Ten years into teaching general elementary education in his native Washington County, Sean Cavanaugh decided to try something new: special education.
Cavanaugh, a 2013 graduate of the University of Maine, now primarily teaches students with special needs from prekindergarten to third grade at Calais Elementary School. When he decided to make the switch from the general elementary classroom, he needed to take coursework to become certified in special education.
As he explored his options for additional coursework, Cavanaugh, who previously earned his master’s degree, decided to pursue a Ph.D. in education with a specialization in special education at the UMaine College of Education and Human Development while teaching full time.
That commitment to improving opportunities for students with disabilities recently took Cavanaugh beyond his Calais classroom and UMaine coursework to Washington, D.C. This summer, he was one of six educators nationwide selected for an inaugural scholarship from the Council for Exceptional Children to attend the Special Education Legislative Summit, held July 19-22.
The summit brought together more than 300 special education leaders from across the country for policy briefings, strategy sessions and meetings with lawmakers and legislative staff.
For Cavanaugh, the experience offered an opportunity to bring the perspective of a rural Maine special educator into national conversations about supporting students with disabilities, while building on the research and advocacy skills he is developing through UMaine’s Ph.D. program.
His advisor, UMaine associate professor of special education Sarah Howorth, encouraged him to apply for the scholarship.
“In rural Maine, you really need to be prepared to do a little bit of everything based on the needs of individual students who qualify for special education services,” Cavanaugh said.
Cavanaugh said he found that UMaine’s doctoral program offered the right blend of research-based tools, practical knowledge and skills for creating inclusive educational opportunities for all students.
“What I’m learning in my classes has direct application to help my students. I’m a very data-minded person, so I’ve been able to learn how to dig into data and apply it with my students in the classroom,” he said.
For example, in a research paper he wrote for one of his classes, Cavanaugh explored how schools, parents and other caregivers make decisions around the placement of students with special needs in general education classrooms with their peers versus self-contained classrooms.
At Calais Elementary School, Cavanaugh said he integrates his students into general education classrooms as much as possible, although he added that doing so can be challenging in small towns with limited resources.
“Those decisions are sometimes hard to make in small-town Maine, because of a lack of resources. But that shouldn’t be the limiting factor, it should be about what’s best for the student. So using data and research to better inform those decisions is something that I’m interested in exploring more in my courses and bringing back to my work with students,” he said.
At the summit, Cavanaugh also had the opportunity to compare the challenges facing rural Maine schools with those confronting special educators elsewhere in the country.
“It was really interesting to talk and share experiences with special educators from other states,” Cavanaugh said. “A special education teacher in Las Vegas doesn’t have the same challenges that we have in Calais, Maine. But they still have limited resources. So just talking about some of the issues we’re all facing, what’s different and what’s the same, and hearing about possible solutions that focus on taking care of our students.”
This fall will mark Cavanaugh’s second year in the Ph.D. program. Although he is still a few years away from beginning his dissertation and has not yet decided on a research topic, he has already thought about publishing some of the research he’s conducted in his classes.
Ultimately, he said the Ph.D. program and his experience at the Special Education Legislative Summit have reinforced his passion for working with and supporting the students in his classes. They’ve also helped him realize the power of his own voice in shaping the future of special education in Maine and beyond.
“Even at the younger grades, we teach our students to think about what stories they want to tell, and how to use the reading and writing skills that they are learning to talk about how things are affecting them,” he said. “I’d never really engaged with the world of advocacy before the summit. But it was a good lesson on how I can use my story as a rural teacher and the research skills I’m learning at UMaine to share information with the people who have the power to shape the policies that can make a difference in the lives of our students.”
Contact: Casey Kelly, casey.kelly@maine.edu
