Special Education

Student Learning Outcomes for All Concentrations

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Graduates will gain the following skills:

1. Leadership: Knowledge of the field in order to become an advocate & leader in the field (or potential to be a leader) Collaborate with others to set direction, design and enact improvements as a leader in education, work or community settings.
2. Instruction/Assessment: Knowledgeable of instruction/assessment/and implementation of practice. Multiple perspectives include the social, cultural, linguistic contexts of their students to plan for identification, interventions and implementation, evaluation and differentiation.
3. Collaboration: Knowledge of how to collaborate and consult with the community, school professionals and families.

Descriptions of Key Assessments of Student Learning

SPED 5401-Advanced Seminar in Special Education (Online Portfolio)

Students will produce an online portfolio using a free website creation tool of their choice. Components included are artifacts (grant proposal, annotated bibliography/literature review of critical issues, and philosophy of learning), resume, teaching philosophy, letters of recommendation, coaching forms/evaluations, and sample lesson plans/manuscripts. (Outcome 1)

PRAXIS Exam (For Students Earning an Endorsements)

The information in some of the introductory courses provide the content that is needed in the SPED praxis exam. (Outcomes 1,2, and 3)

SPED 5140/4140-Advanced Assessment - Individual Case Study

This assignment is designed to encompass the majority of topics presented in the course by applying assessment practices to a real student with an IEP. Students will select a student to whom they can administer multiple assessments using both formal and informal tools. Students will evaluate the data, develop IEP goals (measurable goals with present levels of performance and means for monitoring progress), and write a formal report that discusses the strengths and areas of need for the student, involvement of instructional staff and the family, and goal setting Students will select a K-12 student in special education and identify one academic need area (language, reading, writing, mathematics, other). The need area should be as specific as will allow for students to identify consistencies and inconsistencies across various assessment measures that all measure the same or similar construct. As a counter example, if your need area is “language,” and students choose one assessment in reading, one in writing, one in listening, and one in speaking, students will not gain sufficient information to support any claims students make based on the results of each assessment because they all measure different domains of language. The degree of specificity is case dependent. (Outcome 2)

SPED 5000/4000-Universal Design for Learning Project

Course Objective to which Assignment is Primarily Aligned: Apply knowledge of the UDL framework to reflective practitioner practices, such as lesson planning in various subject areas, according to the UDL guidelines. Steps: 1. Access a copy of the UDL Guidelines-Educator Checklist to use as you develop your lesson. 2. Use any lesson plan template that includes the following parts, to which UDL principles will be applied: 1)Information about the students (age, backgrounds, language, etc.), 2) Alignment to standards, 3)Learning and language objectives, 4) Materials needed, 5)A structure that includes an effective introduction or anticipatory set, body, and conclusion, 6) Assessment: Describe your measures, how you will know learning is taking place, and how you will know your objectives have been met, 7) Design your lesson using the UDL Guidelines-Educator Checklist as a guide, 8) After writing your lesson plan, include a justification for your lesson design choices by indicating the features of your lesson that exemplify specific UDL guidelines. You should specify which guideline is being addressed and explain how and why the particular features do so. (Outcome 2)

SPED 5300/4300-Family, Professional, and Community Collaboration

This assignment consists of the story of a student and his/her family members. The story may be told in a variety of ways. Some possibilities include an edited video, a slide show, a photo album, or a comprehensive written account of your experience. If your story will be a medium other than written, detailed annotation or a script must accompany the video, slides, or photos. This assignment is based on the experiences you undertake with the family of a student. You should spend a minimum of 12 hours with the family who has a child with a disability. These hours should reflect a mix of time spent with the student (both inside and outside the school) and his/her family members across a variety of activities. Please select from the list of activities (on Canvas) to help create the context for your family story, and/or generate other activities that you feel may be more appropriate for the student and his/her family. (Outcome 3)