The Integrated Elementary/Special Education Program is a four-year undergraduate teacher preparation program offered through the Department of Educational Specialties in the College of Education, University of Nevada, Reno. This program enables you to earn two teaching licenses with one degree!
Upon completion of the program, you will be eligible for a Nevada Teaching License in Elementary Education (K-8) and a Generalist Endorsement in Special Education (K-12) to teach students with mild to moderate disabilties. Read the Top Ten Reasons why you should be a major in the integrated program!
The integrated program is organized around blocks of courses that teacher candidates complete each semester. The blocks have been given names that signify the emphasis of the block and the growing knowledge and skills of the teacher candidates. Detailed information about each block, as well as information about admission to the program, can be found through the links in the navigation area at the left.
The foundation of the program rests on several beliefs:
- Students with disabilities and typically-developing students are more alike than they are different.
- Student abilities are on a continuum. Teachers should have a repertoire of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable them to be effective with students who fall all along the ability continuum.
- Both general education and special education teacher candidates benefit from a range of pre-service experiences that include work with students of varying backgrounds, language characteristics, and disabilities.
- Inclusive, democratic classrooms are the best environments in which to educate students with and without disabilities.
- Candidates in our program have a love of learning and a develop strong fund of knowledge related to teaching and student learning. Through the program they grow to become reflective practitioners who value multiculturalism and diversity.
Once admitted to the program, our teacher candidates enter a cohort of other candidates at the same point in the program. Each semester a block of 3-5 courses is taken by all in the cohort. The block must be completed in its entirety before candidates may move to the next block. Faculty in each block collaborate in planning and, in some cases, co-teaching of their courses. Each block has an accompanying supervised practicum/seminar in which candidates spend a significant time period in a school each week.
The last semester is the Supervised Internship in which the pre-service assume the role of an elementary and a special education teacher during a 20-week full-time experience in a school.
Questions about the Integrated Elementary/Special Education Program can be directed to Christine Cheney, Chair, Department of Educational Specialties at cheney@unr.edu.
Page last updated: May 10, 2007