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University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning 2006-2007: Year in Review

The Center for Research on Learning (CRL) encompasses four divisions, each with a slightly different research emphasis. Advanced Learning Technologies (ALTEC) uses the most advanced and innovative technologies available to improve teaching and learning. The Division of Adult Studies (DAS) addresses issues in the transition, education, employment and quality of life of adults with disabilities. The e-Learning Design Lab (eDL) studies and develops online instruction with an underlying commitment to identifying and institutionalizing the elements of online teaching that are inherent in a mature pedagogy. The Institute for Effective Instruction studies factors related to academic achievement, designs interventions that dramatically improve the performance of learners, and develops systems to ensure implementation success.

CRL studies problems in education and works to place solutions that make a difference into the hands of educators, learners, employers and policy makers.

  • The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities, a joint project of researchers at CRL and Vanderbilt University, has released its Learning Disabilities Resource Kit: Specific Learning Disabilities Determination Procedures and Responsiveness to Intervention. The kit will guide and support state and local education agency personnel as they revise the procedures used to identify students with learning disabilities. The kit also answers questions regarding the responsiveness to intervention education model, in which schools design multiple levels of support for struggling students.
  • CRL researchers developed and tested a two-year intervention for struggling adolescent readers in two urban high schools. The program, called Fusion Reading, was implemented successfully, and staff are now analyzing data gathered during the study.
  • CRL researchers completed a descriptive study of the nature of reading skills possessed by struggling and proficient readers.
  • The Blending Assessment with Instruction Program (BAIP) in mathematics has been field tested and will be made available statewide by the Kansas State Department of Education in the fall of 2007.
  • eDL, in collaboration with a publisher, developed an e-book that allows students to access a variety of instructional resources. eDL designed the authoring system to create the e-book, and the publisher assumed responsibility for content.
  • eDL completed development of a program for the Center for Independent Living focusing on what young adults with disabilities need to know when seeking access to postsecondary education and preparing them to be self-advocates. The program is a hybrid of eDL's online module design and the e-book format.
  • CRL staff published several books during the past year:
    • Informed Choices for Struggling Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide to Instructional Programs and Practices, by Donald D. Deshler, Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Gina Biancarosa, and Marnie Nair (International Reading Association)
    • Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction, by Jim Knight (Corwin Press)
    • Coaching Classroom Management: Strategies and Tools for Administrators and Coaches, by Randy Sprick, Jim Knight, Wendy Reinke, and Tricia McKale (Pacific Northwest Publishing)
    • RTI: A Practitioner's Guide to Implementing Response to Intervention, by Daryl F. Mellard and Evelyn Johnson (Corwin Press)
  • CRL secured several new grants:
    • The National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Center on Response to Intervention is a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the American Institutes for Research. This center's goal will be to meet the needs of educators, policymakers, and concerned individuals for information about and help establishing research-based practices related to response to intervention and early intervening services.
    • The Capacity Building for Content Literacy Continuum Implementation project, funded by the Stupski Foundation for $170,000, will strengthen CRL's capacity to help schools adopt the Content Literacy Continuum(TM) model for improving adolescent literacy.
    • Improving Adults' Reading Outcomes with Strategic Tutoring and Content Enhancement Routines is a $1.99 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. This study will test ways to improve Job Corps participants' reading and curricular outcomes using Strategic Tutoring and Content Enhancement Routines developed by CRL.
    • Improving Instruction through Implementation of the Partnership Instructional Coaching Model is a $1.9 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. This study to develop a Partnership Instructional Coaching model for improving instruction and achievement of students with disabilities will involve middle schools in Florida, Colorado, and Texas.
    • The five-year, $5.9 million Adolescent Literacy Partnerships: Meeting the Needs of All Students project, funded by the Virginia Department of Education, will expand on work undertaken during a three-year State Improvement Grant. The continued goal of the work is to improve literacy outcomes for adolescents with disabilities through use of CRL's Strategic Instruction Model™ and Content Literacy Continuum™.