Michael Gottfried to give talk at UC Center Sacramento about teacher readiness for educating students with learning disabilities

Michael Gottfried, Associate Professor in the Department of Education at the UC Santa Barbara Gevirtz School, will co-present the talk “Do California’s New Teachers Feel Ready to Educate Students with Learning Disabilities?” with Ethan Hutt, Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland - College Park.  This event is organized through Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and will be held at the UC Center Sacramento on December 14, 2017. 

Including students with learning disabilities in traditional schools and classrooms has been an increasing priority in California. In turn, the state’s teacher preparation programs have faced increased responsibility to ensure newly-graduating teachers (known as teacher candidates) receive adequate preparation to educate all students including those with learning disabilities.  Gottfried will be discussing preparation and policy regarding the use of edTPA, a high-stakes teaching performance assessment, to reflect and improve classroom practices as well as a prerequisite for candidates’ licensure. A study surveyed one cohort of graduating teaching candidates in 2017 from a large California research university. The survey examined the factors of candidates’ preparation related to feeling prepared to work with students with learning disabilities. Findings indicate that candidates who believed that edTPA was an effective tool for becoming a teacher also believed that the assessment helped prepare them to work with students with learning disabilities.

Those interested in attending the talk should rsvp on-line. Direct questions or comments about the event to Shawn Bernado at scbernado@stanford.edu or call 650.724-2832.

Michael Gottfried is Associate Professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on absenteeism, schooling context, and STEM with an interest in disabilities running through all of these areas. He has served as PI on grants focusing on schooling context and outcomes specifically for elementary school students (NSF, AERA/NSF, NIH/NICHD R03, Foundation for Child Development, Stuart Foundation, Spencer Foundation). He has published work in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Teachers College Record, Education Finance and Policy, American Journal of Education, Elementary School Journal, among others. In 2016, he released a co-edited book on educational policy with Harvard Education Press. Michael is on the Editorial Board of American Educational Research Journal and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.