Post-Master’s Certificate
in Leadership in
Special Education

As the first course in this specialization, the focus here goes beyond individual students and classrooms to a programmatic level that includes entire schools or districts. Another focus includes educational equity, social justice, inclusion, and ethical nuances within the context of special education programs. You’ll also consider teacher retention and the implications of high-and-low-incidence disabilities on special education program planning and implementation. Throughout the course, you’ll cultivate communication skills, particularly around conflict management and collaboration.

Here you’ll learn how to collect, analyze, interpret, and use individual and aggregated student data in order to monitor student progress and improve special education programs. You’ll also consider historical perspectives, different techniques, and coding systems for students who use a behavior plan. Throughout the course, you’ll prioritize considerations for equity, fairness, and bias in the collection, analysis, interpretation, and utilization of student data.

The areas of finance, law, and leadership are deep topics in special education. This course touches on each one at a higher level. You’ll explore the various funding models for special education programs and services, including legal considerations, service delivery models, and specific leadership scenarios and reporting obligations. Throughout the course, you’ll consider the role of leadership in cultivating culturally responsive relationships with all stakeholders to ensure equity and fairness.

This course focuses on implementation of special education programs at school and district levels for students with intellectual and specific learning disabilities (SLDs). You’ll investigate necessary support, service delivery models, and quality assurance approaches, and you’ll synthesize research for evidence-based practices, including strategies for promoting equity, inclusion, and social justice. While some of the concepts here will apply to other categories of disability, this course concentrates specifically on intellectual and specific learning disabilities.

This course focuses on implementation of special education programs at school and district levels for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. You’ll investigate necessary supports, service delivery models, and quality assurance approaches, and you’ll synthesize research for evidence-based practices, including strategies for promoting equity, inclusion, and social justice. While some of the concepts here apply to other categories of disability, this course uses the lens of emotional and behavioral disorders.

In this final course of the specialization, you’ll synthesize your work across all courses into a capstone project of your own design. This project will integrate theory and practice within a specific topic of your choosing related to special education programs at the school or district levels. As you prepare your project, you’ll evaluate the impacts of current trends, technologies, and issues of bias, fairness, and social justice. Your project will reflect not only your knowledge and skills in relation to the course learning outcomes, but also your overall preparedness to influence special education programs at the school or district levels.