Literacy Education

Certificate Programs

Explore and enhance your passion and advocacy for literacy and improve your K-12 students’ ability to read.

Are you passionate about children's literacy? Designed for certified teachers or those who are eligible for certification, this post-bachelor certificate in literacy education is focused on enhancing student reading abilities. Through this program you will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to be certified as a reading specialist, literacy coach or reading teacher.

In addition to your core of nine credits in professional education, you will complete the 21-credit literacy core, a three-credit capstone master's research paper/project or thesis and three elective credit hours. The program is highly experiential and requires extensive interaction with students one evening per week through a two-semester reading clinic.

  • Take some masters courses online and some that are a blend of on-campus and online learning. Face-to-face courses are offered in the evening.
  • Complete courses that lead to advanced certification as a reading specialist.
  • Take courses in Frostburg or at the USM@Hagerstown.
  • Enroll in a masters program that is accredited by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education – NCATE.

Location

Frostburg and Hagerstown.

Literacy Education Concentration Highlights

  • Complete a clinical degree portfolio that is structured around the five standards of reading professionals established by the International Reading Association and serves as a record of growth during your reading master's program.

  • Join Phi Delta Kappa, the international education fraternity that furthers the objectives and training of educators in the Cumberland-Frostburg region and the neighboring tri-state area.

  • Participate in reading clinics that diagnoses challenges, evaluates the abilities of students and works with those students to improve their reading levels.

  • Complete an action research project to assess reading skills in a specific class or group of students, develop reading strategies to improve skills, prescribe and implement a reading program and follow up by analyzing results.

What can I do with a Literacy Education Concentration degree?

Related Occupations

Health literacy specialist 

Reading Tutor 

Early childhood specialist 

 

You will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to be certified as a K-12 reading specialist, literary coach, reading teacher or instructional coordinators (also known as curriculum specialists). Instructional coordinators oversee school curriculums and teaching standards and develop, implement and assess instructional material. They evaluate the effectiveness of curriculums and teaching techniques established by school boards, states, or federal regulations. These professionals observe teachers in the classroom, review student test data, discuss the curriculum with the school staff and recommend changes in curriculums to the school board based on their research. Instructional coordinators also may conduct training for teachers related to teaching or technology, explain new learning standards to teachers and demonstrate effective teaching methods to achieve them. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates job growth of 13% through 2022 for instructional coordinators who specialize in reading. This is slightly higher than the average growth expected across all occupations.

What You'll Learn

Throughout the program you'll complete a core of literacy courses including such areas as children's literature, diagnosis and correction of reading difficulties, organizing and administering a reading program and foundations of teaching reading. Through a weekly reading clinic that meets for two semester you'll diagnose reading difficulties, assess reading skills of students whose parents want them to receive extra support, and work with these students to raise their reading level.

The 12- credit, online Post-bachelor certificate in Literacy Education is developed from four courses that exist within the current Master of Education degree, specifically within the concentration in Literacy Education.  This certificate is specifically designed to provide a pathway for those candidates who hold a bachelor’s degree in early childhood, elementary or secondary education to meet the endorsement requirements for reading teacher according to COMAR 13a.12.03.06.

Students who successfully complete the Post-bachelor certificate may continue in the M.Ed. program to complete a master's degree in Literacy Education.

Our Alumni

Our education curriculum and instruction concentration graduates have gone on to a variety of successful careers in regional and national school systems.

Job Titles

  • Principal
  • Teacher
  • Professor

Employers

  • Maryland public schools

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