National- and state-level education policies are evolving to address teacher shortages that are pervasive across the United States and are particularly problematic in rural special education. In this article, we describe a policy we call “endorsement by exam” in which teachers certified in one subject area can become certified in other areas by passing a content knowledge test. Although such add-on endorsements are not uncommon in some content areas (e.g., chemistry teachers adding certification in biology), some states have extended this practice to include special education certification. The purpose of this article is to explore what state agencies have adopted endorsement by exam for special education. Despite difficulties in obtaining reliable information, we determined approximately eight states have adopted some form of this policy. We discuss results in terms of rurality and conclude by explaining our position that endorsement by exam is a potentially harmful quick fix that may in fact exacerbate teacher shortages in the long term and thus is ill advised.

中文翻译：

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考试背书：农村特殊教育的政策与实践

国家和州级教育政策正在不断演变，以解决美国普遍存在的教师短缺问题，尤其是农村特殊教育中的问题。在本文中，我们描述了一项我们称为“考试认可”的政策，其中在一个学科领域获得认证的教师可以通过内容知识测试获得其他领域的认证。尽管此类附加认可在某些内容领域并不少见（例如，化学教师添加生物学认证），但一些州已将这种做法扩展到包括特殊教育认证。本文的目的是探讨哪些国家机构对特殊教育采用了考试认可。尽管很难获得可靠的信息，但我们确定大约有八个州采用了某种形式的这种政策。