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.

Mild to Moderate Disabilities

Prepare to teach students with diverse learning needs while earning your MA and Arizona K-12 certification in Mild to Moderate Disabilities. Build skills in assessment, IEP development, behavior support and inclusive instruction, with embedded fieldwork you can complete in your local community. Graduates are equipped for high-demand roles in special education or to support inclusive practices in general education classrooms. Courses in this specialization include:

Use of behavior principles to positively support individuals with disabilities, especially those with moderate and severe disabilities. Graduate-level requirements include in-depth paper(s) on aspects of current issues in the field.

This course focuses on the systematic assessment and instruction of mathematics skills for students with disabilities. Topics include assessment, instructional planning, curriculum modification, and the diagnosis and remediation of persistent error patterns. The course also examines brain functions related to mathematical thinking and the cognitive profiles of learners with math disabilities. Emphasis is placed on using data to inform instruction, designing interventions that address individual learning needs, and evaluating student progress to promote meaningful and lasting mathematical understanding

This 3-unit course covers reading instruction, including assessments, instructional practices, and interventions to improve student reading proficiency for struggling readers, including students with the characteristics of dyslexia.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the science of reading, the interdisciplinary body of research from cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and education that explains how individuals learn to read and what instructional practices best support literacy development. Grounded in evidence-based findings, students will examine the essential components of reading and spelling, including phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, while also considering language development, orthographic mapping, and the role of background knowledge.