Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Master of Arts
Quick Facts
TOP 60
Best Online Master's
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- U.S. News & World Report, 2024
100%job placement
within 6 months*
*for employment-seeking graduates
Get certified to teach in a growing field. Teachers with a high-quality certification in working with deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) students are in high demand.
Earn your MA in Special Education, 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.
You will build the skills to work in a wide range of classroom settings with coursework including language and literacy assessment and intervention, instructional methods and strategies, audiology, speech and language development, cultural diversity and research. Focus on addressing the needs of students within public school settings through communication and literacy development and put your learning into practice through a practicum and a final full-time teaching internship.
Graduates have gone on to teach D/HH students as either itinerant, resource room or self-contained classroom teachers. Itinerant teachers travel from school to school to provide on-site services and support, while resource room teachers have D/HH classrooms on general education campuses and self-contained classroom teachers typically work at center schools for the deaf or in public school programs.
Eligibility: This program is designed for applicants holding a bachelor’s or master’s degree from an accredited college or university in education or a related field with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Eligible applicants should have experience with special needs and/or D/HH students.
*Residents of some U.S. Territories may not be eligible. Please see our Eligibility & State Authorization page for more information.
The curriculum for this program includes:
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.
Outcomes
Skills
Earning your Master of Arts in Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing will build core skills, including:
- Language acquisition & development
- Consequences of language deprivation
- Birth to three services
- Early intervention
- Special education eligibility & placement
- Language & literacy assessment
- Individualized education programs
- Specialized literacy instruction
- Collaboration & consultation
- Communication access
- PK-12th grade services: Instructional strategy
- PK-12th grade services: managing the learning environment
Potential Career Paths
Graduates of the MA in Special Education:Deaf and Hard of Hearing program will be prepared to pursue the following careers: