Evaluating Special Education Teachers: School Administrators' Perceptions of the Process

The use of classroom observations within teacher evaluation systems is a national practice, but little research is available on the observation and evaluation of special educators' teaching. This study examined the perspectives of three school administrators, who did not have a background in special education, but had experience observing and evaluating special education teachers' instruction. The three administrators in the study indicated that they had confidence in their ability to provide fair and meaningful evaluations of special education teachers, but increased training is needed. While the administrators described similarities in their evaluation of general and special educators in terms of instructional content and classroom management, there were differences when evaluating teachers who provided instruction to students with more intensive instructional or behavioral needs.