If you have a passion for helping children with developmental delays overcome limitations, you should consider an intervention specialist major.
We’re very serious when we say employment is practically guaranteed. There is no greater need in schools everywhere, not just in Ohio, than for teachers skilled in intervention.
Overview
Teacher candidates who support students with mild-moderate need for educational intervention are taught first what is required in the general education curriculum. Through experiences with Ashland’s secondary (adolescent/young adult) and middle grades teacher candidates, our interventionists-in-training learn to work in teaching teams and assist each other in providing educational programs and supports to students in general education classrooms who need them. Ashland University candidates are trained in literacy, science, social studies and math content standards, as well as in modifications and accommodations, which are often required for their students to be educationally successful.
Further field experiences follow with elementary and secondary students who need educational intervention. ISMM majors take courses that prepare them to help their students and students’ families design individualized education plans, transition plans, behavior intervention plans and a wide variety of assessments to determine the social, functional and academic needs of their students.
This coursework and more than 700 hours of field experience culminate in a semester of student teaching, during which the candidate will prepare lessons, teach real students, evaluate student progress, evaluate their own progress and gradually assume complete responsibility for the intervention of a caseload of students in a public school.
Our programs meet strict State and National Standards
Successful entry into an intervention specialist (K-12) program is followed by courses and field experiences, which are blocked together and distributed over the next three years. Our licensure programs are nationally recognized by the International Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). They are also approved by the Office of Special Education in the Ohio Department of Education.
Full-Time Faculty Advise You!
Full-time faculty, all of whom are trained, licensed and experienced intervention specialists themselves, serve as advisors to students in the undergraduate licensure programs. You are assigned a faculty advisor in the program which you choose and that person will meet with you regularly to advise your coursework and progress.
We Train Inclusive Educators!
The faculty in our department value inclusive practices and philosophies. We feel strongly that including children with every kind of diversity and all of the appropriate supports in every classroom is the best practice and the right thing to do. While some children’s learning characteristics may initially require smaller groups for instruction and specialized environments that teach them how to regulate themselves as they interact with others, our faculty feels strongly that all children can learn if we can only get the conditions right. Separating children from other children only perpetuates myths and prolongs the stigma our society has learned to apply to those who are different. We must All learn to get along with each other and find the enormous value that each person holds within.
