$3.1M for Education

Researchers in the College of Education have been awarded a total of $3.1 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to develop programs and monitoring tools to help preschool and elementary school children in language, behavior and literacy.

L. Brook Sawyer, assistant professor of teaching, learning and technology, received a $1.5 million grant to develop and assess the promise of Parents Plus: Language Coach. The online teaching tool aims to educate parents of preschool children with language impairments about techniques to promote their children's language skills. She will work with colleagues from Teachers College, Temple University and the Oregon Research Institute.

Lee Kern, professor of special education, received a $1.5 million grant to adapt Tier 2 behavior interventions for elementary school children. She will work with researchers from Vanderbilt University in developing a framework to more easily identify and modify interventions to help children with mild to moderate behavior problems.

Also, Robin Hojnoski, associate professor of school psychology, was awarded $134,615 in IES funding to help develop measures to monitor progress in early literacy among preschoolers. The University of Minnesota will lead the four-year study, which will be conducted in three geographic locations.