Making an Impact
Faculty in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and
Human Development have attracted external funding from the U.S. Department
of Education, Texas Instruments Foundation, Collins Foundation, and other sponsors for innovative
research and training projects that will have a real-world impact on education
locally and nationally.
The Simmons School's Institute for Reading Research (IRR) has received more
than $9 million in grants and contracts since it was established in 2003.
Current projects of the IRR include:
- Project Scale-Up, a five-year study funded by a $6 million grant from
the U.S. Department of Education. Patricia Mathes, Texas Instruments Endowed
Professor of Reading and IRR director, is principal investigator for the
project, which is a collaboration with UT-Austin's Center for Reading and
Language Arts, focusing on research-validated first-grade reading
interventions in multiple schools.
- Project Maximize, directed by Dr. Mathes and co-directed by Drs. Jill
Allor, associate professor in education, and Ian Harris, associate professor
of statistical science, was funded by a $3 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Education. It is a five-year project to develop a reading
curriculum for children with mild to moderate retardation.
- Project ELLA (English Language Acquisition Evaluation Research),
directed by Dr. Mathes in collaboration with Texas A&M Research Foundation,
is a five-year study funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute
of Education Science to evaluate alternative instructional models for
primary grade students whose first language is Spanish.
- Project CMERS (Continuous Progress Monitoring of Early Reading Skills),
directed by Dr. Mathes, is a two-year project to develop and evaluate the
technical adequacy of an early reading assessment system. Dr. Jing
Cao, associate professor of statistical science, served as the Co-PI during
the first year of the study.
- Project CMARS: Item Development for Continuous Monitoring of
Advanced Reading Skills for Grades 4-8, directed by Dr. Mathes and
co-directed by Dr. Gale Roid, is funded by the Collins Foundation.
Other examples of the Simmons School's current sponsored projects include:
- Two grants of $1.5 million each to Dr. William Pulte, associate professor
of education, from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language
Acquisition (OELA) have provided training support for teachers seeking
certification in bilingual education.
- A NAE Spencer Fellowship award to Dr. Paige Ware to
conduct a two-year study that examines how an international online multimedia
literacy exchange between adolescent English language learners both engages the
students with literacy and impacts their writing in English.
- A grant from OELA to Dr. Hector Rivera, assistant professor of education,
to address needs of at-risk newcomer adolescents with limited English
proficiency through programs in professional development and certification in
English as a Second Language for math and science teachers in middle and high
schools.
- A grant from the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board and funded by the Department of Education to Dr. Kathy
Hargrove, associate dean, to address science education and research in
secondary schools.
- A grant from OELA to Dr. Paige Ware, assistant professor of education, for
Project Connect, a collaborative effort with the Irving and Grand Prairie
Independent School Districts to create a professional development model for
training teachers to improve the quality of education for students with limited
English proficiency.
- Project Read Aloud, directed by Dean David Chard, in collaboration with
Pacific Institutes for Research in Eugene, Oregon, is funded by a four-year
grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study the efficacy of a program
designed to enhance reading comprehension for first graders.
- Early Learning in Mathematics, also directed by Dean Chard, in
collaboration with the University of Oregon, is funded by a three-year grant
from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a kindergarten curriculum
designed to prevent early mathematics difficulties.
- Three Upward Bound and TRIO projects, directed by
Ms. Ne'Shaun Robinson-Jones, are funded by the Department of Education.