BIO

My name is Valeria Veras and I am a Sophomore from Panama City, Florida studying here at Florida State University. I am a political science and economic major with a minor in child development, aspiring to attend medical school soon after graduation. I have gotten the pleasure to work under Addie McConomy on her research project creating a tool that would eventually increase the retention rate of novice special education teachers. Through the UROP process I have been able to develop my interest for research, specifically within the Autism Institute.

Scoring Tools to Assist the Development of Special Education Teacher

Abstract

Over the past semester, I have been working with Addie McConomy on a project she
has created to collect data from experts that are experienced in special education teaching,
then use that information to create a scoring tool for novice special education teachers to
analyze themselves in their classroom in hopes to increase the retention rate for novice
special education teachers. A large sum of the data came for the video transcriptions of the
experts interviewed, which I was tasked to go over with a fine tooth comb and correct any
mistakes there may be so that Addie McConomy would have the most accurate data
possible. Due to the circumstances also known as Covid 19, the interviews had to be done
over zoom and zoom has automatic transcriptions. I was given a copy of the recorded video
as well as the transcriptions and used both to carefully go over each transcription. This
project has been set back due to Covid 19 and joining the Special Education teachers in the
classroom has not been possible, so there are not clear conclusions thus far. The
conclusions will come when the team is able to gather data and create the scoring tool. The
scoring tool will be given to the educators and they will be able to self - analyze their
abilities in the classroom and compare them to scores from observers. This will hopefully
lead to constructive criticism that will positively impact the novice teachers as well as
special education students.

Keywords: Special Education, Novice Teachers, Scoring Tools