2011年12月14日星期三

For Teachers Who Want To Make A Difference

How will the master online special education degree equip those teachers who want to make a difference? The answer is straightforward - in the USA, currently there are over 6 million students who have enrolled in these special programs.While schools - public and private, preschool to secondary - struggle to identify and deploy qualified teachers to address these 6 million students, nobody knows for sure how many million students more need to be identified for special classes, so that they can better cope with their learning disabilities, or physical and mental handicaps.At the same time, successive Federal and State Administrations since 1975 have sharpened their focus on creating complex systems for identifying, formulating, and delivering a highly-individualized education program to each eligible student. The cornerstone of these legislations, programs, and licensures is the highly qualified teacher.A Master's degree in has thus become a must for aspiring teachers, and with many of them already employed as regular teachers, master online special education degree has become the most convenient route to this profession.What It InvolvesMaster online special education degree involves distance or online learning that leads to graduate degrees like Master of Education (MEd), Master of Science (MS), Master of Arts (MA), or any of the specialized master's degrees in various sub-domains, such as dyslexia, attention-deficit, etc.Master online special education degree courses will last upwards of one year, and might involve significant on-the-job training under an experienced special educator. Rosetta Stone Most states also require that aspiring teachers pass a licensure test, before starting their career.Why Special Education?On an average, teachers in this field don't earn much more than regular teachers. On the other hand, the job responsibilities of these teachers are more demanding - they can even include defending oneself and the school's program in court, if dissatisfied parents of challenged students opt for litigation, as has happened numerous times in various states!Still, about 450,000 educators have opted for and currently work as special education teachers in the country. What must be the attraction?Teachers in this field are very unlikely to encounter unemployment in the short-term or long-term. But that alone can't be the lure to enter this profession, where sheer hard work, difficult coordination between many, and uncertain outcomes from the part of students, make life stressful.The answer can, hence, be only that there are hundreds of thousands of teachers out there who want to make a genuine difference to the lives of these challenged students. And it is indeed a huge difference. According to estimates, four in five challenged students used to be excluded from the US education system, as near as three decades back. Official figures, tabulated around 1975, put this at 1 million students, who missed the bus.Why Master Special Education Degree?Teachers in this specialty are still in significant short supply. Because of this, some states have still not made it mandatory for them to have a master's degree. In such states, bachelor's degree holders appear for professional licensure exams and work as special education teachers.However, more and more states are opting for a master's degree as the minimum qualification, for a simple reason.

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