The Education Department will be adding a new major track in the fall of 2019: Special Education. The department also offers Elementary, Middle Grades, Secondary, Physical Education, and Spanish Education. The Education Department has been trying for over a year to add the major to the department, but the process is lengthy and requires the approval of the school. Dr. Cindy Rice, Chair of the Education Department, described the process by saying, “I would propose the idea to a committee, and they ask questions about the idea. Once the committee thinks this is something the school should consider, the faculty gets together, and I would present the proposal before all of them, and the faculty has to agree that the program would benefit the college. They look at things like the cost, the benefits, and problems that could happen within the college. There is a vote, and if the program is approved, I then have to submit the proposal to the state.” The submission of an additional program is different in the education field, because there are standards that have to be met in order for a student to be able to graduate with a teaching license. Any other department would not have to send their programs to the state to be approved.
The program only added five completely new classes in order to meet the state’s standards for being qualified to teach in a special needs classroom. Previously, the school offered classes for students to be endorsed to teach in those classes, but there is a difference between an endorsement and a license to teach in these classrooms. “An endorsement allows one to teach in a special needs classroom, but only in the age range of their actual teaching license. So if a student graduates with a license to teach in an elementary school, their endorsement lets them teach in those classrooms for that range of students. A license to teach solely special education spans from the ages of birth to 22. Those teachers can teach at any age range at any school, but they can only teach in special needs rooms, not regular education set classes,” said Rice about the differences between the two.
The program has not yet been sent to the state for approval, but Rice intends to have it sent before Christmas break. The state should approve the proposal, but will most likely send it back to the department with corrections to make to the the program, according to Rice. The proposal will be over 50 pages, and will include things like the assessments students will learn about, the assessments professors will use to assess the students, and classes that state requires the school to include. These classes range from family and community relations, characteristics of kids with learning disabilities, and classes about methods to teach special education students. Rice commented “I’m excited to see the number of students that will want to be a part of this program and how the college and department will grow by adding this program.”