The Education School recently modified its special education program to include a dual-endorsement option, enabling participating students to gain certification in both special education and a general education field of choice.
In the face of a changing teaching atmosphere, the program will seek to equip future teachers better for the many K-12 schools that are presently looking to better integrate children with special needs by placing them in classrooms with "more typically developing children," Education Dean Robert Pianta said.?
These combined classes, termed "inclusion classrooms," aim to make connections between general education students and special education students, he explained.
According to Sandra Cohen, director of teacher education at the Education School, the program will help address the increased demand for inclusion classroom teachers.
Cohen explained that the modified five-year program, which now features the dual-endorsement option, is designed to give graduates of the program more credibility in, and a better understanding of, a general education classroom.
"More and more special education teachers are working in inclusion settings in general education, and in order to be in general education classes, teachers need to have more competence and familiarity in a general education classroom," Cohen explained. "In order to match that, we are moving to a dual endorsement [of special education teachers]."
Pianta also noted that there have been calls across the education community for extremely specialized training of special education teachers as well as a demand for less specialized training. By adding the dual-endorsement option, he said, the Education School's special education program now settles in the middle of these two extremes. Graduating teachers, he noted, will have a solid background in addressing the needs of both special and general education students.
Furthermore, Pianta said the changes will help bring the Education School's special education program more in line with certain state-level certification requirements and aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act.
"The changes we're making in this program are consistent with wanting be on the cutting edge," Pianta said.
To participate, students in the modified five-year special education program will be required to choose a second area of education in which to be certified, such as math, history or secondary education, Cohen noted.
"When students finish in the five-year program, they [will] get their bachelor's from the College of Arts & Sciences, a master's of teaching from Curry and licensure in special education and in another area of general education," Cohen said.
Because of their ability to teach in special education, general education and inclusion classrooms, graduates of the program will also have many advantages over their peers when entering the job market, Cohen noted, explaining the program will give graduates increased "marketability and flexibility in career choice and a better understanding of the makeup of classrooms"
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