PACT Plus
In partnership with DCPS and the University of Texas at Austin, Pact Plus is developing a school model that integrates
1) research-based practices in reading instruction for the content areas of social studies, science, and English language arts, focusing on students with disabilities, and
2) research-based practices in reading intervention for students with disabilities who require more intensive interventions to accelerate their reading performance.
Pact Plus provides extensive, high-quality professional development to content area and special education teachers to ensure they have the knowledge to implement the model effectively and with high fidelity. PACT Plus utilizes two fully developed interventions: Promoting Adolescents Comprehension of Text (PACT), a text-based approach to content acquisition and reading comprehension development; and Research-Based Intensive Intervention for Students With Disabilities (RISD), an approach to delivering intensive intervention to students who need it.
For more info, please contact:Jade Wexler: jawexler@umd.edu
MyDesign
Design is notoriously difficult to practice in traditional classrooms, school day schedules, and across disciplines. Increasingly, authentic opportunities are being made available for teachers to gain the competencies to prepare students to learn and practice Design across both formal and informal settings and prepare them for the 21st workforce. At the same time, the traditional classroom-based training of teachers is being transformed by online and active learning technologies.An UMCP based partnership has been formed between the College of Education and the School of Engineering to address this emerging and growing need for to prepare teachers and instructors to introduce Design to their students. A UMCP organized team has developed a scalable model utilizing web-based tools to create a mobile application (app), MyDesign. Recently awards from the National Science Foundation will allow the UMCP led team to: 1) introduce MyDesign as a toolbox to learn and practice design; 2) comparatively track cohorts of teachers to study changes in their confidence to teach Design; 3) document the effectiveness of MyDesign to support the instruction across disciplinary content; and 4) determine how to form vibrant, web-based professional learning communities to the instruction of Design.
For more info, please contact: Leigh Abts: labts@umd.edu
Maryland Longitdinal Data System
In partnership with the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland Baltimore, faculty from the College of Education run the Research Arm of the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) Center. The MLDS Center, a separate unit of state government, consists of partnerships with the Maryland State Department of Education, the Maryland Higher Education Commission and the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The statewide data system is designed to sho w how all Maryland public school students are performing once they enter college and the workforce. The goal of MLDS is to provide Maryland policymakers, educators, parents, and researchers with timely and useful data on students, schools, districts, institutions, as well as education and workforce programs. Maryland believes that with the MLDS, key stakeholders w7
\ill be empowered to make data-driven decisions that will lead to more effective use of resources and ultimately to higher achievement by all Maryland students.
For more info, please contact: Laura Stapleton: lstaplet@umd.edu
Website: https://mldscenter.maryland.gov/
Maryland Language Science Center
College of Education faculty members are involved in the newly created, University-wide Maryland Language Science Center, which represents a major commitment by the University of Maryland to language science as strategic priority. The Center is a collaborative effort involving more than 200 language scientists, drawn from 16 departments and centers in 6 colleges across the university. The Center’s efforts will focus on interdisciplinary research and training, with the goal of unraveling the mysteries of how human brains make language possible, and solving real-world language problems in education, technology, and health.
For more info, please contact:Jeff MacSwan: macswan@umd.edu
Website: http://ling.umd.edu/tags/language-science-center/
Brain and Behavior Initiative
The mission of the Brain and Behavior Initiative (BBI) at the University of Maryland (UMD) is to revolutionize our understanding of the brains role in complex behaviors using novel interdisciplinary methods, tools, and analyses. A number of College of Education faculty members participate in the BBI, using neuroimaging and brain-based methods to investigate the neural basis of the cognitive, emotional, and social processes involved in the developing mind. Current projects include research on temperament, reading, mathematical, scientific, moral, and social thinking, as well as the development of the underlying neural processes involved in learning, attention, reasoning and language that are vital to 21st century education. COE researchers are also investigating the effects of traumatic brain injury on children's social, social-cognitive, and emotional functioning.
For more info, please contact:Kevin N. Dunbar : kndunbar@umd.edu
Website: http://bbi.umd.edu/
College of Education students in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative
Methodology have an ongoing opportunity to work on language testing issues at The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), a private, non-profit organization founded in 1959 and headquartered in Washington DC. CAL has earned an international reputation for its contributions to the fields of bilingual and dual language education, English as a second language, world languages education, language policy, assessment, immigrant and refugee integration, literacy, dialect studies, and the education of linguistically and culturally diverse adults and children. CAL's mission is to promote language learning and cultural understanding by serving as a trusted source for research, resources, and policy analysis. Through its work, CAL seeks solutions to issues involving language and culture as they relate to access and equity in education and society around the globe.
For more info, please contact: Gregory R. Hancock: ghancock@umd.edu
Website: http://www.cal.org/
Improving Content-Area Literacy Instruction in Middle Schools (CALI)
In partnership with DCPS, this project focuses on a co-teaching framework to support students, with or at risk for disability, who struggle with reading and comprehending expository text in content-area classes. The intention is to improve collaboration between special education teachers and content-area teachers paired in the classroom by creating prescriptive roles to help co teachers integrate evidence based literacy instruction into the content area setting and to emphasize the integration of data-based literacy support. This is especially important since, due to chronic shortages of special education teachers, as well as efforts to place children in less restrictive environments, 58% of students with disabilities spend 80% or more of their time at school in general education settings.
For more info, please contact: Jade Wexler: jawexler@umd.edu
Website: http://www.education.umd.edu/CollegeNews/2015/wnrIESgrant.html