波士顿大学

The Reading Education program prepares teachers, specialists, clinicians, and consultants to expand their understanding of reading and writing acquisition and development and to apply this knowledge to assessment and instruction. The program admits both full- and part-time students. Full-time students must enter in the fall term.

This program is approved for licensure as a Specialist Teacher of Reading in Massachusetts, and it will also qualify candidates for Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) endorsement. Although a teaching license is required for admission to the program, teaching experience is not. However, students who complete degree requirements prior to completing one year of full-time teaching must later meet this requirement to be eligible to apply to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for licensure as a Specialist Teacher of Reading.

Varied career opportunities await degree recipients. Many graduates seek positions as general education classroom teachers, where their expertise in reading and writing assessment and instruction enables them to provide exemplary instruction to students of all performance levels. Others use their newly acquired depth of knowledge to specialize in literacy assessment and instruction. In this case, degree recipients meet requirements for positions as reading and literacy teachers, specialists, and coaches.

Program Requirements

Coursework includes the study of theory and research related to the acquisition and development of reading and writing, as well as evidence-based practice and analysis of assessment and instructional materials, professional development, leadership, and coaching.

The program also includes practica in each semester of study, providing opportunities for situated practice from the outset. In the fall term, students will complete a clinical experience on Saturday mornings in the state-of-the-art Donald D. Durrell Reading and Writing Clinic (RWC) at Wheelock College of Education & Human Development (WCEHD), working under the supervision of WCEHD faculty to tutor an individual or small group of students. Clinicians learn to work closely with their students’ classroom teachers, thereby increasing the instructional coherence of the programs students receive in their in-school and out-of-school programs. In addition, clinicians work with their students’ parents to co-construct homework practices that cohere with and support the students’ experiences in the RWC.

During the spring term, students continue tutoring on Saturday mornings in the RWC through March. At the same time, they also complete a field-based experience in a school setting; this allows them to extend the understanding and experience they develop through in clinical practice by working with individuals or small groups of children in school settings (10 hours per week). As part of this experience, students also shadow a school-based literacy specialist to deepen their understanding of principles and practices related to school leadership, coaching, and professional development.