Academy Breaks the Isolation of Special Education Directors

Overview & Synopsis

Most special education administrators do not get the chance to network regularly with professional peers to discuss job challenges and strategies. School-district special education directors routinely juggle complex, difficult, time-consuming, and emotion-laden job demands, but when things get tough, they usually find themselves solving problems on their own. The Special Education Leadership Academy in Massachusetts was developed to remedy that situation. Collaboration between special education directors and their general education counterparts to promote inclusive learning is a primary goal of the Academy. Funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA DESE) and free to participants, the Academy aims to build directors' capacities to do their jobs effectively and minimize burnout. In fact, a major reason that MA DESE funds the Academy is to retain veteran directors in their positions longer, so that students and educators--especially those coming up through the special education ranks--can benefit from their knowledge and experience. [This article was first published in WestEd's R&D Alert, Vol. 14, No.3, 2014.]