The Roles and Responsibilities of the Special Educator

Reviewed by Sharon Gilbert, Professor, Radford University on 7/1/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text does cover most topics for this area. The chapter on Paraeducators is especially helpful for new teachers. It was interesting that the Code of Ethics was included in the text, highlighting their importance to the profession.
This text isn't written to help the reader relate to the parents of a student with a disability. It simply lays out everything related to special education in schools. There is some information in the chapter on Collaboration and Communication when the high leverage practice (HLP) of collaborating with families is discussed.
The Voices from the Field piece is interesting. That can be especially useful for preservice or starting teachers to have more of a sense of what goes on in the schools and classrooms.
It's very helpful that the Instruction chapter discusses several HLPs. The chapter on Progress Monitoring had links to additional resources, which was helpful. The key takeaways are nice. It would be good to have them in every chapter. There are aspects of this text that are good for a survey course, but it’s written for preservice special educators.
Math Intervention and Strategies chapter is very short. Not all chapters have resources.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The book is accurate but limits itself to information for 3 of the New England states, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This textbook is certainly relevant for special educators or those who are training for this profession. The introduction states that "This resource is crafted by and for teacher candidates pursuing licensure in General Special Education and Early Childhood Special Education in New Hampshire and the surrounding New England states." Therefore, some of the information is specific to that area, such as the chapter on Standards-based Curriculum and Instruction when learning standards in early childhood education includes those for New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts.

Clarity rating: 5

It is written well and easy to follow.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is internally consistent.

Modularity rating: 4

The length of each chapter isn't overwhelming. Some might find the links to outside sources a bit confusing. It's helpful that the videos don't take you away from the book and links to sources other than videos do open in a new tab. I believe you could easily take whole chapters or information from individual chapters to incorporate into a class without using the whole book.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Each chapter starts with its own table of contents. It would be helpful if these were hot linked to their spot in the text.

There are hot links to PDF slideshows, as well as links to text-only versions for accommodations purposes. There are also hot links to videos and websites.

I couldn't tell but it seems like the font changes to signify differences in the text, such as block quotes. This is a bit distracting to me.

The chapters have hot links to relevant parts in the book so students can review or read ahead. This does NOT apply to the TOC for each chapter, though.

Interface rating: 4

I downloaded the text as an EPUB file and then used an online program to convert it to a PDF. This made it simpler for me to use than the online version, which only showed a small amount of information on the page at a time. There aren't a lot of clipart or tables, except for TOC. Converting the UPUB to a PDF was problematic, though.

I also viewed some of the chapters online. It was helpful to have a link at the bottom of the page to the previous and next chapters but it would have been helpful to have the name of the chapter in view at all times, as well. From the online version, I could search the whole book. There was an arrow at the bottom of the page that took the reader to the beginning of the chapter. This had to be done to access the TOC to move to a different chapter, besides the previous and next chapter.

One of the biggest issues with the online version is that you can't highlight anything. This could be addressed in the PDF version but saving it as a PDF has its problems. I didn't download a program to be able to access the book as an EPUB file.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I didn't observe any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book is culturally sensitive. It includes a chapter entitled, "The Disproportionality of Specific Racial and Ethnic Groups in Special Education". There is also a chapter on Culturally Responsive Teaching.

Comments

The book connected to the IRIS Center and two learning modules there. This allows the reader to get some more information in a well-developed format.

The field of education is full of abbreviations and acronyms so a glossary would have been helpful.

This text has chapters on how to teach with some videos for more explanation or demonstration.

Reviewed by Tyanne Bailey, Director of Teacher Education, Assistant Professor of Education, Huntington University on 6/25/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This text provides a wide scope of information, yet at a very introductory level. There is no index and/or glossary.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The content of the text is accurate; however, a reader needs to understand that the federal laws will apply to all but there will be differences regarding state and licensing expectations because the text is written for New Hampshire and the surrounding New England area.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This text is currently up-to-date and will be easy to update if deemed necessary. The arrangement of the sections will allow for updates to be inserted seamlessly.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written very clearly and will be able to be easily understood by undergraduate students.

Consistency rating: 5

This text is consistent throughout.

Modularity rating: 3

The text is divided into sections that are clear and organized well. It would be helpful if the sections were numbered, like chapter numbers. When assigning readings to undergraduate students, this may make it easier for them to complete accurately without confusion.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The scope and sequence of the section topics were logical and clear.

Interface rating: 5

The text is free of issues and the images/charts are displayed well.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There were not any noticeable grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is culturally appropriate and inclusive.

Comments

Overall, this text helps provide an overview of many concepts. I would struggle using this in a course because it gives you a lot of introductory information, without depth, but for a wide variety of concepts. For example, it not only introduces the reader to the basics of special education but also gives information about intervention, teaching, and managing a classroom. Although these are all helpful topics to address, it may have been better to have two introductory texts rather than all of this information in one text. If I were teaching a course introducing special education, I would need to use supplemental resources to give more details. If one is receiving the basics, they are not ready for the other introductory information about interventions, strategies, and management. It almost needs to be cut in half for an introduction to special education and then an introduction to methods for special education.

Reviewed by Micah Walker, Non Tenure Track Instructor, Western Oregon University on 5/31/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

Book covers a broad overview of Special Education at an introductory level. No index or glossary is present

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book contains correct information regarding federal regulations, culturally responsive teaching definitions, and science of reading components.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

OER is from 2023, optional edits and updated definitions could easily be integrated.

Clarity rating: 5

Easily accessible for the undergraduate introductory level.

Consistency rating: 4

Use of acronyms (not necessarily SPED related but others as well), they may be called something different in your state and I found myself having to go back and check what they were referring to.

Modularity rating: 4

Having specific chapter numbers would be a helpful addition! I chose to utilize the titles for organization, however for student ease, chapters might be useful.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

There was a consistent format throughout, with some shorter sections that did stand out.

Interface rating: 4

Included embedded videos and outside links that were accessible with a few minor dead links that were easily found if searched elsewhere.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not notice any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Really appreciate the culturally sustaining lens embedded in this text. Disproportionality in special education was addressed at an introductory level.

Comments

Useful text for a broad overview of special education. If you are looking to provide more information for specific eligibility categories, you would need to supplement.