Peering Into the Past to Get a Glimpse of the Future:
Development of ECSE Teacher Preparation Programs
A teacher preparation program was implemented at UW-Madison under the leadership of Dr. Lisbeth (Betty) Vincent and at UW-Whitewater under my leadership beginning in the mid 70’s. These programs were approved by WDPI in the late 70’s. At UW-Eau Claire, Dr. Milo Pritchett, and at UW-Stevens Point, Drs. Darvin and Marge Miller were also beginning to develop programs. In the 80’s, an ECSE program emerged under the leadership of Dr. Ann Hains at UW-Milwaukee. Dr. Ann Hains contributed greatly to our State’s efforts. She was instrumental in bringing more emphasis to the role of technology in the preparation of ECSE teachers. Ann provided leadership for a project that involved all of the State’s public and private ECSE teacher educators in planning, development and implementation of course work. The project utilized the State’s telecommunication system to facilitate ECSE instruction across the State.
Many other teacher educators were important contributors to the expansion of ECSE teacher preparation in the State. During the mid 70’s, Mary Bross made major contributions to the development of teacher preparation at UW-Whitewater. In the 80’s Helen Browning developed studies at Edgewood College in Madison. Since the 1990’s, my former colleagues, Dr. Barbara Wolfe and Dr. Mary Ann Marchel, both taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire prior to Barbara accepting a position at St. Thomas University in the Twin Cities and Mary Ann at UW-Oshkosh before going to University of Minnesota-Duluth. ECSE teacher educators like Dr. Mary McLean (UW-Milwaukee), Dr. Ann Riall (UW-Whitewater), and Dr. Patty Caro (UW-Stevens Point) also contributed to our State’s ECSE efforts. Later programs were developed at UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout and Cardinal Stritch. The State’s competency-based ECSE approaches to teacher preparation and licensure were some of the first of this type in the country. A Statewide teacher education effort of this magnitude was truly unique.
With growing interest in inclusionary practices, there was an increasing need for teacher preparation programs to prepare teachers for dual certification in general and special education or at the very least to ensure that all Pre-K-3 teachers who served children with disabilities received necessary preparation so that they could provide effective interventions/education for these children within general care/education environments. Some public and private institutions of higher education were in position to meet this need because they had approved general and special early education teacher preparation programs (e.g., UW-Stout, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Whitewater, Cardinal Stritch and Englewood). Later the challenge and manner in which the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire addressed the preparation of teachers for more inclusive settings will be described.
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University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and -Eau Claire: Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs 1973-2006
This section focuses on the UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire ECSE programs because these were the institutions of higher education where I was able to apply practices that I believed to be central to effective teacher preparation. These programs were based on the competencies identified by practicing teachers, university personnel and DPI employees over a 30 year period. These competencies were the basis for our onsite entry level teacher education programs and continuing education activities that involved both traditional onsite as well as distance learning technology via two-way telephone and television networks. These competencies were translated into our teacher education goals and objectives. They were initially identified in the 70’s and revisited and modified in the late 80’s and early 90’s as the role of ECSE teachers changed.
In addition, our ECSE teacher preparation programs began to utilize best practices promoted by CEC:
publicly stated training goals,
goal directed projects, library papers, activities and tests that where aligned with program goals and courses,
on going student, faculty and supervising teacher evaluations,
regular course-related field experiences that were developmentally sequenced, beginning in the freshman or sophomore years, in all methods and measurement courses prior to student teaching,
student portfolios that consisted of products that reflect learning associated with program goals and course objectives,
curricula leading to certification endorsement based on students’ performance as measured against the stated goals and objectives and documented by cooperating teachers and university supervisors.
Our experience with the process that led to the development of our teacher education programs led me and my colleagues to believe that we were on the right track. These principles and practices offered promise that we could implement teacher education programs that would produce effective graduates and earn the respect of the public.
It is difficult for me to accept that it is possible to prepare teachers using less rigorous practices. In my opinion there are no short cuts to teacher preparation. Children are cheated when they are in a classroom with a less-than-adequately-trained teacher. A new teacher is also cheated when he/she is put into a classroom without adequate preparation and support.
UW-Whitewater ECSE Program Practices
UW-Whitewater’s ECSE teacher education program was one of the very first ECSE teacher preparation programs in the nation. As our programs developed, emphasis was placed on principles that informed practice:
Instruction was based on publicly stated goals and objectives.
Instructional content and practice were distributed developmentally across the curriculum.
Training reflected the multiple needs of learners and the multi-disciplinary/team approach to intervention/education.
Evidence and clinical experience based content were featured.
Early and continuous field experiences were embedded in coursework throughout the training program.
Regular performance-based self-evaluation and cooperating teacher and instructor evaluations were distributed throughout the program.
Capstone student teaching experiences in special education programs serving children 3-6 years of age were required for certification.
The State’s ECSE teacher certification competencies eventually informed all of our course requirements and all studies were planned to increase the probability that our training objectives were achieved.
Practicing teachers participated in our advisory committee. These teachers were involved in monitoring and revising our programs, sharing with us and helping each other improve intervention practices.
Our UW-Whitewater teacher education program was enhanced by the presence of on campus based Early Childhood Special Education services, Head Start and a campus based childcare center. We developed model curriculum, instructional and service delivery practices for children with disabilities and children at-risk for failure in school who were served by the Jefferson Country Handicapped Children’s Board. Jefferson County special education staff (Ed Hill, Director of Special Education; Sue Jones and Joyce Humphrey, teachers; John Dethloff, speech therapist) worked with me and Mary Bross to expand and improve this on campus laboratory training experience. While coordinating the teacher education programs and teaching at UW-Whitewater, I also served on a volunteer basis as the Jefferson County Handicapped Children’s ECSE services coordinator.
All of UW-Whitwater’s ECSE cooperating teachers were invited to participate in our program advisory council. We met twice a year, once on campus and another time in one of the area classrooms. This sharing helped raise the level of cooperating teacher and our faculty performance. We learned so much from each other and modified practice based on these experiences.
The UW-Whitewater ECSE program was featured along with four other programs (i.e., Simons College, Boston; George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; and the University of Illinois-Champaign) at an International Council for Exceptional Children topical conference that featured promising practices in ECSE teacher training . At this conference, our UW-Whitewater ECSE program was a model for small public programs that prepared teachers. Mary Bross, Sue Haney-Jones, Mary Enright, Barbara Wolfe and I presented our competency-based training practices and highlighted our ECSE curriculum and our correlated field experiences in the ECSE program located on our campus. I do believe that that our presentation was outstanding and that our program was met with great interest and enthusiasm. In the 70’s, we were on the cutting edge of future best teacher training practice.
It is fun to note that Dr. Sam Kirk, a highly respected researcher and educator at the University of Illinois, attended our session. Kirk was a prominent authority whose work demonstrated positive impacts of early education on young children. Mary Bross served as a teacher for some of Kirk’s research subjects. Mary was involved in the very early days of early education for children with disabilities—a true pioneer.
UW-Eau Claire ECSE Program Practices
UW-Eau Claire Curriculum and Instruction Model and Practices. Beginning in 1981 we changed the ECSE program to include preparation for undergraduate students. We employed the previously listed principles to expand and improve our teacher education practices. We adopted Brunner’s Spiral Curriculum Model to inform how we would distribute the ECSE competency goals and objectives horizontally and vertically throughout the curriculum. Our premise was that repeated developmental experiences and varied practice over a three year period would better prepare students for teaching than the traditional model. The traditional model usually covered a set of skills such as measurement or methods during one 15 week course with little or no field experience prior to student teaching.Course content, learning activities, and related field experiences had been conceptualized in a way to reflect the developmental learning needs of students enrolled in the teacher education program. Performance outcomes were distributed in a manner that led the learner from introductory knowledge to understanding and to mastery of entry level skills. These outcomes were addressed through planned and purposeful expanded learning experiences embedded in professional course work in general and special education prior to the student teaching semester(s). These experiences were designed to prepare the graduates for entry level teaching positions
For example, the measurement skill cluster, like all ten of the ECSE competency clusters, was introduced in the introductory course (i.e., definitions, purpose, and samples); essential knowledge and skills about and how to administer and interpret select evaluation and assessment instruments were later introduced in a measurement course (practice was required through activities with typically developing children); more specialized measurement practices associated with birth-to-3 intervention were presented in our birth-to-3 methods course (practice involved informal and formal methods to describe typical development and required the preparation of a child development scrapbook); and students were later required to apply this information and use these measurement procedures during a supervised multi-disciplinary assessment activity in our campus based Human Development Center and all three of their required student teaching placements. Again, all of the ECSE teacher competencies and sub competencies related to measurement, curriculum and instruction were addressed in this manner (Franks, 1976).
Other important skills were also addressed in this developmental way. For example, library research, including APA style writing, used a developmental approach to skill building. The purpose of library research and writing were to focus attention on the importance of professional literature, evidence based practice, problem solving and communications. These skills were also believed to be helpful in promoting later professional development and advanced studies. This was initiated in the introductory course with abstracts and reference skills during the sophomore year and gradually expanded to papers that required analysis and synthesis of research, complete documentation and appropriate use of APA style during several later courses.
After reading about our 1980’s-2010’s UW-Eau Claire’s ECSE Teacher Training Programs, consider this recently published article titled Business schools see new light (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sunday, September 21, 2014). The Dean of UW-Madison business school talks about the necessity of providing students with “transformative experiences…often those outside of the classroom.” The Deans of UW-Madison and Marquette University describe the use of “backwards design” starting with what skills they want for their students to acquire and working backwards to ensure that these skills are taught in all classes. Marquette is mapping skills based on feedback from people working in the field, teaching important skills across classes to insure mastery (e.g., introducing spread sheets during the first year and using this skill in an accounting class and “beyond”). The Deans discuss the importance of providing students with a series of experiences within and outside of the classroom. Sound familiar? Reconsider the principles, model and ECSE competencies I described that informed our teacher training practices beginning in the 1970’s. We were on to something special in those early years and “beyond”.
Early Embedded Field Experiences. A hallmark of our teacher training program was the provision of purposeful/planned early learning experiences. This emphasis of course was influenced by the practice referred to as “learning by doing” and the history of professional preparation associated with fields in rehabilitation and healthcare. We regularly brought children into our class lectures in order to demonstrate assessment and intervention practices. These children were usually typically developing. As often as opportunity and time allowed, cooperating teachers and university supervisors would demonstrate these techniques/practices with young children in special education classrooms and other learning/intervention environments.
Course-related field work was required throughout our program. It was important to work closely with local professionals serving birth-to-3 and age 3-to-8 children in order to provide these field experiences. Goal-directed course-related learning experiences were required during six of our courses (Introduction, Measurement, Methods, Creative Activities, Parent Training and Family Involvement). Our students became comfortable with young children with and without disabilities, possessed basic knowledge and skills and acquired a beginning level of confidence necessary to function successfully during capstone student teaching. Some of these required fifty hours of course-related pre-student teaching experiences in addition to the traditional time associated with the courses. Our cooperating teachers provided modeling, mentoring and evaluation for our students. Our students were prepared for the experiences of working with young children at-risk or disabled prior to student teaching. This was important and it worked.
Program Evaluation Practices. Our program evaluation plan was multi-dimensional. In addition to traditional examinations, projects and papers, students were required to evaluate their own progress, cooperating teachers and fieldwork supervisors assessed student readiness, and portfolio products were reviewed. Students were required to reflect on their progress towards acquiring entry level teaching skills. Our Programs Evaluation Instrument (PEI) was used by the students to reflect and self-evaluate before and after each of the ECSE professional studies courses. The PEI consisted of more than 50 sub competencies associated with the State’s ten ECSE competencies. The content and grading criteria were developed in collaboration with practitioners in the field. Mary Bross, Betsy McDougall-Gibbs and Dr. Barbara Wolfe played major roles in the development of these products and practices in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. These routine self- and cooperating teacher evaluations were designed to focus the student’s attention on knowledge, skills and dispositions that were required to effectively function as an entry level teacher. This practice was designed to help each student monitor progress toward acquisition of skills required for student teaching and entry level teaching positions.
Instructors evaluated student performance through quizzes, exams, reports, journals, projects and field experience observations. All of these products were purposefully aligned with program goals and course objectives. Student performance was also evaluated by their cooperating teachers during pre-student teaching experiences and finally the PEI was used two additional times during each of the three student teaching experiences. These evaluations were used by the students to develop individual learning plans (ILP) in a capstone course to identify their learning needs during their professional semester(s) experiences. These ILPs developed prior to student teaching also served as an orientation to the professional development planning process which was later proposed by WDPI for re-certification.
Students were also required to prepare a student notebook, later called a portfolio, to document their learning experiences and performance skills. Artifacts that chronicled student acquisition of ECSE knowledge, skills and dispositions were collected and organized by students to document their progress in achieving the goals. While the review of this notebook served to help verify a student’s qualification for certification endorsement from UW-Eau Claire, it also served as a tool to support their candidacy for teaching positions in the future. It was not uncommon to hear from potential employers how our graduate and her/his student notebook/portfolio influenced their decisions.
Reviews of their portfolios in conjunction with other forms of assessment were used to improve our ECSE teacher education program. These data (i.e., products/artifacts, input from students’ evaluations of courses, student self evaluations, cooperating teacher evaluation of student performance, department exit test and interviews results) were reviewed by the faculty and used to inform changes in the program. Examples of changes that were made based on our multi-dimensional evaluation practices included the addition of courses and content (e.g., behavior modification methods, birth-to-3 pre-student teaching experiences, addition of a birth to 3 student teaching requirement, and course content that focused on skills related to writing of learning and behavioral objectives).
We were certainly interested in determining whether or not our graduates could manage groups, modify individual behaviors and successfully teach daily living and pre-academic skills. This was done during coursework through the development of case-specific written lesson plans that required the student to (1) address objectives, (2) modify instructional stimuli, and (3) modify correction and/or reinforcement methods, based on graded steps. During fieldwork and student teaching, students were evaluated based on their ability to apply these same strategies demonstrated through written plans they developed in coursework.
Today there is great interest in developing valid methods for assessing teacher candidates’ ability to facilitate learner attainment of appropriate objectives. This recent and long overdue attention being given to documenting future teachers’ abilities to change student behavior (i.e., facilitate different levels of learning) suggests to me that the instruction technology characterized as “flipping” would be a very useful tool. Flipping refers to in-class interactive experiences with video recordings of teacher and child intervention/instruction. This instructional tool offers great opportunity to teach as well as monitor future teacher development and provide evidence required to document teacher skills for certification.
UW-Eau Claire’s ECSE Response to Inclusion. At the time that inclusionary practices were gaining prominence, UW-Eau Claire did not have an approved general early education program (Pre-K). We worked very hard to find a way to provide both the general and special education preparation for our students. During the late 90’s, we finally made a break through, developing and implementing both general and special early childhood education preparation through on-site and two-way television network instruction on the campuses at UW-Eau Claire and UW-River Falls. This cooperative program made it possible for our students enrolled in ECSE to qualify for Pre-K general early childhood teacher certification through the third grade and for the general education students at U W- River Falls to earn Birth-to-8 ECES certification through UW-Eau Claire. Dr.Gaye Ward, UW-River Falls, and Ms. Mary Williams-Greene, Western Wisconsin Technical College, partnered with us in this endeavor. While challenging for UW-Eau Claire administration, it worked for faculties and students. These collaborative opportunities improved the preparation of all teachers working with very young learners in natural and Least Restrictive Environments. Today, under the leadership of Dr. Cathy Thorsen, UW-Eau Claire’s Department of Special Education is implementing a stand-alone campus-based ECSE teacher education program that will lead to dual certification in both general and special education (Pre-K-3).
Faculty and Staff. I was fortunate to work with Betsy McDougall-Gibbs, Dr. Nancy Contrucci, Dr. Barbara Wolfe, Dr. Mary Ann Marchel, Ruth Nyland, and Dr. Sarah Hadden to develop, implement and improve our undergraduate and graduate entry level, graduate and professional development programs at UW-Eau Claire. In addition to being highly effective instructors, each of these persons was a professional leader, very competent, highly motivated and a joy to work with. Each played a significant role in our program development activities. Almost all of these positions were funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Education.
Related UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Preparation Initiatives
During this 30-plus year time frame (1973-2006), as we implemented our teacher education programs at the University of Wisconsin campuses in Whitewater (1973-1980) and Eau Claire (1981-2006), I had the privilege of working with colleagues and practicing professionals in a number of highly worthwhile projects and activities. Our students were also involved in these activities. It was our belief that this student involvement provided them with “can do experiences” that would be useful during their teaching careers.
These activities brought our faculty and students into collaborative interactions with local ECSE practitioners to strengthen early intervention/education teacher preparation and improve local services:
Participating in the development and sharing in the implementation of WDEC activities. These activities often involved the sharing of human and financial resources. For example in the 1980’s, we co-mingled our program financial resources with WDEC to sponsor speakers for state conferences and the State’s Birth-to-3 Coordinating Council to initiate what became the highly successful Jolyn Beeman Memorial Lecture Series.
Organizing teacher advisory committees that consisted of all UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire pre-student and student teaching cooperating teachers. These teachers were involved in monitoring and revising our programs, sharing with us and helping each other improve intervention/education practices.
Developing an innovative training program titled Project Progress in the late 70’s. This project sent a trained teacher into classrooms for 12 weeks to co-teach and mentor non-trained teachers and provide a weekly orientation session for the school district’s related service personnel and administrators. This project was staffed by Kathy Kress (Director), Carol Rudebeck and Nancy Bielke-Amacher (Teachers) and Jolynn Beeman (Graduate Assistant).
Co-sponsoring a state conference and a course to develop a manual about the transdisciplinary use of art, music, literature and movement activities. A large group of ECSE teachers were invited to study, develop and test activities that became part of a manual on across-disciplinary use of developmentally appropriate activities. These activities encouraged across-discipline functioning by occupational, physical and speech therapists and teachers. Dr. Mary Margaret Woods, Dr. David Lilly, Francis Brock-Starms and an occupational therapist, physical therapist and speech and language therapists served as consultants to this project. Joan Rothrock, Graduate Assistant, served as Co-coordinator and assistant editor.
Extending our work with national demonstration models by working with the staffs of Developmental Therapy (DT) project and the Portage Project to offer highly specialized training experiences on our campus. Tony Beardsley, DT’s National Outreach Director, helped us bring Barbara Reid and other DT specialists to Whitewater to operate an on-campus demonstration classroom serving severely involved young children with emotional and behavioral disorders. On occasion, the Portage Project staff, Richard Boyd and Jean Hilliard, taught a workshop that focused on behavioral based instructional practices and working with parents in homes prior to student teaching experiences.
Sponsoring several topical conferences related to early intervention/education practices. These conferences featured prominent authorities and were made possible by co-mingling financial resources from our federal grants, State monies and CESA and/or local school districts budgets.
Encouraging faculty from departments that taught related studies to participate in our Introduction to Early Childhood Special Education course. We offered stipends to faculty in adaptive physical education, art and music education, and children’s literature to encourage their participation in our course and to support efforts to make their course content more relevant to the students enrolled in ECSE
Working with Nancy Sweet, CESA #5, and Elmwood, WI to develop a proposal to provide coordinated services for children ages birth-to-8 across public school and county programs. This proposal was developed cooperatively between personnel from CESA #5 and me. The proposal was approved for submission by CESA 5’s Director, Mr. Hoffman, and every Director of Special Education, Superintendent of Schools and County Health and Social Service Director in the west central Wisconsin region served by the CESA. The Great Rivers Intervention Project (GRIP) proposed a comprehensive service delivery model for children with mild-single to severe-multiple handicapping conditions and was designed to provide seamless services for children, Birth-to-8, and their families across county and school services in west central Wisconsin. We were disappointed that this project was not submitted for funding because of regional institution of higher learning disagreement.
Implementing a highly successful multi-disciplinary conference on children with medically fragile and chronically ill conditions. This was a joint effort with the UW-Eau Claire’s Nursing School and the Department of Special Education. The conference was co-chaired by Chris Hambuch-Boyle, a long time and highly respected Eau Claire ECSE teacher. Chris was instrumental in visioning for this conference. After the conference several participants worked with her to develop a resource manual to help teachers better serve children with medically fragile or chronically ill conditions.
Bringing teachers and related services personnel together through a federally funded project to develop training materials to enhance transdisciplinary practice in ECSE. A training team (Judy Israel, teacher; Fran Kakuska and Cathy Battles, speech and language therapists; Sue Knuth, occupational therapist; Cathy Franks, physical therapist; Sonjia Stoudt, counselor; and Craig Miller, education psychologist) worked with us to develop a team function model and training materials.
Recruiting a multidisciplinary training team consisting of local practitioners to augment course lectures and work with students in the field. Chris Hambuch-Boyle, Julie Betchkel, Susan Hintgen, ECSE teachers; Jan Melberg, Occupational Therapist; Julie Maro and Sandy Guite, Speech and Language Clinicians; Cathy Franks, Physical Therapist and other practitioners helped prepare our students to work effectively across disciplines in ECSE.
Working with Dr. Barbara Wolfe and Dr. Bill Frankenberger (Education Psychology Program) to carry out research for WDPI to ascertain the potential impact of the proposed additional category (i.e., Significant Development Delay) on enrollment in the State’s special education programs.
Assisting in the development and teaching of an on campus interdisciplinary course that involved students and faculty from UW-Eau Claire’s Departments of Communication Disorders, Social Work, Special Education and the College of Nursing in the study of collaborative practice and evidence based team decision making.
Sponsoring conferences and related summer courses that brought physical, occupational therapy and adaptive physical education personnel together to study how to work collaboratively to improve services for learners with physical disabilities. We worked with Cathy Franks, physical therapist, and Todd Teske, adaptive education specialist, to plan and implement these activities
Collaborating with Dr. Tom King, Communicative Disorders Department, to propose and develop an on-campus laboratory and offer studies to prepare speech and language clinicians and ECSE teachers for work with children with alternative communication needs. One of the technology courses was required for all students enrolled in ECSE.
Working with Dr. Keith Reece to assist Dr. Terry Dolan and others (George Jesien, Project Director) at the Waisman Center to implement the State’s Birth-to-3 Project. UW-Eau Claire's component involved recruiting, training and supporting five regional teams to implement programs designed by them and developed by our staff to orient the public to birth-to-3 interventions across the State.
Assisting Dr. Mary Ann Marchel and our students in the evaluation of the Augusta, WI Public School District’s Parent and Child Program and working with the staff of the Eau Claire Area School and our students to evaluate the school district’s ECSE intake and assessment processes.
Developing a proposal to implement an interdisciplinary training program to prepare teachers, speech and language clinicians, social workers, education psychologists and nurses to work more effectively on teams and use research based evidence to inform their practice. This collaboration was the inspiration of Dr. Leonard Gibbs from the UW-Eau Claire’s Social Work Department. It also involved my colleagues Betsy McDougall-Gibbs; Dr. William Frankenberger, School Psychology; Dr. Chris Retherford, Communication Disorders; and Marilyn Burgess, School of Nursing. The U.S. Department of Education only planned to support two major research projects that year. Ours, a forward thinking project that focused on group decision making was ranked number three in the nation. Dr. Gibbs interest, expertise and work played a major role in the conceptualization of this project. Unfortunately this proposal was not funded. Since then, evidence based practice has become a critical part of practice. While we were very disappointed, this work generated a number of practices and faculty relationships that influenced our teacher training practices for years.
Involving several of our graduate students in the analysis of data collected as a part of our work with the State funded Preschool Options Project (POP). I collaborated with Arlene Wright (CESA 10), Lisa Maxwell (CESA 1), and Dr. Karen Stoiber, (UW-Milwaukee) in this activity. POP was designed to measure the extent that IEP objectives were addressed during activities in self-contained, co-located and fully inclusive classroom models. Carolyn Pritchett, graduate of UW-Eau Claire’s ECSE program, worked with a UW-Milwaukee graduate student to videotape activities in 24 ECSE classrooms across southeast and west central Wisconsin.
When I look back on this time and these activities, I am reminded of how very busy, excited and energized we were to be a part of something as positive as the development of our State’s early intervention/education services. All of these activities were being carried out during the same time frame that we were developing, implementing and improving our teacher education programs. I believe that our ideas were forward thinking. I am proud of all of our accomplishments. Even those projects that failed to be funded were of value because in the course of planning and proposal development we gained knowledge and established meaningful and long lasting relationships that we were able to use to strengthen our teacher training practices and use in later initiatives.
Summary
This history is based on my memories, UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire program descriptions and reports, WDPI publications, WDEC minutes, and ECSE materials. This report includes my knowledge about the State’s early history. In my opinion, the many activities, actions and accomplishments described here served as a foundation for subsequent developments in the intervention and education of young children with disabilities in Wisconsin. Some of these outcomes have influenced practice throughout the nation. These developments reflect the contributions of many people from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, teacher education programs, WDEC, and the State’s ECSE practitioners and administrators. Our achievements were products of collaborative practice. Not much was done accidentally or without purposeful thought about how people, organizations, agencies and programs could help achieve the goal of providing highly effective services for all young children (age’s birth-to-8) with disabilities and their families. In my view, the UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire ECSE teacher education programs and WDEC were instrumental in making Early Childhood Special Education what it is today in Wisconsin.
Our campus programs worked to improve regional intervention practices by working closely with teachers, related service personnel and administrators. We benefited because our students observed and worked with highly effective teachers; the agencies benefited because we provided access to up-to-date information about “best practice” and well prepared student volunteers to assist in classrooms. Perry Smith, a local Director of Special Education in Eau Claire liked to describe our relationship as “symbiotic”. Focusing on the State’s efforts on behalf of young children with disabilities was consistent with the Wisconsin Idea. This idea emphasized the importance of using the University System resources to strengthen the State’s resources and solve problems.
We knew that child development and learning were complex and that teaching children at-risk or with disabilities would never be a simple task. I do believe that we demonstrated that teacher preparation could be effective. We helped our graduates understand that they were well prepared entry level teachers who should remember that professional competence is never an absolute achievement, but is rather, something in the nature of a lasting commitment. I believe that we made real progress.
Finally, it has been an honor and privilege to work with so many very skilled, responsible, and dedicated professionals in these activities. Purposeful leadership and cooperative and collaborative actions made all of this possible. The activities and outcomes I have described should inspire all current and future early childhood special education professionals to work to improve early intervention/education for all children ages birth-to-8 in Wisconsin.
A special thanks to Cathy, my wife and primary source of support during my professional career; to Louise A. Mollinger, my life partner whose encouragement and assistance helped me complete this project; my son Eric who developed a DVD that contains a video taped interview and this written document; and to Steve Betchkal, the reporter who conceived and produced the In Person interview series for Eau Claire area WQOW Channel 18 TV viewers.
References
Franks, D.J. (1976). Certification for special education early childhood teachers. WDPI Bureau Memorandum, 17, 14-15.
Franks, D.J. (1978). EC-EEN certification revisited. WDPI Bureau Memorandum, 19, 32-34.
Franks, D.J. (1980). Early childhood-handicapped, yes…, but….WDPI Bureau Memorandum, 21, 19-21.
Melcher, J.W. & Franks, D.J. (1978). Certification and training of teachers of young handicapped children-The Wisconsin Experience. WDPI Bureau Memorandum, 20, 32-34.
Appendix A:
More about the Author
DAVID J. FRANKS, Ph.D. Retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2006 after serving in multiple capacities, including Chair of the Department of Special Education from 1991-1995 and coordinating the Early Childhood-Special Education Programs beginning in 1981. Prior to his work at UW-Eau Claire he served as developer and Coordinator of Early Childhood-Handicapped Teacher Education Programs at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from 1973-1981. Before entering the field of teacher education he served as: Early Childhood Training Specialist and Outreach Planning & Development Coordinator for the Educational Technology Satellite Demonstration Project, Rocky Mountain Federation of States, Denver, Colorado; Interim Director of the Diagnostic Learning Center, St. Paul Public Schools, St. Paul, Minnesota,; and Speech Therapist for the Head Start Program; and Speech Therapist for children classified as multi-handicapped & mentally retarded services for the St. Paul Public Schools, St. Paul, Minnesota. His educational background included earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Speech Correction from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 1964, a Master of Arts Degree in Special Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1970 and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Special Education-Early Childhood Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1972.
He lists as important accomplishments: the development of innovative and highly effective undergraduate and graduate pre-service and continuing teacher education programs at the University of Wisconsin campuses at Whitewater and Eau Claire; his role in the State’s development of criterion-based Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) teacher certification and training; founding member and leadership roles in the Wisconsin Division on Early Childhood (WDEC); documentation of ethnic disparity in special education programs; promotion of across-disciplinary training; and many outcomes from collaborative activities with local and state professionals, agencies and groups. As part of his active role in WDEC, he served two terms as the division’s president. He served on many committees and boards. He directed several projects and served as a consultant to local, state and national groups and agencies. In addition to his role as Coordinator of and instructor in the ECSE teacher training programs at UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire, he was a member of the State’s Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction’s Advisory Council. He served on the Eau Claire Area Development and Training Center Board and the Eau Claire School District Strategic Planning and Four Year Old Kindergarten planning committees. He was founder and principle investigator of the Wisconsin Committee on Early Childhood for the Handicapped in 1973, developer and advocate for the adoption of the State’s ECSE teacher certification in the 70’s, member of the team that developed and implemented the State’s Birth-to-3 services in the 80’s, member of the team that designed and carried out research related to the effectiveness of the preschool placement options in the 90’s, writer of several state and federal grants, and a developer of a variety of service delivery, curricular and instruction practices throughout his 30-plus year career in higher education.
He received awards for his contributions to the education of children at-risk for failure in school and children with disabilities. These include the Outstanding Service Award for contributions to ECSE in Wisconsin from the Wisconsin Federation, Council for Exceptional Children Division on Early Childhood in 1978 and its Life Time Achievement Award in 1999. He was the recipient of the first annual Victor Contrucci Service Award from the Wisconsin Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Distinguished Service Award from the Eau Claire Association for Retarded Citizens in 2003 and was recognized by the Eau Claire Area School District for 20 years of service to the education of young children who are at-risk or disabled in 2000. He was selected by his colleagues as the UW-Eau Claire’s College of Education nominee for the WDPI Outstanding Teacher Educator Award in 1986 and was a recipient of the Eau Claire Foundation’s Friends of Luther Children’s Legacy Award in 2005. Later that year he was honored by the University of Wisconsin System as one of one hundred faculty members from the System whose work best represented the Wisconsin Idea.
[1] In Wisconsin the Department of Health and Social Services and county agencies were responsible for the intervention services for children ages birth-to-3.
[2] Such as Handicapped Children’s Early Education Act, Head Start, the Milwaukee Project, and the Portage Model Demonstration Project
[3] Chapter 115 of the State’s Statutes and parent advocacy
[4] Such as the Penfield Center, Curative Workshop, Waisman Center-Dane County and Public school special education, and County Birth-to-3 programs
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