OCTOBER 25, 2012
m-NET
 Mobilizing National Educator Talent (“m-NET”) is an
innovative, nontraditional program to help special
education teachers earn full certification in special
education. It is a partnership between the West Virginia
State Department and the National Association of State
Directors of Special Education through a Transition to
Teaching Grant awarded to Ohio State University.
 Designed to help an individual in your district who wants
to be a special education teacher to attain full state
certification, including secondary special education
teachers of record in core subjects.
 Addresses P-12 school districts’ staffing needs by helping
them to recruit, prepare, and retain special education
teachers.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO THE
INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS?
 Expense reimbursement of up to $1,000 per participant to
help with some of the costs incurred in earning full
certification;
 Access (at no participant cost) to a collaborative virtual
learning community that includes eModules and live
eCoaching sessions delivered by experienced teachers
through web-based and mobile technologies; and
 Access to eLearning tools and applications to access
content packages about classroom management and
assessment strategies, core subject instructional pedagogy
to accelerate learning opportunities for diverse students.
ANY OTHER BENEFITS?
 Access to webinars designed especially for
Participants;
 Access for district administrators to webinars focused
upon supporting special education teachers in the
classroom; and
 Access for State and district administrators to online
Communities of Practice with other participating
administrators within your own State and within the
five other partner states.
WHAT ARE THE ELIGIBILITY
REQUIREMENTS TO PARTICIPATE?
 District must:
 Have at least 20 % poverty level on US Census and
 Have at least 5% of teachers teaching out of field or at least
1.4% of teachers teaching on waivers or exceptions.
 Participant must be:
 Recent college graduate—less than three years out of college
with a four-year degree in a field other than education; OR
 A career changer—graduated from college more than three
years before participation with four-year degree in a field
other than education;
AND
 A full-time employee working in the classroom in a special
education program;
 Be enrolled in and have taken at least on-fourth of classes
required to be a fully-certified special education teacher;
and
 Must be a Teacher of Record or full-time employee
working in a special education program in a high-need
school district.
AND
 At the beginning of Year One of participation, each
Participants’ transcript will have been evaluated to
determine that by the end of Year 3 the Participant
would be eligible to earn full certification in special
education if they successfully complete the required
PRAXIS II or related State-mandated tests and the
listed classes on their applications.
 Be enrolled in a traditional licensure master’s degree
program at a regionally accredited university or a State
approved alternative route to licensure program
leading to full certification.
DURING THE THREE YEARS OF
PARTICIPATION
 Must maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average for all
classes in which enrolled for purposes of meeting the
requirements for full certification in special education.
 Must successfully complete all required PRAXIS II or
similar state mandated tests. Until those
examinations are successfully completed, must be
working every week through online learning
community training modules offered and participating
in related e-Coaching.
 Must receive satisfactory district performance
evaluations.
BY THE END OF YEAR THREE
 Must have successfully completed all required course
work for full-certification in special education.
 Must have passed all required PRAXIS II or similar
State mandated tests, including those required subject
area tests for secondary special education Teachers of
Record.
 Must have completed three years as a special education
Teacher of Record or a full-time paraprofessional in a
high-need school in your district.
REPAYMENT OBLIGATIONS
 If requirements discussed above are not met by the
end of Year Three, all or part of the funds must be paid
back.
 If the Participant fails to make satisfactory progress in
the Project, he/she may be dropped from the Project
with the requirement to repay any funds already
advanced.
DISTRICT RESPONSIBILITIES
 Implement effective recruiting strategies for recruiting special
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education participants for the project;
Ensure the proposed participants meet the criteria for inclusion
in the project as listed on the application;
Facilitate communication between project liaison and district
participants;
Provide encouragement to the district participants to participate
in online learning communities, to enroll in required licensure
classes in a timely manner, and to prepare and take the required
PRAXIS or State-mandated exams in a timely manner; and
Notify the project liaison when a participant is given an
unsatisfactory performance evaluation.
PROJECT RESPONSIBILITY
 Coordinate efforts between State, identified districts and the
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Project.
Assist school districts to recruit, train and retain participants in
each of four years. (There are a total of 75 participants for each
year in the six participating states)
Provide identified participants with Project funding of up to
$1,000 each to support the certification process.
Provide each Teacher of Record with access to an online learning
community by leveraging new technologies that enhances and
accelerates professional learning in order to attain full teacher
certification.
Broaden and intensify access for each Teacher of Record to
subject matter knowledge for passing the state-mandated
content and pedagogical tests.
MORE PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES
 Provide technological, pedagogical and content
knowledge preparation that enables beginning
teachers to develop and model skills and knowledge as
designers of instructional technology solutions using
mobile learning devices.
 Afford intensive support through e-Coaching that is
embedded in m-NET’s online learning community.
 Engage in the project’s Classroom Support Series that
will be delivered through an expanded online learning
community.
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INTEREST