Master of Education with a Major in Special Education

Master of Education with a major in Special Education leads to T-5 certification in Special Education General Curriculum or Special Education Adapted Curriculum. Any person who has T-4 certification in a teaching field or who has completed a four-year degree program outside the field of teaching and meets the other admission criteria may pursue the master's level programs.

The Special Education Program provides professional educators an opportunity to enhance their ability to respond positively, creatively, and proactively and develop teaching strategies and curriculum skills to enable students with disabilities to access the standard curriculum and address areas of functional and independent living skills. As the candidates' progress through the program, they will take away knowledge of research-based best practices in their core content areas, strategies for making data-driven decisions, and skills for improving student achievement through action research.

Program Objectives

• Construct a thorough base on the foundations, principles, ethics, values, and methods of modern general and special education.
• Foster knowledge of pedagogy, enrichment and acceleration, interdisciplinary programming, early childhood intervention, secondary education, transition, and rehabilitation, rural and urban education, and technology.
• Incorporates coursework in behavioral disorders, intellectual disability, physical disabilities, and mild disabilities including intellectual disability, management of social and unsocial behavior, communication and language, mobility, mathematics, reading, problem-solving, visual skills and visual perceptual processing, and self-regulation.
• Affords candidates with opportunities to participate in action research, experimental design, program evaluation, cultural diversity, and issues of inclusion and the least restrictive environment.

Note: A Reading endorsement is available

Admission to the Special Education Program requires an undergraduate degree in Special Education, or the equivalent, from an accredited college. In addition, the following is required

• a clear renewable state of GA teaching certificate in the discipline
• three letters of recommendations
• writing sample
• College of Education Disposition Statement

Admission to the Special Education Program requires an undergraduate degree in Special Education, or the equivalent, from an accredited college, and satisfactory scores on the Graduate Record Examination or Miller Analogies Test. When students lack sufficient background in Special Education, they may be required to take additional undergraduate courses before beginning the M.Ed. program in Special Education. Students are also governed by the general admission procedures and requirements for the M.Ed. degree program, and they may matriculate in the Special Education program under the same categories of admission.

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

Accredited through Georgia Public Standards Commission