PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH EXAMINING ADMINISTRATORS AND SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS\u27 PERCEPTION, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE OF THE MISSISSIPPI SPECIAL EDUCATION GROWTH RUBRIC

Abstract

In the current era of accountability, public school administrators’ responsibilities may include evaluating special education teachers and providing them with feedback and support to improve their effectiveness. The problem that exists is that administrators who do not have a background in special education are charged with the responsibility of evaluating special education teachers, resulting in special education teachers not getting the support or feedback necessary to improve their instructional practice. In addition to administrators not having the background knowledge necessary to effectively evaluate and support special education teachers, the problem of developing an effective evaluation model to evaluate special education teachers also exists. Despite the vast majority of research and literature that exist on developing effective evaluation models for general education teachers, there is a limited amount of research conducted on effective evaluation models for special education teachers and how special education teachers benefited from their evaluation process. In this study, I asked a) how special education teachers and administrators perceived the Mississippi Professional Growth Rubric (MSEGR)? b) How administrators perceived their ability to provide special education teachers with feedback and strategies to improve their effectiveness? c) and how special education teachers perceived their evaluation and evaluation results