Marywood's M.S. in Special Education program is accredited and approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Certification in PreK-8 or 7-12

Our program is designed specifically for certified educators who would like to obtain a second certification in special education. You may choose a certification in either Pre-Kindergarten to 8th grades or 7th to 12th grades.

On-Campus and Online Options

For your convenience, we offer both a traditional on-campus program and a flexible, online option.

More About This Degree

• Learn more about this program or visit the Education website.
• College of Professional Studies
• Courses: Available courses in this department
• 36 Credit Hours Required
• This program is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)
  

  Programs for the preparation of elementary, secondary, K-12 and special education teachers and for the preparation of other school personnel including school psychologists, guidance counselors, principals, superintendents, librarians, reading specialists, speech and language pathologists, home school visitors, and supervisory personnel are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.

This is just a sample of our Education faculty - see them all!

Students benefit from state-of-the-art technically equipped classrooms, a curriculum lab and grant funded Assisted Technology Center. These facilities allow graduate students to have hands on experience when developing knowledge and skill competencies throughout their program. The Assistive Technology Center was developed to be used by students with disabilities and for training those who will work with them; includes Braille embossers, closed circuit TV, captioning, and specialized software for speech recognition, concept mapping, phonetic spelling, and word prediction.

Specific Program Requirements

You must have a teaching certification to enroll in this program. For a special education certification in PreK-8, you must have one of the following certifications:

• N-3
• K-6
• PreK-4
• 4-8
• K-12
• Reading specialist

For a certification in 7-12, you must have one of the following:

• 7-12
• K-12
• Reading specialist

Graduate Admissions Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university
• “B” average during undergraduate study or demonstrated potential for graduate work
• Completed application
• Essay
• Official, sealed transcripts
• Two or three letters of recommendation

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Master of Science in Special Education

(Degree program that builds on a previous certification not in Special Education and leads to PK-8 certification.)
36 semester hours

The assumption is that candidates seeking this degree already have core curriculum and instruction education courses including math, science, social studies, and reading methods. Candidates not meeting this requirement may be required to take additional coursework.

I. PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND CORE COURSES

*EDUC 501	Research Theory	3
EDUC 554	Learning Theories	3
*SPED 545A I	Applied Research	1
SPED 545B	Applied Research	1
SPED 545C	Applied Research	1

II. CONCENTRATION

SPED 500	Special Education Law and Service Delivery	3
SPED 511	Curriculum Adaptations for the Special Needs Learner	3
SPED 523	Programming for the At-Risk Infant/Preschool Child	3
SPED 536	Cognitive Assessment and Remediation	3
SPED 539	Behavior Management Approaches	3
R ED 530	Reading Disabilities and Diagnosis	3
R ED 533	Remedial Techniques	3
EDUC 520	Universal Design for Learning	3
EDUC 561	Methods, Materials and Assessment for ESL	3
*EDUC 501 and SPED 545A should be taken concurrently.

Program Prerequisites: an Education core including R ED 526 Teaching Content Area Reading
PECT test: Special education Pre K-8