Multilingual Special Education, BAE

Department of Education Leadership and Inclusive Teaching, Woodring College of Education

116 credits

Introduction

There is a significant and growing need for educators trained to work with students who are eligible for both special education and multilingual development support/services; a major in Multilingual Special Education can uniquely position you to respond to this need. Inclusive Educators must have extensive knowledge in four major areas: they must understand the contexts of disability and typical development; they must know effective instruction and the impact on student learning; they must know general education content and the objectives of lessons they will teach; and, they must recognize and respond to the social, legal, and political environment in which they will work. Multilingual education requires extensive knowledge and skills in similar areas: educators must understand the cultural, linguistic, family, and community contexts of multilingual learners and how these relate to students’ learning in the classroom; they must know and be able to identify predictable stages of development in acquiring an additional language, and how these inform instructional design; they must be able to analyze the language demands of classroom materials; and they must possess skills in integrating content and language in instruction to support both comprehensibility and language development for multilingual learners. Training in the Multilingual Special Education Program includes critical work in each of these areas.The program includes coursework and extensive supervised practicum experiences in public schools. The program is rigorous and the expectations are high. However, the rewards are also high. This program will prepare you to be an excellent teacher in whatever position you eventually choose.

Inclusive education is a substantial and rewarding field with a projected hiring rate eclipsing that of other teaching endorsement areas. Graduates are actively recruited by school districts to work in a variety of special education and general education settings.Therefore, not only will prospective candidates become well-versed and knowledgeable educators, they will fill positions of great demand. Multilingual education and dual language programs are growing throughout Washington state and districts are in need of teachers who are highly trained in methods of integrating content (e.g., Inclusive education) and language teaching (e.g., Bilingual and English Language Learners). 

Why Consider a Multilingual Special Education major?

Are you a multilingual individual excited by the possibility of teaching content in more than one of your languages? Do you want to learn how to teach in ways that sustain the languages and cultures of your students? Are you interested in teaching in middle and/or high school dual language and bilingual programs? Are you passionate about serving Immigrant and refugee families and communities? 

How to Declare (Admission and Declaration Process):

We invite prospective candidates to contact us for more information about the program and for pre-application advising.

Before students may begin taking courses in education, they must be admitted to both Western Washington University as well as Woodring College of Education. Admission to our programs occurs once a year; Cohorts begin each summer. Program admission requirements include:

• Transferable A.A. degree from a Washington state community college, or satisfaction of Western’s General Education Requirements.
• Minimum grade point average of 2.75 overall or for the most recent 45 quarter credit hours.
• Meet the basic skills requirement. This may be met by: a) Taking the West-B exam, b) SAT scores, c) ACT scores. There is no minimum score requirement for admission. See the Woodring admissions website at wce.wwu.edu/admissions/basic-skills.
• English composition course, completed with a B- or better.
• Supported by a partner school district

Enrollment restrictions apply in all teacher education programs. Meeting the above criteria makes the applicant eligible for admission, but does not guarantee admission. Students who meet all criteria are further evaluated by the department to determine the most qualified applicants. Retention also requires maintenance of a 2.75 quarterly GPA for each quarter after admission.

Please send transcripts early for review to see if you qualify.

Grade Requirements

Students must earn a grade of C (2.0) or better in the Multilingual Elementary Education program and in all courses required for the endorsement.