Introduction

When one enrolls in the Masters Degree in Literacy Development / Reading Endorsement, one earns a Reading Endorsement in the state of Ohio. This degree and endorsement on your teaching license is a specialization of the curriculum and instruction program that meets the needs of teachers, clinicians, and others who provide literacy-related services to children or adults.

As federal and state laws require schools to set goals and develop school improvement plans to increase student achievement, the Reading Endorsement program incorporates the steps of data-based decision-making. Through access to useful examples, including real school stories, the program provides the classroom-embedded assistance necessary to institutionalize authentic assessment for school improvement.

Program Description

For a Masters Degree in Literacy Development one needs 15 hours of foundations courses.
(See Program of Study Form for list of choices and offerings.)

The literacy courses one takes for this specialization are the following:

1. EDL 502 Foundations of Literacy
2. EDL 503 Assessment and Evaluation of Diverse Literacy Learners
3. EDL 504 Literacy Development of Diverse Literacy Learners
4. EDL 505 Content Literacy

Either EDL 512 Literature Methods for Children or EDL 513 Literature Methods for Adolescents or EDL 511 Emergent Literacy

And our capstone course EDL695 Literacy Research Seminar.

Many participants who have Ohio Licenses have already taken the Undergraduate equivalent for two of these courses, most often EDL 505 Content Literacy and either EDL 512 Literature Based Methods for Children or EDL 513 Literature Based Methods for Adolescents, and do not need to retake these courses. However, do need a total of 31 credits for the Masters Degree.

Reading Endorsement students take courses in foundations of literacy, assessment and evaluation, literacy development, content area literacy and ways of using literature in the reading program. Four of the courses in the program are scheduled sequentially in order to build on the learning of participants in the program. These four courses are

1. EDL 502 Foundations of Literacy
2. EDL 503 Assessment and Evaluation in Literacy
3. EDL 504 Literacy Development and
4. EDL 695 Seminar in Literacy

Research

The Reading Endorsement courses are taught primarily by full time faculty; these include the directors of multi-million dollar federally funded grants for Ohio Reading First and Early Reading First programs and an author of one of the country’s leading reading methods texts. These instructors are actively involved in the community as consultants and community leaders. They bring a rich blend of insights from theory to practice in their teaching of the Reading Endorsement Courses.

Degree Requirements

Throughout the program, educator participants develop artifacts which reflect evidence of understanding and application of the International Reading Association’s Standards for Reading Professionals and reflects on these products. In the final capstone course, Seminar in Literacy Research, educators prepare an action-research project whereby their teaching practices are examined in order to improve student achievement. At the end of the program, participants develop scholarly reflections with artifacts for each of five International Reading Association’s Standards.

For admission information contact:

Cleveland State University
Graduate Admissions Office
2121 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115
216 687-5599

For program information, contact:

Cleveland State University
Teacher Education Office
2121 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115
216 687-4600

Important Information:

Students will receive a letter and a Program of Study form when they are admitted that they need to meet with their advisor to complete their course of study. When the advisor meets with them, they will learn the following:

1. EDL 402/502 is taught in the Spring, Summer and Fall semesters.
2. EDL 403/503 and 404/504 are “continuation courses” taught in the Fall and Spring semesters, that is in EDL503, taught in the Fall, the focus is on the CSU student assessing a student; in the Spring the CSU student works with the same student instructionally during the Spring semester. A similar sequence occurs summer 1 ( EDL 503 Summer 1 and EDL 504 summer 2)
3. Students complete the Literacy Exit Requirements in EDL 695. The Exit Requirements are 1) a Portfolio* and 2) an action research project completed in their classroom. There are no comprehensive examinations in the program as are required at some institutions.
4. In addition to the course work, they must pass the Praxis ll Specialty Exam in Reading with a score of 540. In order to take this test, individuals must already possess a valid provisional or professional teaching license in the state of Ohio.

*The Portfolio required for both the Masters in Literacy Development and to obtain a Reading Endorsement is based on the five International Reading Association standards. CSU student candidates for the Masters Degree and for Reading Endorsement write a scholarly reflection (what experts say concerning each standard) and also develop an artifact that shows students’ knowledge of the standard is part of their practice. These artifacts can be drawn from the students’ university course work or from relevant work in schools. This final portfolio is compiled in a hard copy a notebook format.

 Program of Study for the Masters Degree in Literacy Development/Reading Endorsement

 Meet the Faculty for the Literacy Development/Reading Endorsement Program