D765: Special Education Curriculum

Special Education Curriculum synthesizes the full K-12 special education knowledge base into the five major CEC content areas for MAT candidates.

What D765 covers

The course is designed for candidates who plan to teach in a special education program at any grade level from kindergarten through grade 12. It reviews the basic principles of special education and their application in realistic situations.

Its focus is on five major content areas: Development and Characteristics of Learners, Planning and the Learning Environment, Instruction, Assessment, and Foundations and Professional Responsibilities, which align to CEC Standards.

The D765 performance assessment

Expect a performance assessment requiring you to apply special education principles across one or more of the five CEC content areas to a realistic K-12 scenario.

Key topics in D765

• CEC content standards
• Development and characteristics of learners
• Planning and learning environment
• Instruction and assessment

Writing tips for D765

Follow the task instructions and rubric line by line

WGU performance assessments for D765 are graded against a fixed rubric — every rubric line has to be visibly addressed, usually with a labeled heading that mirrors the rubric language. Skipping a rubric point because it seems minor is the single most common reason a competent submission comes back "Not Yet Competent" for revision.

Ground every claim in a specific classroom scenario, not teaching in the abstract

Education courses like D765 typically ask you to apply theory to a specific grade level, subject, or student population rather than write about teaching generically. Evaluators are checking whether your reasoning fits that concrete classroom situation.

Because WGU is self-paced, don't let "no deadline pressure" become no submission

There's no weekly due date forcing progress, which means procrastination costs more at WGU than at a traditional term-based school — a stalled task can quietly eat weeks of a term. Treat your own target date for each D765 assessment as a real deadline.

Why students seek help with D765

MAT candidates sometimes address the given scenario using only one CEC content area when the course specifically wants a response spanning multiple of the five areas — a strong response demonstrates integration.

How GradeEssays helps with D765

Share your scenario and rubric, and your writer will build a response genuinely integrating multiple CEC content areas.

Prerequisites and program context

D765 has no listed additional prerequisites and covers K-12 special education broadly.

• Master of Arts in Teaching, Special Education

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