This program is designed for individuals who wish to receive the Reading Specialist Certification to work as a reading/literacy specialist in public and private schools grades K through 12. Those seeking the Reading Specialist certification must already have an initial teaching certification and two years of full-time experience as a classroom teacher. The program is designed to enable teachers to plan programs appropriate for children of differing abilities and diverse cultural backgrounds based on research and theory, and to foster a vision of literacy learning as an active social process in which students become engaged readers with strategies for independent reading, and the motivation to read for pleasure and for information.

The program requires 36 credits of study. Students develop a broad understanding of literacy issues by taking core courses on the development of literacy, on the diagnosis and remediation of reading problems, on curriculum development and supervision of literacy programs, and on research in the field of literacy. Additional credits include courses dealing with strategies for literacy instruction, with administration and supervision, and with learning cognition and development. Courses outside the program are taken to develop an understanding of how literacy relates to other areas of the school curriculum. In addition, students take a comprehensive exam or an alternative project to complete the program.