Dr. Kathryn Alves, Graduate Program Director
434.395.2340, alveskd@longwood.edu
The concentration in Special Education provides strategies for effective teaching of students with special needs in the general education classroom. Graduate students learn assessment and diagnosis of students, effective instructional procedures, collaborative and transitional techniques, and behavior management strategies. This degree is for special education teachers or other licensed teachers who wish to work toward an endorsement to teach students with learning disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, or mild mental retardation.
Students entering the Special Education: General Curriculum Plus One K-12 concentration must possess a valid Virginia Collegiate Professional License or equivalent from another state. Prior to completing the program and receiving the Master’s degree, students must meet the following graduation requirements: must show evidence of at least one course in the teaching of reading and at least one course in the teaching of mathematics. In addition, the teacher licensure candidate must complete at least 225 clock hours of graduate professional experience through residency at an approved school/classroom.
NOTE: Though many courses overlap, this is a different program from the Special Education: General Curriculum 5th Year undergraduate/graduate program and the Special Education General Curriculum Initial Licensure K-12 program.
Once admitted to the graduate program, the candidate will select one of two specialization tracks:
1) English Language Learners
2) Middle School Pedagogy
Program Prerequisite: Foundations of Special Education must be completed prior to enrollment in the graduate program and can be satisfied by completion of SPED 202 or SPED 389 or SPED 489 or SPED/PSPE 515 or a program agreed upon course.
Admission
Applicants to this program must possess a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university and a valid Virginia Collegiate Professional License or equivalent from another state at the time of admission to the program.
In addition to the above, applicants must have:
- a 2.75 cumulative GPA (on a 4.0 scale)
- provide a minimum of two recommendations
- a 500-word personal essay
- a résumé
- official transcripts of the bachelor’s degree and any course work completed after that degree.
Residency
The completion of residency is mandatory in the Special Education program. The residency is 6 one credit hour courses requiring 100 field clock hours for each credit hour. SPED 507 , SPED 508 , and SPED 509 are taken in the fall and EDUC 607 , EDUC 608 , and EDUC 609 are taken in the spring. Grading is pass (P) / not pass (NP). Only the grade of ‘P’ will meet degree requirements. A grade of incomplete (I) may be assigned at the discretion of the instructor ONLY if all field clock hours have been successfully completed. All students must be enrolled in a minimum of one (1) credit hour of the applicable field experience to be completing any clock hours of placement in the field in order to be in compliance with insurance regulations per the Attorney General’s office. Students cannot begin a placement prior to registering for the required course in the semester they wish to begin observing all applicable deadlines.
Comprehensive Examination
The Special Education program requires a comprehensive examination as the culmination of their program. Students take the Praxis II - Special Education: Core Knowledge and Applications. Students must be enrolled to allow for completion of 30 semester hours of course work, must have a B average (3.0 GPA) in all courses completed, and must have already filed the Application for Graduate Degree to be eligible to enroll in the comprehensive examination.
Students must register for the comprehensive examination (EDUC 699 ) no later than the last day to add a course in the semester in which they wish to take the examination. Registration must be done by submission of the Graduate Course Enrollment Request form to the Registrar’s Office when all of the above criteria have been met. The course does not carry any credit hours.
The Praxis II is a multiple choice test administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) at testing centers. Immediately upon completion of the exam at the testing center, examinees must print a copy of their results and deliver them to the Special Education program by the date required.
The grading system for the evaluation of the examination will be pass (P)/not pass (NP). Students who do not pass the examination shall be allowed one re-examination. The re-examination will be administered at a time set by the Director of the Special Education Graduate Program within the same semester. The re-examination will test the same material as the original sections of the Praxis II, but will be a subjective question on each section designed and graded by the Special Education faculty. Students will only be required to retake the subjective question on the section(s) they did not pass. Failure of the examination for a second time will be final, and students will be dismissed from the graduate program.
