Rosenfield and Gottfredson awarded $1.87 million grant for Instructional Consultation (IC) Teams project

Funds awarded through U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences

COLLEGE PARK, MD (August 2005) - Professor Sylvia Rosenfield and Professor Gary D. Gottfredson of the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services, have been awarded a grant for $1.87 million by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences (IES).

Sylvia Rosenfield

Their research project will conduct field initiated studies to test the efficacy of Instructional Consultation (IC) Teams. "This grant is the culmination of multiple years of research on the Instructional Consultation Team model, and will enable us to use the gold standard of research design and random assignment to evaluate the model," said Rosenfield.

The IC Teams program was designed to support teachers in aiding all students, particularly those most at risk for failure, to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation and the recently reauthorized special education law, IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Gary Gottfredson

"Currently, there is growing enthusiasm for providing consultation to teachers to improve their instruction and avoid needless special education placements, and many school districts have adopted some kind of instructional consultation approach," noted Gottfredson. "Although improving achievement and other outcomes of education for students is a widely-shared goal, we know surprisingly little about the effectiveness of much of what is done in schools. One reason for this is that we do surprisingly little rigorous research on the efficacy of specific educational practices. Accordingly, educators must decide what to do in the absence of dependable evidence about what works. The present project will subject one promising idea about improving instruction to rigorous scientific test."

According to Rosenfield, t he IES grant "is also the result of a partnership between the Prince William Public Schools and the University of Maryland's Lab for IC Teams--we could not implement this project without their collaboration and we deeply value our relationship with them." Todd Gravois, co-director of the IC-Teams Lab at the University of Maryland College of Education, will direct the project.

The study will include grades K-5 in over 30 elementary schools from urban, suburban and rural county school systems with students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Federal grant funds will finance 100 percent of the project

"By conducting experimental research of this kind in this project we will develop trustworthy knowledge of what works to improve achievement and other outcomes for children," said Gottfredson. "The public deserves to have their children educated using methods that are either known to be effective, or the effectiveness of which is under systematic investigation. This is why the research project we are launching is important."

The Institute for Education Sciences is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Its goal is to transform education into an evidence-based field in which decision makers routinely seek out the best available research and data before adopting programs or practices that will affect significant numbers of students. For further information and/or to learn more about IC Teams, visit: www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html

-end-

For more information on the College of Education, visit: www.education.umd.edu
or contact Deborah Hudson, Assistant Dean for External Relations, at: dmhudson@umd.edu