NCCU Receives Special Education Grant

North Carolina Central University's Department of Special Education recently received a four-year grant to help special education teachers meet the changing demands of their jobs.

Posted 7:41 p.m. Mar 10, 2007 — Updated 7:41 p.m. Mar 10, 2007

DURHAM, N.C. — North Carolina Central University's Department of Special Education recently received a four-year grant to help special education teachers meet the changing demands of their jobs.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded NCCU a total of $798,000, which will provide tuition, fees, and book award for students to complete a dual licensure program. Graduates of the program will earn their initial license and graduate degree in special education and a second license in regular education at the elementary, middle or secondary level.

Participants will spend one month in a cross-cultural experience working in a community with cultural or ethnic customs different than their own.

The curriculum will also be expanded to emphasize effective instructional strategies of peer tutoring and differentiated instruction, to assist participants in examining their own cultural identities, and to use culturally responsive practices.

New requirements from No Child Left Behind require special education teachers who are in resource settings, self-contained settings, special schools or residential setting to be dually licensed or highly qualified in the content areas that they teach.

With this grant, the Office of Special Education Programs and NCCU seek to increase the number of special education teachers from underrepresented populations and teachers prepared to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students.

For more information on this project or to apply for the grant, contact Ellen Bacon, a professor in the special ed department and principal investigator of the grant, at (919) 530-5174 or contact her at ebacon@nccu.edu.

Classes will be offered in the late afternoon and evening.

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