MA in Special Education

Prepare to teach, advocate, supervise or plan programs for adults and children with disabilities and special abilities across a variety of fields. Choose from three specializations to identify the right path for your career.

Choose Your Specialization

Select one academic specialization offered 100% online.

Teacher working with student in classroom

Applied Behavior Analysis

Interested in working with people who need assistance to improve their communication, social and adaptive skills? Prepare to provide evidence-based services in applied behavior analysis in clinical, school and home settings. Courses in this specialization include:

Become grounded in the basic behavioral principles and techniques needed to successfully complete effective Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA), function-based interventions, and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP). You will complete an FBA, develop an intervention based on the results, and design a BIP.

Gain a theoretical base and practical approach to the study of special needs of students with language and cultural differences; basic premises of bilingual special education and the interface of the two fields.

Address environmental factors that affect student behavior and continues to develop competency in FBAs, function-based interventions, and effective BIPs. Complete a second FBA, develop and test a function-based intervention, complete a BIP, implement and monitor the intervention, and make data-based decisions about whether to continue or revise the intervention based on their data.

Sign language teacher working with student in classroom

Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Earn your MA, your Arizona teacher of deaf/hard of hearing certification and your national certification from the Council on the Education of the Deaf (CED), all in one place. Graduates have gone on to teach D/HH students as either itinerant, resource room or self-contained classroom teachers. Courses in this specialization include:

Explore current issues in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, specifically the educational, social-emotional and cognitive implications of childhood hearing loss.

Investigate methods of assessing, developing and teaching reading and writing skills for DHH children and youth.

Build your understanding of audiology concepts and practices necessary to support communication and access to learning for DHH children and youth.