The purpose of the presentation is to provide participants with information on the development, use and evaluation of the Teacher Rater and Assessment Instrument for Teachers of Students with Significant Disabilities (TRAIT-SD). The development of the instrument will be summarized, beginning in 2019 through 2025. The TRAIT-SD started with a list of the best practices for teaching children with severe disabilities. It was expanded into a rating scale for each of the best practices. This preliminary rating scale was shared with experts in the area of severe disabilities across the United States. The experts were asked to review the instrument and provide feedback. The feedback was used to revise the scale. The rating scale was then pilot tested to see how effective the instrument was at capturing the strengths and areas of development for special education teachers who educate children with severe disabilities. This rating scale has been revised several times and is currently being used with a variety of in-service and pre-service teachers.

The components of the TRAIT-SD will be shared along with a description of how administrators or university faculty implement the TRAIT-SD. The TRAIT-SD contains a demographics sheet, directions for the rating scale, a total of 38 indicators divided into three sections (General Instruction and Classroom Climate (14 items), Individual Student Instruction (15 items), and Behavior Improvement (9 items), and a detailed rubric for each indicator. There are three components for administering the TRAIT-SD: a) direct observation, b) a review of documents, and c) an interview with the teacher. The results of the assessment are scored through the average of the total items and a list of a teacher's strengths and areas of development in relation to the 38 best practices for students with significant disabilities is compiled using the ratings on the individual indicators. Teachers are given the list along with specific examples to illustrate ways the teacher can transform their skills.

Finally, three research studies will be reviewed to show how the TRAIT-SD was evaluated for validity and reliability. The first study evaluated the internal and inter-rater reliability of the performance of teachers who instruct students with severe disabilities. The TRAIT-SD was used to observe 30 teachers by ten observers. The TRAIT-SD was determined to be reliable using two calculations of reliability: internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. The second study was a content validity evaluation based on teacher ratings of the 37 indicators of the TRAIT-SD. A total of 49 special education teachers of students with severe disabilities evaluated the content of the TRAIT-SD to determine each item’s importance for teaching students with severe disabilities. The results of the study showed that all participants rated all items between important and very important, resulting in all items being retained and one new item added on the instrument. The third study was an evaluation of 22 teachers with the TRAIT-SD prior to and after participating in key coursework in a special education program. Results of the ratings on the TRAIT-SD showed significant gains made by the participants on teaching skills. This study added to the validity evidence of TRAIT-SD scores by showing the independent ratings by qualified observers resulted in similar outcomes.

Keywords: Teacher evaluation, students with severe disabilities, professional development.