Program Overview

Candidates who complete the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (CLDE) MA with the CLDE K-12 endorsement will leave their programs with greater understandings of crucial ideas and skills for working with CLDE students, including:

• Asset-based dispositions toward bilingual students, their linguistic practices, their families, and their communities
• Critically informed perspectives on the history, laws, and social forces shaping the education of bilingual students in Colorado and in the United States
• Linguistic analysis of English and other languages, including Spanish
• Theories of language, bilingualism, and second language acquisition and their application to the K-12 classroom
• Practices that support access to rigorous content for bilingual students, to improve assessment, to enhance language and literacy development for bilingual students, and to leverage students’ bilingualism in teaching.

Recommendations for endorsements are made by the CLDE Program, but endorsement is granted by the State of Colorado. Individual state requirements vary and may include teaching experience and examinations in addition to a valid teaching credential. Students should consult with the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) or another state in which they wish to be endorsed for the most updated endorsement requirements.