Special Education

Candidates who succeed in special education demonstrate:

• a history of academic success
• the ability to collaborate with others, including those from diverse populations
• leadership characteristics
• responsible, caring, fair, honest and ethical behavior
• a commitment to social justice and a diverse society
• a history of good critical thinking and problem solving
• enthusiasm for working with children and adults with disabilities
• a commitment to equity and the betterment of individuals with disabilities

In general, graduates of the special education masters degree program work as intervention specialists (teachers) in various K-12 education settings, including schools, hospitals, vocational training facilities and other institutions providing educational services for individuals with disabilities. Some graduates of the special education program work as advocates and/or case managers for social agencies.

All academic advising is conducted by program representatives that will work with each individual student to develop an appropriate academic plan according the students interests. Students have the option to complete this program in a part time or full time format.

Our SPED-MED program pairs with the following graduate certificates and/or endorsements:

• PreK-12 Reading Instruction Endorsement
• Autism Spectrum Disorders Graduate Certificate
• Special Education Leadership Graduate Certificate
• Transition to Work Endorsement

All students must complete a separate admission application and complete all necessary coursework to have the certificate or endorsement added to their official transcript.

Before a candidate can graduate, he or she must meet the following requirements:

1. Be registered for at least one credit in their program in the academic year, after having met minimum degree course requirements to be considered a graduate candidate throughout the academic year.
2. Posting of satisfactory grades for the term of graduation.
3. Satisfactory completion of all applicable College and program requirements is provided by the major advisor filling out the Checklist for Completion of College/Departmental Requirements for Graduation and sending it to the Graduate School.
4. The final requirement for graduation is the completion of a master’s research project. Specifically, the Candidate must complete a final research project as the culminating experience for the master’s program. The project is completed as part of the Master’s Project Guidance course. Below is a description of the master’s project and the project guidance courses.

Master’s Project Guidance is an online seminar course completed during a Candidate’s final year of the program. These courses facilitate participants’ development of skills related to critical self-reflection as individuals and as professional educators. The purpose is to support candidates in generating the first portion of a research validated (evidence-based) project that supports the academic, life-skill, occupational, and/or social/emotional development of students. The design and implementation of the master’s project is one of the main outcomes of the course, including a well organized literature review reporting on the current status of literature-based knowledge about a topic. Candidates implement and collect data on the evidence-based practices in a classroom or a service-delivery context. Candidates build the necessary skills to conduct an applied evidence-based Master’s project.

On a case-by-case basis, a student may petition to have graduate credit from an accredited college or university counted as the equivalent of another course in the curriculum and accepted as transfer credit. In such cases, a student will have to supply a course syllabus to ensure that the content in the course taken at another university is equivalent to the content of the course in the M.Ed. curriculum. A course with a similar name or the same name as a course offered at the University of Cincinnati does not necessarily mean that the content of the course is similar enough to accept it as transfer credit to our program.

Students may transfer up to 9 hours of graduate credit in Education courses from an accredited college or university. Graduate courses outside of education will not be accepted.  Courses taken outside an accredited college or university—such as non-credit professional development—will not be accepted. Only courses with grades of B or higher will be considered for transfer. No credit is given for previous work history. Courses taken more than 7 years prior to a student’s entrance into the program will not be accepted as transfer credit.

International students are required to submit official TOEFL, TSE, and TWE scores for tests taken within the last seven years, prior to the application deadline for the term of the application. These scores must be submitted directly to the program office.

More information about these tests can be found here.