Special Ed Alternate Route to Certification: The Right Resources at the Right Time

School districts throughout Maine continue to cope with a severe shortage of special educators. The SPARC program is designed to help individuals and districts meet this challenge in effective and efficient ways: on-line courses taught by experience special education faculty and professionals.

SPARC courses are open to all practicing special ed educators holding a baccalaureate degree. There is no need to apply for admission to UMF.  SCROLL DOWN FOR A SCHEDULE OF COURSES.

WHICH 24? Maine requires 24 credits of coursework for special education 282 certification. Leaders in the special education field have designed this SPARC program to address the specific skills and knowledge they believe a special educator needs to thrive and flourish. Interested individuals may take eight courses or only selected ones, depending on how many credits they need to reach the required 24 credits. Interested candidates should also check with the Maine Department of Education Certification Office for additional requirements for Special Education 282 certification beyond coursework. Or click on Part II of Chapter 115 found at the following link http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/rules/05/chaps05.htm to access Requirements for Specific Certificates and Endorsements for additional requirements.

WHY A PROGRAM? WHY NOT JUST COURSES? Some individuals will choose merely to accumulate the 24 credits needed for certification. SPARC is designed for those who are looking for cohesion and deeper application. However, individuals who have acquired some of the 24 required credits in other ways will be welcomed into SPARC. The SPARC program’s foundation is rooted in one major principle:

• The credits need to be focused on specific sets of skills and bodies of knowledge.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? SPARC courses are open to in-service educators, including those working in Birth to Age 5 intervention settings and Ed Techs holding a baccalaureate degree. Participants must have access to students with special needs in order to complete assignments for courses.

WHAT ARE THE COURSES? WHAT IS THE CONTENT? SPARC offers twelve (12) on-line courses (3 graduate credits each) on a rotating schedule. Most courses are appropriate for pre-K through grade 12 teachers; all but SED 503 and SED 508 are also appropriate for Birth to School Age 5 teachers; modifications of assignments will be made based on the grade level each participant teaches. Following is the schedule of courses:

Summer Term 2013

SED 509 Understanding and Applying Maine’s Special Education Rules and Regulations.

SED 513 Early Childhood Speech and Language: Development, Disorders and Interventions.

SED 517 Professional Ethics, Cultural Competence, and Evidence-based Practices in Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education.

SED 518 Special Education Law. This course is recommended for Administrators, Special Ed Directors, and Regular Classroom Teachers. MDOE will not accept both this course AND SED 509 Understanding and Applying Maine’s Special Education Rules and Regulations towards your 282 Teacher of Children with Disabilities endorsement. Only one or the other of the two courses (3 credits) will be accepted for the endorsement.

Registration

Click on this link for a Course Registration form for the  four (4) Summer 2013 three (3)-credit graduate courses listed above.

MaineStreet Self-registration: If you have taken a graduate level course recently through UMF’s Educational Outreach Office and have an active MaineStreet account, you should be able to self-register through MaineStreet for graduate level courses. Click here for instructions on self-registering through MaineStreet.

Fall Semester 2013

SED 504 Collaborative Partnerships Among Individuals With Disabilities, Families and Professionals.

SED 506 Assessment in Special Education.

SED 508 Classroom and Behavior Management of Students with Disabilities.

SED 514 Literacy Development for All Students.

Spring Semester 2014

SED 503 Transition for Youth with Disabilities: From High School to Adult Life.

SED 505 Achieving High Standards with Universal Design and Assistive Technology.

SED 507 Curriculum and Instructional Programming for Students with Disabilities.

SED 515 Early Intervention: Working with Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and Their Families.

SED 516 Advanced Topics in Curriculum and Program Design: Mild to Moderate Disabilities.

Summer Term 2014

SED  511 Mathematics Instruction for Students with Disabilities.

SPONSORS

The UMF Office of Educational Outreach
The UMF Special Education Faculty