Maybe Being Dual Endorsed in Special Ed Isn't a Good Idea After All

When I was going through college they told us all, "Get a special ed degree if you're at all interested--you are GUARANTEED to have a job." It's true--you can pretty much choose where you want to work, and you're going to survive layoffs better than most--but what's also true is that if you are certified to teach special ed, then you can teach special ed:

The trouble with this recession is that kids may wind up with larger classes and ineffective teachers.

Mass layoffs are reshuffling teachers into grades or subjects they may never have taught, or taught long ago. Administrators are being pushed back into the classroom after years away from teaching.

At Coweeman Middle School in rural Kelso, Wash., one teacher who has taught math for 30 years has been reassigned to special education, principal Randy Heath said. In fact, every teacher who is endorsed to teach special education is being switched to those classes, regardless of whether he or she actually has taught it, he said.

"We're being forced to make decisions that we know are not good for kids," Heath said.

I suspect that a part of the reason this is happening is that the stimulus money provided well for special ed, so jobs are being saved there. I've seen it in my own district, where a PE teacher has been moved into an RTI Coaching position, because that's what the stimulus money makes possible.

(via)