HU launches dual licensure for teachers

Huntington University is launching two dual licensure programs to help meet the needs of educators in early learning, literacy development and support for students with disabilities.

An early-childhood education program prepares teachers to work with children from birth through age eight. An “Exceptional Needs: Intense Intervention” program prepares teachers to work with students with significant disabilities and learning challenges.

Both tracks are available online and also include licensure in early literacy, which meets Indiana’s new early-literacy endorsement requirement for all elementary, special education and early childhood teachers.

“We designed these programs in direct response to what schools and teachers are telling us they need,” Shoshannah Hernandez, assistant professor of education and associate director of teacher education – graduate, said in a news release. “Our goal is to provide high-quality, immediately applicable and easily accessible programs for teachers that enable them to meet student needs. By providing programs in these high-need areas as dual licensure programs, we’re also allowing teachers to participate in a value-added opportunity where they get two credentials in one program.”

The two new programs will be offered alongside the university’s existing Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages-Early Literacy (TESOL/EL) licensure. All three programs are available as concentrations in Huntington University’s master’s degree in education program.