Top Special Education Schools
- Grand Canyon University Click for Recommended Degree Program
- Western Governors Online Click for Recommended Degree Program
- Walden University Click for Recommended Degree Program
Masters in Special Education
Your education in teaching special needs children has taken you to a place in your career where you can no longer move up the ladder; now it is time that you further your education to ensure you the best possible salary as well as the top position in the educational institution where you work. Your Masters in special education online will allow you to boost your salary up to around $70,000 per year, as opposed to those who hold a general Master’s degree in teaching when the highest salary available is only $50,000 per year. The field of special education is a highly specialized field because of the various needs of students who are physically disabled or have learning disabilities. With your Masters in special education online, you will be qualified to not only teach special education students, but you will also be qualified to be an administrator of special education kids, implementing and managing the IEP’s and determining if a child needs a different plan in place as well as notifying the parents if the child may need additional testing for another disorder. There are a few specialized concentrations that you may study with your Masters in special education degree including foundations of special education as well as research fundamentals and instructional design.
Fundamentals of Special Education
The fundamentals of special education concentration for your Masters will give you a good foundation of the history of special education, where learning disabilities came from, how disabilities have been treated in the past, both medically and socially and how to identify these disabilities. In addition, throughout your Masters in special education, you will also gain knowledge in how to recognize various characteristics of disabilities so you can effectively relate to parents what the child may need, whether it is a variation of the IEP or more diagnostic testing. You will also learn how to track the needs of the special education child from school to social life and on up to college as well. This degree program is generally 40 credit hours, or about two years, depending on where you decide to study. If you choose to earn your Masters in special education through one of the many top online universities, you can benefit from the distance learning program where there are usually accelerated Masters in special education online programs available. With your online Masters program, you can sometimes earn your degree in about a year and a half.
Research Fundamentals
The research fundamentals concentration of the Masters in special education focuses more on researching the disabilities of special needs children. These research practices can help the child to become more independent and have more success when it comes to their educational career. Without research being performed frequently, many children can be lost in the public system because their disabilities have not been properly diagnosed. In this concentration, you will go through rigorous training in all aspects of special education research and how to determine questions to ask and how to measure these questions. In addition, you will learn how to collect the research data and how to understand the concepts which are involved in the research. Some programs require you to also submit a research proposal to prove that you are ready for graduation. But the hard work will be well worth the effort, so start today!
