodge, works for Allen ISD as a special education teacher for a self-contained DEAR (Developing Early Academics Readiness) class for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. In addition, her experience includes teaching for 22 years, with seven of those years teaching students with disabilities in both self-contained classrooms along with resource and inclusion environments. The meeting to discuss psychoeducational testing occurred in Jennifer’s work place during her conference period over a 45 minute period on Friday, August 28, 2015. The second

As with any career, human service professionals face potential challenges that make it difficult for them to accomplish the objectives of their positions. When challenged with these obstacles, it becomes increasingly difficult for the human service professional to deliver the outstanding help and care a client needs. One such challenge is that of burnout, a reaction to the stress and strain inherent in a position that causes individuals to adopt a negative attitude about work and clients as well as become detached with the expectations of their position and its overall purpose (Woodside & McClam, 2015, p. 256). There are also physical reactions to burnout, including exhaustion, stomach issues or other illnesses, and body pain (Woodside & McClam, 2015, p. 256). This burnout can be triggered by a number of different factors, from difficulties in allocating scarce resources (Woodside & McClam, 2015, p. 249) and motivating clients to help themselves (Woodside & McClam, 2015, p. 256), to self-neglect on the part of the helper (Jackson, 2014).

In the profession of a special education teacher, a person commits to helping children achieve their best and to help “students overcome their obstacles” while finding a way that the child can effectively learn (Hollingsworth). My mom’s career as special education teacher for twenty-two years, allows me insight and experience into the tougher aspects of this career, but also the rewards to the job. My mom helps me understand that a special education teacher guides a child to expand their strengths, develop strategies to overcome weakness, and to make best use of all available resources. Through helping her, and learning from her experiences, she taught me that a career in special education can not only challenge me, but may also become a

Teachers today face a number of challenges that contribute to a lack of job satisfaction, leaving schools for other professions that are more lucrative, low comparative compensation, and poor working conditions:

What does it mean to be a special educator? This question arises frequently in the world of education. There are many people who ask themselves this question every day. One could say that a special educator is an individual who has special interest and a passion for primarily interacting with children with disabilities. The special educator would also have knowledge of certain disabilities and the way they can influence children differently. Finally, they would want to have an added level of patience, due to the extra attention required to educate

Today, over six million students receive Special Education services from public and private schools. The reason why there is a shortage of Special Education teachers is that they leave their position because they cannot handle the additional pressures they have to face.

The survey for this study was designed to examine the reasons teachers leave the Bridgeport Public Schools. Two surveys will be examined, the exit survey from the district and the principals survey. Both surveys were administered via Google Forms. The principals survey was designed with fixed choices and open ended questions. This provided the research the opportunity to

The two teachers interviewed for this essay work for same district at the same school. There are approximately 2500 students in the district with approximately 125 classified as special needs students. The general education teacher, Beth Foster has been teaching for 28 years in some from of general education. She has worked in grades kindergarten to 4th. She is currently working with students in special Title 1 Reading Program for general education students. Ms. Foster graduated from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and obtained a Masters from North Texas University in Elementary Education. During the interview process Ms. Foster (personal communication, September 16, 2015) stated while she has worked

Special education teachers work with children with disabilities and make a difference in their lives. Special education has changed over the years. Special education teachers’ retention has been raised since there remains a persistent shortage of special education teachers. Along with the concerns about the numerical shortage of sped teachers are the concerns about sped teacher quality, as administrators are more likely to hire less qualified applicants as the shortages worsen. That is why the researcher made a study about psychosocial predictors that influence the sped teachers’ decisions of intent to stay in their job.

In Education Week’s, Special education article it was said that, “more than half of all students with disabilities spend at least 80 percent of their time in the regular classroom.” The more time Special education students spend in the classroom, the more care and attention they need from all teachers. This is one of the reasons teachers need to be taught proper care skills and be certified when it comes to Special education children. Another reason teachers need to be certified is the fact that different Special education students suffer from different health, physical, and mental complications, and Special education teachers as well as general teachers need to know how to handle anything that happens at a moment’s notice. Finally, proper teacher certification in the Special education field would solve a lot of issues. Teachers being properly certified, would potential cost more money; but it would also increase peer awareness depending on if the school was desegregated. It is said that it takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village plus one extra person; more patience; and extra understanding to help raise a child with special needs. If more people were made aware of Special education children and their programs, more people would probably want to participate

Research by Lobosco & Newman (1992) linked to working with SWD has shown that “lack of adequate professional preparation of teachers for dealing with the challenges provided by children with learning disabilities” (p. 28) was attributed to diminished job satisfaction as a teacher. Studies by Custer & Panangos (1996) and Harvey (2000) focused on the perceptions of CTE teachers with a specific lens towards confidence and effectiveness of teaching. Each study employed surveys in which CTE teachers and other school-based personnel were involved to include administrators and counselors. CTE teachers were asked to rate themselves in terms of confidence and effectiveness with working with various special populations, while administrators and counselors were asked to rate CTE teacher’s degree of confidence and effectiveness in working with diverse populations. Interestingly, outcomes from both studies were similar in that results from each indicated that CTE teachers felt more self-assurance and thus more effective in working with disadvantaged students then with working with SWD. Conversely,

This revision expanded upon the definition of highly qualified teachers and gave specific requirements and established evaluation methods to determine that a special education teacher is highly qualified in special