About the program
Portland State University’s College of Education is responding to the need for more licensed special education teachers by offering a 39-credit special education endorsement program that is designed for Oregon teachers with general education licenses. If you are an elementary or secondary teacher, you can add this AddSPED endorsement to your license. Gain tools to adapt and teach subject areas to students with disabilities. Learn effective instructional techniques from experienced PSU faculty and seasoned community professionals who will guide and mentor you.
The AddSPED program will prepare you to teach a wide range of students, including students aged 3-21 who have significant disabilities requiring extensive supports. It is offered part-time across six consecutive terms, beginning winter term of the year you are admitted and ending spring term of your second year. Coursework is delivered using a hybrid model. Remote online synchronous meetings are held every other Saturday (full day) during the academic term. During off-campus weeks, you will attend synchronous online meetings and complete asynchronous online content. Gain practical hands-on knowledge through two supervised field experiences in special education settings.
Vision and Mission
The Special Education Department at Portland State University is dedicated to preparing and supporting professionals to improve the educational outcomes and quality of life for all learners. To achieve our vision, the Special Education programs strive to increase the use of evidence-based practices by preparing exemplary educators, collaborating with schools, building community partnerships, and conducting and disseminating research.
Beliefs
- All children can learn
- Educators have a fundamental responsibility for children's learning and a duty to advocate for students and their families
- Diverse, inclusive, and equitable environments improve educational opportunities and quality of life for all learners
- Families have valuable knowledge about their children and are essential partners in education
- Collaboration among schools, families, and communities improves educational outcomes
- Preparing high quality teachers requires blending effective instruction at PSU with successful school partnerships
- Prevention and systemic early intervention are essential for maximizing student success and for preventing failure amount student groups as well as for individual students
- Support systems and the provision of culturally responsive instructional practices should be used to address the unique needs of diverse learners and to enhance the recruitment of a diverse educational workforce
- Research and evidence-based practices increase the effectiveness of educators' work
- Collection and thoughtful data analysis should drive educational decision-making about instruction and support
Critical Concepts in Special Education
- Scaffolding Instruction: Scaffolding enables a learner to perform a skill or carry out a task that would be beyond his or her unassisted efforts. Scaffolding encompasses many strategies and should be based on assessment of the learner’s current performance. It is a flexible, temporary support designed to be gradually removed as performance improves.
- Collaboration and Teaming: A dynamic process of effective communication and mutual effort across stakeholders (e.g. learners, families, school personnel, community members) involving shared resources, collaborative decision making, and joint accountability to achieve meaningful outcomes.
- Individualization: A systematic and collaborative process to develop and adapt environments, supports, and instruction to individual needs. Individual considerations include the strengths, cultural, and family contexts, preferences, and priorities of the learner and family.
- Data-Based Decision Making: Continuous, purposeful process of collecting, interpreting, presenting, and using data to inform actions that support positive educational outcomes. Data-based decision making considers the learner’s progress within the contexts of instruction, curriculum, and environment.
- Inclusion and Diversity: Inclusion embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure the right of every learner and family to full membership in classrooms, schools, and communities. Supports enable all learners to be engaged participants in social, academic, and extracurricular activities.
- Leadership and Advocacy: Advocacy and leadership are guided by research and professional standards with a robust understanding of context, including perspectives across stakeholders. Leaders and advocates actively engage a range of strategies to facilitate effective practices, systems, and policies to support learners outcomes for an individual or across learners.
Our graduates
AddSPED graduates are well-prepared to work with a wide range of students in a variety of instructional settings. Possible roles include both teachers and alternative careers for teachers: self-contained special education classroom teachers, learning specialists, resource room teachers, inclusive/co-teaching roles, and transition specialists.
Graduates of the AddSPED endorsement program are eligible to add an endorsement in special education to their Oregon preliminary or professional license. This endorsement will enable you to teach PreK–12 students who have a wide range of disabilities. Possible roles include both teachers and alternative careers for teachers: self-contained special education classroom teachers, learning specialists, resource room teachers, inclusive/co-teaching roles, and transition specialists.
Why PSU?
PSU’s AddSPED endorsement program is part of the largest Department of Special Education in Oregon. The AddSPED program is accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP) and the state’s Teacher Standards and Practices Commission. Our program welcomes collaboration and values community-based partnerships to support children, youth, families, school districts, and agencies throughout the state. Our committed faculty and their strong partnerships with community agencies help you explore a wide range of expertise in special education. This includes instructional methods, autism, positive behavior supports, inclusion, assessment, early intervention/early childhood, transition to adulthood, and visual impairments. PSU is also the public research university for the Portland metro area. The faculty in the Special Educator License program are intensely involved in improving special education services and instruction in Oregon and the nation through developing research-based curricula and teaching methods, setting up model classrooms and programs, and building collaborative relationships within schools and between schools and the community that improve education for students with and without disabilities.