Dr. Todd Hackett-Slimm
Special education teachers are in demand nationwide. Over the past year, one local school district’s collaboration with Wilmington University helped it fill this critical need with qualified staff.
“In order to accommodate more learners with disabilities, the Colonial School District needed more teachers with a special education endorsement,” says WilmU Assistant Professor Dr. Todd Hackett-Slimm, who chairs the College of Education’s special education program.
Instead of conducting a wide-ranging search to hire experienced educators, the New Castle, Delaware-based school district looked inward and up the road to WilmU. With Dr. Hackett-Slimm’s assistance, it developed an academic program that enabled 10 of its teachers to earn the certifications they’d need to teach special education classes.
Colonial’s current special education specialists, several of whom had previously taught as WilmU adjuncts, served as instructors for the March 2020 to March 2021 coursework. Besides providing an on-site certification option, the WilmU-Colonial partnership allowed the teachers to study toward certification together in a customized curriculum.
“As a cohort of teachers from the same district, they were able to share the unique learning characteristics of their district,” says Dr. Hackett-Slimm. “They were able to share anecdotal stories and relate them to the course content, making it even more applicable to the needs of the district. Plus, the course instructors could teach specifically to the context of the school district. Colonial-specific components were integrated into the courses.”
WilmU’s mission to expand working adults’ skills has generated numerous educational partnerships with area school districts, businesses, and other organizations while benefiting their employees with career advancement.
“Colonial had approached me after they had heard about my work with the Appoquinimink School District, helping their teachers to obtain autism and severe intellectual disabilities certifications,” says Dr. Hackett-Slimm. “I’ve also been meeting with the Milford School District on another autism/severe intellectual disabilities certificate program.”
—David Bernard