The practicum courses are two 15-week courses (SPED 5321 and 5322) whereby you work with a site supervisor, or someone at your district who has over three years of experience as an educational diagnostician. You will also conduct three observations, which will be recorded as part of the Texas Educational Agency rule.
Once you begin your first course, you should reach out to your district’s SPED director to be paired with an educational diagnostician to be your site supervisor (see Appendix F for descriptions of assurances that must be met). This assurances form (Appendix F) as well as the district accreditation will be due in SPED 5301 or an enrollment hold will be put in future courses until these are approved. These forms can be found in the Site Supervisor Training Manual.
If you are in the M.Ed program, you will need to plan to take practicum in the semester of your 7th or 8th course. If you have a full load in your 7th and 8th course semester (9 hours), you will take the first practicum just thereafter. Candidates may take up to two rotation courses alongside Practicum 1 (SPED 5321). Candidates take their last rotation course (SPED 5320) alongside the second Practicum which is SPED 5322.
If you are in the certificate program, you will need to secure your site supervisor quickly because your first practicum course begins as soon as your third course.
There is not currently an application for the practicum courses.
LU Academic will begin enrolling all students who are eligible for the practicum courses - SPED 5321/5322 enrollment around one month before the course begins, so please check your Banner account around this time. If you are NOT able to secure a mentor for the practicum course, please email LU Academic to be dropped from the course. You must email LU Academic at luap-graded@lamar.edu before the course start date each semester.
ALL students will need new site supervisor/mentor documents (Appendix C-H, and evidence of a TEA-approved campus) signed for SPED 5321 and 5322. Please be sure that you read and follow the instructions carefully found in the Site Supervisor Training Manual. You will need to have Appendix C-H, as well as the TEA campus verification completed, signed and ready to submit during the first week of the practicum course. These forms will be submitted in Blackboard during the first week to be approved by TEA or you will not be able to earn points in the course until they are approved within the course. Also, a reminder that the forms must be completed within one month of the course start date, not sooner. For example, site supervisor documents for the Fall 2022 practicum courses can not be signed before July 15, 2022.
There is not an application to apply. LU Academic will register all students who are eligible. Please see your degree audit for when these classes are taken. Within the first week of both practicum courses, you will need Appendix C-H and evidence of a TEA approved campus (seven documents) from the Site Supervisor Training Manual completed by your site supervisor and SPED district coordinator. These documents must not be dated earlier than one month before they are due in the course, in order to be approved. If they are dated earlier, then they will not be approved and could delay your enrollment.
In the first practicum, you will need to work with your site supervisor and have access to the test kits (WJ Ach, WJ Cog, WISC) for assessments. You will continue to need access to these during your second practicum. You will collect field hours, which are either direct or indirect. Field hours are considered direct when you are working with your site supervisor with a student or teacher face-to-face (directly). Indirect hours are times you will complete paperwork with your site supervisor or conduct other practicum activities (not directly in contact with a person). You will need 50 observation hours of your site supervisor in SPED 5321 and 160 field experience hours in SPED 5322 (60 direct field hours and 100 indirect). Fieldwork activities are planned with your site supervisor and SPED director of the district, and all hours must be approved by them.
For one, practicum coursework is 15 weeks. Each week you will attend a mandatory supervision meeting with your mentor or course instructor to discuss cases you have or other questions relating to your field hours. These meetings are different than webinars because you are expected to bring questions and cases to the supervision.
First, make sure your school is a TEA approved campus for the current year. For charter schools accredited by TEA, . To check for TEA approval of private schools, . You must check the accreditation status for the current school year.
• If your school is not approved by TEA, you will need to conduct your practicum on a different campus that is a TEA approved campus, and you will need to secure a mentor on that TEA approved campus.
• If your school is approved by TEA, your district/school organization administrator will need to request a waiver with a brief explanation in the space provided.
Only SPED 5321 is offered during the summer semester. SPED 5322 is not offered during the summer semester. SPED 5321 is offered during the fall, spring and summer semesters. SPED 5322 is offered during the fall and spring semesters.
Summer terms are 10 weeks long, so you would need to do the same work and field hours as the 15-week course in a shorter amount of time. Also, some education diagnosticians do not work/test the entire 10-week summer semester. If this is the case, you will not be able to take a practicum course (SPED 5321) in the summer. If you are not able to secure a mentor for the practicum course, please email LU Academic to be dropped from the course. You would take a break in the summer and begin or complete the sequence of practicum courses in the fall.
You can switch your concentration to Special Education Generalist. However, once you switch to that program, we do not have a mechanism in place for you to add additional courses to become an educational diagnostician.
Practicum takes a lot of planning. That means you need to network with your educational diagnostician and/or Special Education Department at your school and district early in the program. You will need strong communication skills to articulate what it is that you are asking your school/district about securing a site supervisor. It is important also that your principal understands that you will collect your hours before and after school as you are able, and the program will not disrupt your teaching obligations. Stay positive, confident, and professional as you begin this journey in becoming an educational diagnostician.