Education Reform and Teacher Education in the United States Shigeru Narita, Ph.D. It is my privilege to summarize three year collaboration with University of Minnesota in this project. My name is Shibo Narita. Certainly, I remind many invaluable opportunities and encounters with University of Minnesota people, educators, administrators, and students as well. We have visited dozens of school districts and schools in the past. And learned a lot. Here are my colleagues: Mr. Hiroshi Shimura, Dr. Akiko Ogata and Mr. Yoshimi Tsuchiya in our NISE group. Let us remind objectives in this project before we touch on more detail. There are two objectives. First sharing our experiences and discussing issues in the teacher education area, and second, investigating the teacher education system in each other's country to improve its own programs. Right now American education is in a period of intensive reflection and reform. The process of change is following a traditional pattern: an alarm has sounded, remedies and solutions have been proposed. Efforts are underway to put ideas for change into practice. This alarm has also sounded for special education. School reform is a dominant force in contemporary education. What happens in the next few years in the States as a result of this movement to improve schools may determine, in fact, what an appropriate education is and whether students with disabilities will be appropriately educated in the schools of the next century. Recent conclusions that America's education system is in trouble have come from analyses of what goes wrong with schools in various reports. They identify relationships between achievement of students in the US and in other countries. In fact, potential benefits of schools reform for children with disabilities are considerable, the efforts for change in education have been largely directed to general education. Students with special learning needs have been minor players. The reports have come in three waves of educational reform. The first wave focused on he dangers of mediocre education to the health of the nation. A Nation at Risk published in 1983 represents this wave. The second wave of educational reform focused on improvement of school organization and policy as well as the competence of teachers. This wave started arond in 1986. The third wave emphasized the special learning needs of some students disadvantaged, dropouts, minority children, students with disabilities. Reconstruction of the entire education system was seen as the solution to preparing these children for the next century. National education goals and the strategies to reach them have now become prevalent. Special education has been touched by the reform efforts in a parallel rather than an inclusive way. The first task of education reformers is to address problems related to assessment, decision making, and intervention. The second task of reform that of proposing solutions is to reintegrate students with disabilities and to develop partnership with general education in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Reform efforts for the 1990s and beyond address more substantially practices that will unite the duel systems of general and special education. The Need for Changes in Special Education Personnel Preparation Currently, teachers and other professionals trained to work directly with children and youth with disabilities are in short supply. The widespread need for special education personnel requires special attention in three programmatic areas: 1) teacher education programs for nontraditional teaching personnel, alternative certification/endorsement programs, 2) special education training programs for underrepresented groups and individuals interested in working in areas experiencing extreme personnel shortages, 3) special education training programs for teachers of new and emerging groups of children and youth with disabilities. 1) Nontraditional teaching personnel Degree-holding individuals from disciplines other than education should have the opportunity to be trained work with students with disabilities. Such options involves developing and evaluating modified teacher education curricula, experiences and methods. 2) Underrepresented Groups The shortage of special education professionals is particularly acute in rural and inner- city areas. In addition, based on projected demographic trends, ethnic, cultural, and other forms of diversity will become increasingly significant in the 21st century. 3) Teachers for Children with Nontraditional Disabilities Special education teachers are being called on to address the needs of new and different groups of children and youth with disabilities. For example, children whose mothers abused various substances during pregnancy will likely require novel special education programming. This trend is likely to continue into the 21st century. A final word: There are many indicators of risk, obstacles and difficulties in American education. They are inhibiting the pursuit of superior educational attainment. There is no doubt teacher empowerment is a central to excellence in education. However, Americans are confident, with history as their guide, that they can meet their goal. The American educational system has responded to previous challenges with remarkable success. They are all inhelitors of a past that gives them every reason to believe that "America can do it." (This text was presented at the collaboration meeting held on October 31, 1994 at National Institute of Special Education ,Yokosuka, Japan. This study was sponsored by Monbusho International Collaboration Research Program.)