Special education faculty awarded grant for recruitment of teachers

July 25, 2022

Georgia Southern University special education faculty were awarded funding to pursue nontraditional avenues for recruiting special education teachers into initial certification programs from the Georgia CEEDAR State Leadership Team (SLT) Recruit and Retain Projects Competition.

The team, including the College of Education’s Eric Landers, Ph.D., Cynthia Massey, Ph.D., Stephanie Devine, Ph.D., Kathryn Haughney, Ph.D., Caitlin Criss, Ph.D., and Karin Fisher, Ph.D., received $23,430 to pursue a plan including digital advertising and recruitment as well as two new Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s (ABM) programs–one partnering with the University’s fully online Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) program and a second program for current special education undergraduates to earn an advanced degree in the discipline. 

“Creating ABM options for prospective teachers provides a career path that results in a master’s degree and a higher salary than those without,” explained Landers. “Through this route, students will save both time and money towards a degree in this field.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 15% of students with interdisciplinary degrees enter educational instruction and library occupations and that number is expected to grow over the next 10 years. To address a need for nontraditional students such as paraprofessionals in the education field, an ABM program bridging the online BIS degree and the online Master of Arts in Teaching degree, is being proposed at the University. If approved, this degree path will be the first fully online undergraduate to graduate program for special educators at Georgia Southern.

The second accelerated program has already been approved and now allows current special education undergraduate students to take courses (up to nine credit hours) in their junior and senior years that will transfer as credit in the University’s M.Ed. in Special Education program.

“Students completing this track will complete both the initial and an advanced teaching certificate in special education in fewer hours than if they had done the programs separately and allowing them to enter the field at a higher salary,” said Landers. 

All efforts from the special education team aim to help address the state and national shortage of certified teachers, specifically in special education which has recently been named one of the three highest need subject areas by the Georgia Department of Education.

“The void clearly impacts states’ abilities to meet the needs of students with disabilities, as research shows that students with disabilities have greater academic success when supported by teachers certified in special education,” explained Fisher. “As educators of and advocates for special education, we will continue to strive to help meet the needs of students with disabilities in our state and nation in any way that we can.”