Master of Education in Special Education with a Concentration in Learning and Behavioral Disorders online

This advanced graduate course emphasizes the critical examination of the legal and ethical framework governing special education. It moves beyond traditional legal compliance by employing an equity-focused, rights-affirming lens to analyze how historical and systemic factors, including racism, colonialism, and ableism, have shaped the development and implementation of laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504.

This course interrogates how historical and structural forces shape special education and prepares educators to design culturally sustaining, rights-affirming practice. Using asset-based theories including culturally sustaining pedagogy and intersectionality and evidence-based practices, candidates will reflect on personal and institutional biases that perpetuate systemic inequities, critique and redesign curriculum, teaming, and legal artifacts to expand access, participation, and progress for multilingual and marginalized learners.

This is an advanced graduate course emphasizing critical analysis of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) and leadership in data-based decision making. Candidates evaluate assessment quality and bias, build defensible progress-monitoring systems and decision rules, apply Data-Based Individualization (DBI), link data to IEP/BIP goals and services, communicate decisions through family-centered artifacts, and use ongoing CBM/behavior data to judge impact.

This is an advanced graduate course on applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to plan, deliver, and evaluate inclusive instruction across P–12. Candidates identify barriers, design multiple means of engagement/representation/action & expression, ensure accessibility (AEM/WCAG), align evidence with construct validity, coordinate inclusive delivery (e.g., co-teaching, HLPs), and run small improvement cycles centered on equity and measurable progress.

This advanced graduate course centers on a critique of traditional literacy assessment, intervention, and program design. It moves beyond compliance to explore specialized, evidence-based literacy practices through a practice-based access and equity lens. The course emphasizes critically deconstructing the historical and cultural bias embedded in diagnostic tools and curricula to ensure linguistically and culturally sustaining praxis.

This advanced course centers on an equity-focused, rights-affirming critique of traditional behavioral systems and supports. It examines how practices like Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and tiered systems such as PBIS must be adapted to dismantle, rather than reinforce, systemic inequities. The emphasis is on using a strengths-based approach to understand behavior as communication and proactively creating equitable access and self-determination.

This advanced graduate course provides a critical examination of the current issues and foundational biases defining the instruction, assessment, and policy surrounding Learning (LD) and Behavioral (BD) Disabilities. Students will engage in scholarly inquiry to challenge the neutrality of models like MTSS/RTI and the legal standards governing specialized academic instruction (SAI). A major emphasis is placed on developing leadership skills to improve programs and policies by critically evaluating current research on evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for their cultural and linguistic bias and applying advanced diagnostic practices to dismantle disproportionality. Through intensive writing and analysis, students will apply knowledge of legal frameworks and ethical standards to advocate for equitable identification, culturally sustaining instruction, and appropriate resource allocation for students with LD/BD.