interview questions--SPED

[escapeartist]

I have a long list of general sample interview questions for teaching positions that I am practicing.

However, I wonder if anyone (such as those of you who have recently attended a fair) have any examples of questions asked for Special Education positions in particular?

Thank you in advance.

[DCgirl]

Basically your experiences with push in versus pull out, what assessments you are familiar with and can administer, can you - psych reports, what types of special needs students you have worked with, your familiarity with co-teaching and dealing with other teachers that may be resistant, have you worked on Student Support plans (or such), how do you deal with parents (this particularly in countries where parents don't like to admit to special needs), who would be the team of people that you work with, what has been your greatest challenge, how do the students respond to you, and what would you be looking for in terms of a teaching environment.

Also, several schools are looking for people to start up a special needs program or have a small department. They'd want to know how you'd start from scratch. How would you identify students, what materials would you order, who you would collaborate with.

[escapeartist]

Thanks, DCgirl! You are one that I hoped would respond.

Are many SPED certified teachers able to adminster psych evals? In my state and district that is done by a School Psychologist/LSSP. Are LSSPs applying for Learning Support positions?

[DCgirl]

I skipped a word in my post. They want to know if you can - the psych reports, not administer them. In most schools, the students are bringing in outside reports. The tests that you may be able to administer would be Woodcock Johnson, DRA, etc.

[escapeartist]

I am at a loss in my attempt to fill in the blank. ________ the psych reports.

[DCgirl]

[quote="escapeartist"]I am at a loss in my attempt to fill in the blank. ________ the psych reports.[/quote]

I'm not crazy. For some reason when I type the word -, it gets deleted. -, -, -- let's see if this works!

[DCgirl]

This is laughable. I don't know why this seems to be the word you can not say on the forum.

Let's just say there was a movie called -lyze This with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Hope everyone can fill in the blanks.

In the previous post I spelled it different ways and used caps and those are all the -s.

[escapeartist]

@n@1yze!

Odd, indeed. Thanks, DCgirl!

[westcoaster]

I definitely agree that you will be asked about what types of assessments you can administer. (WIAT, KTEA, Woodcock Johnson, and other norm referenced tests plus curriculum based measures (CBM)) I have been asked questions about differentiated instruction, RTI and UDL. I have also been given a student profile and asked how I would help this student. Also, you may be asked about what Assistive Technology you are proficient in using with students.

[PsyGuy]

You will be asked if you can interpret various psychometrics. The vast majority of ISs dont administer them. Many ISs wouldnt accept students with "too big" a file. Its SPED lite.

Your probabley not going to do a lot of push in or pull out. Most of the push in is done by substitutes or aids. As a full time teacher your most likely going to be running resource classes for individual or small groups of students.

Realistically your going to have a couple technical questions, but the vast majority of recruiters have no idea what the "right answers" are or would be.

They are just looking to see if you appear knowledgeable and whether your adaptive and flexible. They really want to see how you can creatively modify content delivery and differentiate for students. Most SPED students get the same mainstream lesson everyone else does, and then the SPED teacher is tasked with presenting it in a different way to meet the students learning objectives.

i wouldnt dwell on technical material too much in an interview and wouldnt do too much of it. It just turns recruiters off, since it puts them in the uncomfortable position of having to deal with material they really dont know, and then risk looking foolish for asking a technical question.

My best advice would be to become knowledgeable on the terminology used in different "western" countries. Such as "action plan" instead of IEP, etc.