Assessing the Quality of Inservice Training for Special Education

Inservice programs were implemented in five New York City school districts as part of an effort to improve instruction and integrate special and general education. In this study the quality of these programs was assessed with criteria derived from reviews of research on effective inservice education. Consensus was found in the literature for 10 characteristics of quality inservice education. The analysis of the inservice education conducted by the five districts revealed that training for classroom special education teachers lacked most characteristics of quality inservice training, while the training for administrators and resource room teachers had many of the criteria found in effective in service education. Among the obstacles to providing quality inservice programs to classroom teachers were limited time available for training, few skilled trainers, and competing goals for educational change. Some recommendations for implementing quality inservice education are made.