$800,000 UF grant helps secondary teachers boost expertise in special ed, reading instruction

With $800,000 in new funding from the Florida Department of Education, the University of Florida College of Education is launching a program to help middle and high school teachers earn certification in special education and boost expertise in literacy instruction, especially for students with reading and learning disabilities.

Project PRESS, Preparing Reading Endorsed Secondary Special Educators, will provide practicing middle and high school teachers the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in special education with a reading endorsement. Professor Mary Brownell and Assistant Scholar Anne Bishop, both from the Department of Special Education, and Associate Professor Zhihui Fang, of the college’s School of Teaching and Learning, are the principal investigators.

Brownell’s department will recruit secondary teachers mainly from the 13 school districts in northeast Florida. Two groups of 20 teachers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds will participate on a two-year cycle. The teachers will complete 36 hours of course credits and related on-the-job experiences that lead to a master’s degree in special education with a reading endorsement and state certification.

“There has been a huge shortage of special education teachers for more than 30 years, especially those with reading expertise,” Brownell said.

Project PRESS features evidence-based teaching methods in both special education and reading education. It will help contribute to the supply of highly qualified middle and high school special education teachers and ensure that teachers have the skills and knowledge to meet the academic literacy needs of students with learning disabilities and those from culturally diverse backgrounds.

“Many special education teachers are prepared broadly, and we found that they were not sufficiently prepared to meet the literacy needs of their students,” Brownell said. “However, we are tightening up the type of preparation teachers typically receive to create a heavier focus on literacy for adolescents.”

Writer

Chan Tran, ctran@ufl.edu, (352) 392-0726, ext. 246