Administrator Support: Supervising and Supporting Effective Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have unique learning needs requiring teachers who work with these students need to have specific knowledge and skills. Because of the specialized skills and knowledge needed by teachers, administrators who supervise and support these teachers also need to have an understanding of the skills and knowledge required to promote student success leading to student growth. Administrators need to be able to provide supervision to teachers as well as determine professional development needs to help teachers to improve their knowledge and skills.
VCU-ACE recognizes the need for teachers to have clearly defined expectations and for administrators to have guidance in the appropriate expectations for teachers who work with students with ASD. Thus, in collaboration with autism professionals across the state of Virginia, we have created a state goal for Administrator Support.
School divisions throughout the state are encouraged to use the information and tools developed through our goal as a model to increase the skills and knowledge of educational service providers and improve the public school services available to students with ASD.
State Goal: Administrator Support
VCU-ACE will develop performance standards and evaluation criteria for teachers who support students with ASD in alignment with the Virginia Department of Education's Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers, Administrators, and Superintendents. VCU-ACE will also develop a guidance document, resources, and autism observation checklists for administrators to evaluate educational programs and the implementation of evidence-based practices and meaningful instruction. VCU-ACE will release these tools to the Commonwealth for school divisions to use.
Because of this VCU-ACE state goal as well as our commitment to students with ASD, we have developed resources to assist administrators to supervise and support teachers who work with students with ASD. The chief resource is the Autism Spectrum Disorder Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria and the accompanying Rubric. We believe these documents provide clearly defined expectations for teacher performance as well as provide support for administrators. These Performance Standards also align with the Virginia Department of Education's Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria. To view these VCU-ACE documents and learn more about them, please visit our ASD Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria page.