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Fast Facts

• The newly formed Department of Special Education and Literacy Studies is completing its first year as a unit, having emerged during the College of Education’s reorganization during 2005-2006.

• The doctoral program in special education was approved as a degree in 1976 – the first doctoral program established at WMU.

• The undergraduate baccalaureate degree in special education was one of the first such programs in the country.

• Undergraduate students majoring in special education select one of two endorsement options: (a) the Emotional Impairment (EI)/Learning Disability (LD), K-12 program or (b) the Cognitive Impairment (CI)/Learning Disability (LD), K-12 program.

• The program admits up to 60 students each year using a cohort model, through which students proceed in a defined sequence of courses.

• The master’s degree in the special education program (SPED) includes three options: master teacher, clinical teacher, and administration.

• The Literacy Studies unit begins in 2007-2008 with a newly approved Master of Arts in Literacy Studies (LSTM) degree.

• Both the special education and literacy studies units provide significant instruction for elementary and secondary education majors.Special education provides instruction regarding teaching students with disabilities in elementary and secondary settings, and well as introduction to special education courses for counseling, speech pathology, and music therapy majors.

• The literacy faculty members provide the major methods and literacy content courses for all undergraduate education majors, as well as core courses in the education master’s curriculum.