Family & Community Special Communities
Special Education

Massachusetts Licensure Academy

Introduction

There is a significant shortage of educators who are qualified to teach students with moderate disabilities (SwD) and students who are English language learners (ELL). To address this need, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education issues waivers to teachers who are currently working as special educators without a license in special education, or as teachers of English as a second language (ESL) without a license in ESL.

The Massachusetts Licensure Academy (MLA) has been created by the Special Education Planning and Policy Development Office and the Office of English Language Acquisition and Academic Achievement of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to assist teachers with waivers earn licensure. The MLA provides graduate-level courses that address the competencies for the preliminary licensure of Teacher of Students with Moderate Disabilities, and the content information included in the ESL/MTEL. Increasing the numbers of qualified teachers for students with disabilities and students who are ELL not only meets the goal of having all students instructed by effective and highly qualified teachers, but also improves the outcomes for students with disabilities and students who are ELL.

MLA courses are delivered through the Massachusetts Online Network for Education (MassONE). This forum contains several components including a virtual hard drive, discussion boards, personal storage space, survey tools, and email communication. Course providers facilitate the online discussion board as well as provide feedback to individual participants on course projects.

General Course Information

All the MLA courses will include at least one face-to-face (f2f) meeting in addition to online discussions. Participants will be notified of the face-to-face meeting time once they are enrolled in the course.

Courses will be taught using the Moodle online learning platform. Some technical assistance will be provided, but participants are expected to have basic understanding of the Internet and basic computer knowledge and skills. Participants must also have regular access to the Internet. The courses are asynchronous, and content is delivered through assignments, weekly readings and an online discussion board. Participants are expected to regularly attend class by logging into MassONE and interacting with the course instructor and their peers (posting questions, thoughts, assignments, etc.). As these are graduate level courses, participants should expect to spend 6-9 hours per week completing coursework.

Participants will receive 67.5 PDPs upon course completion and will also have the option to purchase graduate level credits through each of the partnering institutions of higher education. For course SE1, creadits will be available through Fitchburg State University, and for courses ELL1 and ELL2, credits will be available through University of Massachusetts - Boston.

Summer 2012 Courses

  

SE1: Federal and State Laws, Educational Terminology and the Role of Other Agencies Pertaining to the Education of Students with IEPs. Course runs from June 25th to August 24th with one face-to-face session on July 28th. Final syllabus will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

  

ELL1: Second Language Acquisition. Course syllabus subject to revision at beginning of class.

ELL2: Methods and Approaches to English Language Teaching. Course syllabus subject to revision at beginning of class.

Eligibility/Criteria for Selection

• Applicant has passed the Communication and Literacy MTEL,
• Applicant has applied to the Department for a license in SwD or ESL,
• Applicant is the teacher on record for the license for which (s)he has made application,
• Applicant's district has received a waiver for the applicant (except charter school districts),
• Completeness and quality of online application.

How to Apply

1. Complete an online course application at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/908106/MLA-Summer-2012-Course-Registration.
2. Fax or mail a completed District Assurance Statement    to Stephanie Scerra for ELL courses at 781-338-3395 or to Mary-Ellen Efferen for SE courses at 781-338-3371 or by mail at 75 Pleasant St. Malden, MA 02148
3. Provide a MassONE username: A MassONE account is required for acceptance into MLA. MassONE administrator contact information can be found at http://massone.mass.edu/teachers/register.html. If you already have a MassONE account, and need to access your username or reset your password please go to: https://massone.doemass.org/passreset/. Please Note: All Boston Public School teachers have access to MassONE through their MyBPS account only.

All parts of the MLA application (online application, district assurance statement, and MassONE username) are due Friday, June 08, 2012.

Courses are tentatively scheduled to begin the end of June, 2012. Participants who are accepted will be notified at least one week prior to the start of their course. Eligible applicants who are unable to be enrolled due to space constraints will be placed on a waiting list and notified. Wait listed applicants may be accepted as late as the week of June 18, 2012.

If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Scerra at sscerra@doe.mass.edu" or 781-338-3574 regarding ELL courses. For SE course, please contact Mary-Ellen Efferen at mefferen@doe.mass.edu or 781-338-3373.