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Literacy Education - An Advanced Credential Program and an Area within the General Education Option

Literacy Education offers a variety of courses which are open to any student pursuing the Masters of Arts in Education at the School of Education Cal State San Marcos.  Literacy Education is an area under the General Option from which students can choose their elective courses. Several of the courses in Literacy Education fulfill CTEL standards that students can use for the CTEL (CLAD) authorization.  Literacy Education has a generative and collaborative relationship with the San Marcos Writing Project (SMWP).

In general, courses in Literacy Education prepare teachers with knowledge applicable in subject matter across the curriculum about current reading and writing theory, research and pedagogy, literacy development and learning, children’s and adolescent literature, curriculum development and assessment in literacy.  Specifically, Literacy Education offers students a collection of courses that they can take to earn an advanced credential approved by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing: a state issued Reading Certificate and/or a state issued Reading/Language Arts Specialist Credential.
 
The Reading Certificate authorizes teachers to provide services at the grade levels allowed by their prerequisite teaching credential to assess student reading, to provide reading instruction in response to those assessments, to develop, implement and adapt the reading content curriculum and assist classroom teachers in these areas in one or more school sites.  The Reading/Language Arts Specialist Credential authorizes teachers to provide services as a reading specialist in any grade level K -12 to assist and support the classroom teacher in reading instruction and teaching strategies; to select and adapt reading instruction materials; to plan and conduct reading staff development; to assess student programs and monitor student achievement in reading; to provide direct reading intervention work with students; and to develop and coordinate reading programs at school, district or county levels.

Both the Reading Certificate and Reading Specialist Credential require a valid teaching credential, obtained prior to coursework, AND three (3) years of successful full-time teaching experience, which can be obtained while completing coursework.