Online Reading Specialist Post-Baccalaureate Certification

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Reading Specialist

Reading Specialist Certification

Help individuals overcome challenges in literacy while you enhance your own career.

If you’re a certified K-12 teacher, take the next step in your career by enrolling in the Global Online Reading Specialist Post-Baccalaureate Certification. You can rest assured that PennWest will support you every step of the way. You may continue to work and grow professionally while learning to develop and implement evidence-based literacy practices and interventions in the classroom.

Your online classes will be led by our accomplished faculty – all recognized for their commitment to student success and creating a personal and engaging academic environment. You’ll find they will instruct, guide and inspire you to achieve and lead.

Two three-credit practicums are embedded in the core literacy program. Upon completion of your PRAXIS exam and successfully fulfilling this program, you will be ready for certification as a Reading Specialist.

It is your responsibility to register for the Reading Specialist PRAXIS exam and to apply for Reading Specialist Certification.

If you plan to work outside of the Commonwealth of PA, please check the certification requirements for your state to ensure your state's requirements are met.

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Nationally Ranked

U.S. News & World Report consistently calls PennWest’s Global Online graduate programs among the best in the nation.

Accreditation Matters

Fully accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Preparing you to provide culturally and linguistically responsive literacy instruction.

Fast Facts

100% Online

PennWest’s Reading Specialist Post-Baccalaureate certification gives you the flexibility you need to complete this program at your own pace, on your own time.

Credits:

21 (30 for the M. Ed. In Reading)

Format:

100% online

Contact:

Graduate Admissions
gradadmissions@pennwest.edu
724-938-4187

Careers and Salaries

What Can I Do with This Certificate?

In today’s society, there’s a growing need for qualified Reading Specialists who understand how to use the science of reading, evidence-based assessments and interventions to improve instructional practices. As a Reading Specialist, you may:

  • Work alongside regular or special education teachers to support students with certain learning differences such as dyslexia or dysgraphia.
  • Serve as an interventionalist in the classroom, working with individual students or small groups of students.
  • Further support students in your regular education classroom that are challenged with literacy skills and strategies.
  • Develop assessments and interventions appropriate for students from diverse cultural, social or linguistic backgrounds.
  • Serve as a coach or mentor for other teachers.
  • Take on a leadership role in your school or school district’s development of curricula.

Graduate Outcomes

  • Demonstrate knowledge of and apply major theoretical, conceptual, historical, and culturally and linguistically relevant evidence-based foundations of literacy (including components of reading, writing development, writing processes and foundational skills) and language (including language acquisition, structure of language, conventions of standard English, vocabulary acquisition and use, speaking, listening, viewing, visually representing) along with an understanding of how to integrate the new literacies and digital learning to influence literacy development across the grades and in the academic disciplines to effectively teach diverse learners.
  • Use foundational knowledge to select, design, critique, adapt, evaluate, and implement scientifically and evidence-based, literacy curricula, instructional strategies, supplemental and intervention approaches, and programs (components of a comprehensive, aligned, and integrated literacy curriculum) that are responsive to social, cultural, cognitive, and linguistic diversity, to meet the needs of all learners in various settings, especially those who experience difficulty with literacy.
  • Select, utilize, analyze, and interpret a variety of valid, reliable, fair, and appropriate assessments aligned with current research to screen, diagnose, and to comprehensively monitor and measure the literacy achievement of diverse learners  across multiple field-based experiences to implement data-driven and evidence-based literacy instruction and interventions.
  • Engage in multiple field-based experiences in which you work with individual and small groups of students, and coach peers and experienced colleagues at various grade levels, as you assess students’ literacy achievement, develop literacy intervention plans, implement instructional practices, create supportive literacy learning environments, and assess impact on student learning through data- and evidence-based instructional strategies designed to meet the developmental needs of diverse learners.

Admissions Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree transcript from a regionally accredited institution
  • Cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or greater
  • Copy of teaching certification

Conditional Admission Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution
  • Cumulative undergraduate GPA below 3.0 will be reviewed for a decision
  • Copy of teaching certification

The Power of PennWest

PennWest’s three campuses, California, Clarion and Edinboro universities, have been delivering award-winning online programs for more than 20 years. You’ll graduate with a degree from Pennsylvania Western University, completely supported by the expertise and community of learners on our brick-and-mortar campuses.

Flexible. Affordable.
Designed to Meet Your needs.
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