| Project name & description | Funding agency & project leads |
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Collaborative Research: Amplifying Diverse Voices in STEM Education (ADVISE) October 2024 – September 2029
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Quentin Sedlacek (SMU) |
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Texas Impact Study and CLASS + Cultivate October 2024 – June 2026
CORE is a long-term research, evaluation and thought partner for Teach for America. CORE conducted an initial impact evaluation of Teach for America’s impact in Texas sites, and has conducted multiple follow ups to date. CORE and TFA have leveraged those data to provide technical assistance to Texas regions, and to support a number of strategic initiatives. CORE and TFA continue exploring impacts for Texas students and have partnered to explore how the CLASS™ tool can support ongoing improvements. |
Funding: Teach for America (TFA) PI: Dr. Annie Wright (SMU) |
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Evaluation of the Early Educator Workforce Development Pipeline: A Partnership between Dallas College and SMU September 2024 – December 2027
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Funding: Dallas College Foundation PI: Dr. Annie Wright (SMU) |
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The Effects of Completing College-Level Courses in High School August 2024 – July 2027
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) |
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Using Artificial Intelligence to Personalize Mathematics Instruction to Students Interests August 2024 – July 2027
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Lead: Dr. Candace Walkington (SMU), PI |
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Collaborative Research: A Semiconductor Curriculum and Learning Framework for High-Schoolers Using Artificial Intelligence, Game Modules, and Hands-on Experiences June 2024 – May 2028
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) Collaborative Project: |
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Advancing Understanding of How Adult Learner Ecosystems Vary and Influence Decision Making February 2024 – March 2025
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Funding: Lumina Adult Learners |
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Virtual Reality Simulation to Enhance De-escalation Training for Police Officers October 2023 – September 2026
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Funding: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance Project Lead: Dallas Police Department, City of Dallas |
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Empowering Students with Choice through Equitable and Interactive Mathematical Modeling (EIM2) August 2023 – June 2026
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Hyunyi Jung (Univ. of Florida) |
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Promoting Algebra Readiness (PAR) July 2023 – June 2028
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education Dr. Ben Clarke (UO) |
Increasing Skills in Accessibility through Integration in the Undergraduate Computer Science and Information Technology Curricula May 2023 – April 2026
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Stephanie Ludi (University of North Texas) |
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Active Playful Learning January 2023 – December 2027
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Funding: Lego Foundation PI: Dr. Kathy Hirsh Pasaek (Temple University) |
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McNair Scholars Project October 2022 – September 2027
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education PI: Dr. LaChelle Cunningham (SMU) |
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Upward Bound Math Science Projects STEM: September 2022 – August 2027
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education PI: Dr. LaChelle Cunningham (SMU) |
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Partnership for Anticipatory Learning at the Garcia West Dallas STEM School July 2022 – June 2025
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Funding: United Way of Metropolitan Dallas |
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Project STAIR 2.0: Supporting Teaching of Algebra: Individual Readiness July 2022 – June 2025
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Funding: U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Erica Lembke (University of Missouri) |
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Collaborative Research: Research on Integrated STEM Self-Efficacy (RISE): A Study of Elementary Preservice Teachers including Noyce Scholars June 2022 – May 2027 will study the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integration of elementary teachers who experienced ten different teacher preparation programs across the U.S. The project will investigate links between integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy, teacher preparation and development opportunities, teaching effectiveness, and teacher retention. It will also build a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their STEM teaching and support their ongoing professional learning. |
Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Jeanna Wieselmann (SMU) |
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Upward Bound Classic Projects Classic I & III: September 2022 - August 2027
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education PI: Dr. LaChelle Cunningham (SMU) |
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Advancing Evaluation in Philanthropy February 2022 – August 2027
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Funding: Walton Family Foundation PI: Dr. Annie Wright (SMU) |
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Scalability, Capacity, and Learning Engagement (SCALE) for Fraction Face-Off to accelerating mathematics learning of students experiencing mathematics difficulty December 2021 – December 2026
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary & Secondary Education, Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program; Award No: S411B210032 PI: Dr. Leanne Ketterlin Geller (SMU) |
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Personnel Preparation in Mathematics Special Education October 2021 – September 2026
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) PI: Dr. Sarah Powell (University of Texas, Austin) |
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Educational Talent Search Projects September 2021 – August 2026
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education PI: Dr. LaChelle Cunningham (SMU), Project LAUNCH, Project LIFT |
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Work-Learn: Using Microinternships to Leverage Scalable Learning for STEM Workforce Development Among People Experiencing Homelessness September 2021 – August 2025
The project is supported by the EHR Core Research Program that funds STEM education research projects focused on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development. |
Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Michelle Friend (University of Nebraska @ Omaha) |
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Seeing the World through a Mathematical Lens August 2021 – July 2026
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF), Advancing Informal STEM Learning PI: Dr. Candace Walkington (SMU) |
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Science Teachers' Experiences Learning about African American English July 2021 – December 2025 (but extended further)
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Funding: The Spencer Foundation PI: Dr. Quentin Sedlacek (SMU) |
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West Dallas STEM School Project, (Phase II) July 2021 – February 2026
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Funding: Toyota Foundation PI: Dean Stephanie Knight (SMU) |
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Using Pre-Assessment to Customize Adult Literacy Game-Based Learning January 2021 – December 2026
SMU's team will use this newest grant to continue the development of the application and launch its newest iteration of the game-based curriculum, Enigma. This game will push literacy skills past Codex’s 1st & 2nd and incorporate a pre-assessment tool to customize the learner’s education path in the game. The assessment will allow for identification of literacy gaps for each learner, thus allowing the game to adapt each learners’ specific needs. The incorporation of pre-assessment and customizable gameplay will allow learners to quickly move past areas where they currently have mastery and thus help keep a high engagement within the game. As part of this study, a user reporting and visualization interface will be created to help track and show participants engagement and literacy gains throughout their game play. |
Funding: Dollar General Family Literacy Foundation PI: Dr. Corey Clark (SMU) |
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Developing Computational Tools for Model-Based Oral Reading Fluency Assessments August 2020 – May 2025
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Akihito Kamata (SMU) |
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Exploring Collaborative Embodiment for Learning (EXCEL): Understanding Geometry through Multiple Modalities August 2020 – July 2025
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Candace Walkington (SMU) |
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Measuring the English Language Vocabulary Acquisition of Latinx Bilingual Students (Project MELVA-S) August 2020 – July 2025 (but extended further)
This project will produce an online formative assessment system – the Measuring the English Language Vocabulary Acquisition of Latinx Bilingual Students (MELVA-S). The team will produce 24 equivalent alternate forms of MELVA that can be used by teachers to assess their student initial status and growth of vocabulary knowledge and a preliminary report that can be used by teachers to differentiate instruction and provide additional vocabulary and language development support around science topics. To build the system, the research team will (a) develop assessment content and items; (b) build the interface, the speech recognition system (SRS), and the automated scoring system (AS); (c) develop a psychometric model that accurately estimates vocabulary item parameter and student vocabulary abilities; and (d) carry out three validation studies. |
Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Doris Baker (University of Texas, Austin) |
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A Comprehensive Measure of Reading Fluency: Uniting and Scaling Accuracy, Rate, and Prosody July 2020 – June 2025 (but extended further)
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Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Joseph Nese (University of Oregon) |
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Examining the Efficacy of Friends on the Block: An Intensive Early Literacy Intervention for Elementary Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disability (Project Intensity) July 2020 – June 2025
Primary Research Questions 1. Do students who participate in FOTB demonstrate greater reading outcomes compared to students who participate in BAU reading instruction? 2. Do students who participate in FOTB demonstrate greater language outcomes compared to students who participate in BAU reading instruction? For any questions please contact Dr. Miriam Ortiz the coordinator for Project Intensity. Dr. Jill Allor and Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba acknowledge a financial interest in the Friends on the Block books and curriculum. Any inquiries should be directed to the Office of Research Compliance at 91ƬSϼ |
Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Jill Allor (SMU) |
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Project GROW: Growing Vocabulary Knowledge to Support Comprehension Development through a Kindergarten Dialogic Read-Aloud Intervention July 2020 – June 2025
Al Otaiba holds the Patsy and Ray Caldwell Centennial Chair in Teaching and Learning. She and Rivas have collaborated over the past eight years on several projects related to literacy interventions and response to intervention funded by IES and the National Institutes of Health. They are joined by post-doctoral researcher Jennifer Stewart, Ph.D., a recent Simmons graduate, to support the project. |
Funding: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) PI: Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba (SMU) |
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The Noyce Scholars Program, Dallas July 2020 – June 2026
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Scott Norris (SMU Dedman College) |
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Integrating Human Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, Game Design, and Educational Assessment in a STEM+C Curriculum September 2019 – August 2025
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Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF) PI: Dr. Corey Clark (SMU) |
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Raising Texas Teachers Inside Strong Communities September 2017 – August 2025
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Funding: The Charles Butt Foundation PI: Dr. Karla del Rosal (SMU) |
Research Projects
SMU is classified as an R1 institution, and the Simmons School is ranked in the top 19% of all public & private graduate schools in the nation.
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ADVISE (Amplifying Diverse Voices in STEM Education) is an NSF IUSE and ECR-EDU Core Research project administered through the NSF’s Racial Equity in STEM program. The collaborative research grant funds an SMU-led partnership among nine colleges and universities to study the role invited guest lecturers can play in promoting diversity, inclusivity, and student success in undergraduate STEM education. Over a five-year period, ADVISE will use a randomized controlled trial to study the causal effects of guest lecturers on individual- and classroom-level outcomes such as student belonging and classroom climate as well as student grades and persistence in STEM majors.
CORE and TFA are long-term partners, collaborating to examine impacts of TFA corps members and alumni across Texas. In 2025, a refreshed look at Texas impacts is being conducted through the Educational Research Center (ERC).
CORE is working in partnership with Dallas College’s School of Education (DC-SOE) to conduct a comprehensive, multi-year evaluation of the early educator workforce development pipeline. This initiative aims to assess and enhance the effectiveness of the pipeline, ensuring it meets the needs of aspiring educators and the educational system. Dallas College’s innovative teacher preparation pipeline stands out as the first community college in the state of Texas to be certified to provide a four-year bachelor’s degree, marking a significant milestone in higher education. The evaluation, which is partially funded by The Moody Foundation’s MPACT initiative, will feature a series of key questions designed to understand what strategies are most effective, for whom they work best, and under what circumstances they yield the best outcomes. This thorough analysis will help inform future improvements and support the development of a robust early educator workforce.
This project aims to estimate the effects of completing college-level courses during high school (e.g., dual-credit, AP/IB) on students' postsecondary outcomes, including college enrollment, persistence, and completion. While the prevalence of high school courses for college credit has increased substantially across the U.S. during the 21st century, research evidence to date is inconclusive regarding its overall benefits, the conditions under which it is most beneficial for students and the extent to which results vary among historically disadvantaged student groups. This project answers the need for trustworthy evidence through a meta-analysis of all rigorous quantitative analyses released between 2000 and 2025, accounting for variations of effects by program type, institution level, student characteristics, and research design.
This project aims to explore the impacts and opportunities that emerge when using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to construct personalized algebra problems for 7th grade students. The project builds on prior work that established that personalized algebra interventions that connect math to students’ interest in areas like sports or video games could increase both core algebraic knowledge and STEM career interest for students with low academic achievement. Further, this project will gain a better understanding of how to employ AI to support teachers, developing new models for how to make teaching more efficient and effective while still preserving the teachers' agency. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. Specifically, the research questions will investigate the impact of AI-generated word problems (with and without AI-generated images) on student math performance, study the tradeoffs for both students and teachers for the two different GenAI personalization strategies, investigate changes in how teachers understand student interests and posing math story problems as a result of using GenAI, and investigate how teachers can use prompt engineering to produce personalized problems. The project will use participatory approaches to engage teachers in iterative cycles of design, increasing the likelihood that the approach will draw upon learners’ funds of knowledge.
Semiconductors are essential components of electronic devices, enabling advances in all important applications and systems such as communication, healthcare, and national security. The project aims to help high-school students develop skills and career interests in the semiconductor fields through an innovative game-based learning platform, hands-on activities, and industry field trips. The overarching research question is: To what extent do the designs and integration of AI Educator (a generative AI tool for education), game-based learning, and hands-on experiences provide equitable access and strengthen students’ engagements, awareness, interests, and knowledge in STEM careers? The AI Educator will provide students with suggestions, assistance, and additional insights about the subject. The AI component will tune the output content based on the student’s interests and preferences to make the experience more relatable. Data collection will include students’ attitudes, game activities, and hands-on learning outcomes. Design-based research methods will be used incorporating the NASA Task Load Index, t-test, interviews, and surveys to understand students’ learning and efficacy of the game and workshop curriculum. The Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework will be used and refined throughout the AI and game technology integration into the semiconductor curriculum and education pathways. The project will be designed with a focus on equity, accessibility, engagement, and collaboration, catering to students from diverse backgrounds. For more information: 
This project utilizes egocentric social network analysis to gain deeper insights into how adult learners of color make decisions regarding (re)enrollment in postsecondary institutions. By focusing on the social networks that surround these learners, the research highlights the significant influence that their "ecosystem"—comprising the communities that support and are supported by them—has on their decision-making processes. Through this lens, the project aims to expand our understanding of the critical role these ecosystems play in shaping educational choices. The findings are expected to provide valuable insights that can help postsecondary institutions refine and enhance their outreach and support strategies by actively engaging not only the learners themselves but also the broader communities that influence their educational journeys.
Dallas Police Department (DPD) and SMU faculty from the 
EIM2 (Equitable and Interactive Mathematical Modeling) is an NSF DRK-12 project that positions students to use mathematical modeling to analyze and quantify real-world situations through a lens of equity. The project enables collaborations with seventh grade classrooms and a professional learning community of their mathematics teachers. The EIM2 online platform allows students to easily select socially relevant modeling scenarios based on their interests; experience the scenarios with visuals and animations; and compare, synthesize, and refine their mathematical ideas. SMU received supplemental funding for this project, which will enable DISD and other Dallas area schools to be an implementation site for EIM2.
The purpose of 
This three-year project centers on enhancing software accessibility by equipping college instructors and students with both technical and design skills needed to create accessible software. Dr. Lin Lipsmeyer works with Dr. Stephanie Ludi and Dr. David Keathly to explore shifts in skills and attitudes, both short-term and long-term, by integrating instructional materials, facilitating hands-on activities, and fostering interactions with individuals with disabilities. The anticipated outcome is a greater number of graduates who not only understand the unique needs of people with disabilities but also possess skills that promote inclusivity and are well-trained in designing accessible software. For more information: 
CORE serves as the Texas site lead for on the impact of Active Playful Learning, funded by the LEGO Foundation. The APL initiative, led by Dr. Kathy Hirsch-Pasaek, has assembled a team of early childhood education researchers and leaders to implement APL coaching in 4 distinct districts to promote learning that is active, engaged, meaningful, socially interactive, iterative, and joyful. States chosen for the study sites include Texas, California, Illinois, and Virginia.
McNair Scholars Project
Upward Bound Math Science
The Garcia West Dallas STEM School Anticipatory and Aligned Learning project is designed to support direct connections to learning from the classroom to home. Our primary focus for aligning family and community learning is through training parents/community members on hands-on STEM activities. Additionally, parents and community members can attend Family Learning Hub events hosted in cooperation with the Garcia WDSS PTA meetings and The Parent Zone, is a series of West Dallas community-wide family learning events.
The goal of 
Upward Bound
CORE is partnering with the Walton Family Foundation to launch The Advancing Evaluation in Philanthropy Fellowship program to help support the next generation of evaluators working in philanthropy. The two-year-long fellowships will focus on developing professionals of color and utilizing more culturally responsive evaluation designs. With the support of the Walton Family Foundation, CORE will be able to help Fellows gain rigorous and real-world experience in research and evaluation in philanthropy.
Project SCALE
The 
Educational Talent Search (ETS)
Researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and 91ƬSϼ will investigate the efficacy of a Work-Learn model for providing individuals experiencing homelessness with the skills and scaffolding that will enable them to enter the job market. The research team will examine the impact of integrating micro-internships with online courses targeting computer science skills for homeless adult learners and analyze the interaction among group dynamics and learner success and barriers and successful learning outcomes. The research goal is to test the efficacy of the Work-Learn model in supporting the ability of people experiencing homelessness to complete a MOOC and successfully transition to information technology (IT) sector jobs. To achieve this goal, the researchers will investigate four research questions: (1) How can the Work-Learn model incentivize learners and support persistence in completing learning tasks and challenges? (2) Do peer learning structures work as effectively with persons experiencing homelessness as with traditional MOOC students? (3) What learner attributes and experiences are associated with success? and (4) How does industry partnership support re-training of persons experiencing homelessness for IT jobs? The research team will develop and implement course modules, in a peer learning context, addressing computational thinking, COBOL, and Python that enable learners to learn by doing in a MOOC environment. They will engage homeless shelter staff and private-sector partners to support skills development and paid micro-internship placement. The team will investigate how these partnerships function to support this population of learners and how learners’ well-being is impacted. The research results will inform interventions that employ scalable technology to re-skill or up-skill adults who do not necessarily have access to workforce training tailored to high-demand and financially stable technology jobs and careers.
This 5-year project draws on research on informal math learning, problem-posing, and culturally sustaining pedagogies to conduct cycles of participatory design-based research on technology-supported math walks. Dr. Candace Walkington serves as PI and leads the project team that is conducting research on a location-based mobile app for informal mathematics learning. This research takes place at 9 informal learning sites and involves iteratively designing an app () in which learners can view and contribute to an interactive map of math walk “stops” at these sites (Dallas Arboretum, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Zoo, Frontiers of Flight Museum, the GEMS Camp, the Girl Scouts STEM Center of Excellence, St. Phillips School and Community Center, Twelve Hills Nature Center and Voice of Hope Ministries). Learners will be able to select locations and watch short videos or view pictures with text that describe how mathematical principles are present in their surroundings. For example, learners could use the app to discover how a painting by a local Latino artist uses ratio and scale, or how a ramp in downtown was designed with a specific slope to accommodate wheelchairs. Research studies will also examine the impact of having learners create their own math walk stops at local informal learning sites, uploading pictures, descriptions, and linking audio they narrate, where they make observations about how math appears in their surroundings and pose interesting questions about STEM ideas and connections they wonder about.
Racial discrimination is illegal in the United States. However, linguistic discrimination is not similarly prohibited, even though some common beliefs about language are deeply rooted in racism. In recent decades, scholarship that critically examines the relationships between language, race, and racism has had transformative effects on language arts education. However, comparatively little work has explored the effects that critical linguistics can have in science education. This study, funded by a grant from the Spencer Foundation, will explore the influence of critical linguistics in science education by investigating the sensemaking of current and prospective K-12 science teachers as they learn about African American English (AAE) in their teacher education coursework. AAE is a well-documented language variety historically associated with African American communities in the United States. Research on AAE has played a central role in the development of sociolinguistics, and many universities now offer courses which assign readings about AAE. These texts sometimes employ strategic essentialism to debunk racist stereotypes and raise awareness of the ways in which language ideologies reproduce systemic racism. However, some scholars have expressed concerns about strategic essentialism; while it may help to foster critical language awareness, it may also inadvertently reinforce problematic beliefs about racial identity. Essentialist beliefs about race are already a topic of considerable concern in science education. It is therefore crucial to understand how science educators make sense of information about AAE in their teacher education coursework. This study will use repeated-measures surveys and interviews to investigate science teachers’ sensemaking and racial ideologies. Findings will provide practical and theoretical insights to help science teacher educators reap the benefits of critical linguistics while avoiding the pitfall of reifying essentialist ideologies of race.
A generous gift from the Toyota USA Foundation has enabled SMU Simmons, Dallas ISD, the West Dallas community, and Toyota to form a partnership to open the 
In 2015, SMU joined with Literacy Instruction for Texas (LIFT) to participate in the Barbara Bush Adult Literacy XPRIZE and develop a 
The project will develop computational tools (R package and a Shiny app) for estimating sentence, passage, speed, and accuracy parameters for ORF assessment data based on the model-based approach. Ultimately, the project aims that the model-based approach to ORF assessment data developed by the previous and current projects would be widely applied by educational researchers who utilize ORF assessment scores in their research and ORF assessment programs who report ORF scores to teachers, parents and students to improve the validity and reliability of ORF scores for better use of ORF scores in classrooms. The project will also develop web-based tutorials for supporting applied researchers who use the R package and Shiny app.
This project explores collaborative embodiment in the domain of geometric reasoning, leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) technology. AR is a technology that allows the layering of virtual components onto the physical world, such as projecting a three-dimensional hologram of a cylinder atop a real-world desk. Embodiment encompasses the idea that students can learn mathematics using physical motions, gestures, and their perceptions of objects and shapes. Theories of collaborative embodiment, i.e., theories that account for multiple people working together in an embodied way, are needed that take into account the multi-learner nature of mathematics classrooms, and how learners can jointly embody mathematical ideas using different tools and representations. Recent advances in multi-user instructional technology, namely shared holographic AR or shAR, allow for new and important hypotheses about collaborative embodiment to be tested. ShAR is AR technology where multiple learners can view and manipulate the same holograms together at the same time – in our case, holograms of different geometric shapes and solids. We hypothesize that different modalities for math learning (like a hologram, a set of physical manipulatives, a dynamic geometry system (DGS) on a tablet, or a piece of paper) have different affordances, including the degree to which they can represent dynamic transformations, can represent objects and operations in 3 dimensions, can support joint attention, and can provide situational feedback. This project is developing an experimental platform modeled after the Flatland novella, a piece of mathematical fiction from the 1800s about an imaginary world run by geometric shapes, to test our hypotheses. This platform will facilitate data collection from students, situate experimental tasks in an engaging narrative story, and allow for researchers to control key experimental variables. Our overarching research questions are: How do different modalities for collaborative embodiment, particularly shAR, impact student understanding of geometric principles? How are these effects mediated by gesture, language, and actions, and how are they moderated by student and task characteristics? This project is a collaboration between the Department of Teaching and Learning at SMU, the Guildhall at SMU, the Department of Educational Psychology at UW Madison, and a software company GeoGebra who will create the AR geometry environment.
The purpose of this project is to develop an online formative assessment that measures the science vocabulary knowledge of Latinx bilingual students (LBS) with different levels of English and Spanish language proficiencies. Results from the assessments can be used to progress monitor students, help teachers differentiate language and vocabulary instruction, and provide additional science vocabulary supports within a Response-to-Intervention approach.
This project will develop a tablet application to administer the CORE ORF assessment, by integrating a locally optimized automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine and an automated scoring algorithm by applying a machine learning model to score accuracy, speed, and prosody. This project will develop an automated scoring system to measure, unite, and scale the speed, accuracy, and prosody of ORF for students in grades 2 to 4. Research has shown that prosody explains variance in reading comprehension beyond rate and accuracy; however, current ORF assessments neglect the measurement of prosody. This project can increase the reliability and validity of decisions made from ORF scores, resulting in better identification of students in need of reading interventions, and better evaluation of those interventions.
The purpose of Project Intensity is to conduct a randomized control trial (RCT) in schools in Alabama and Texas to evaluate the initial efficacy of Friends On The Block () a comprehensive text‐based early literacy intervention written by professors Dr. Jill Allor, Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba, and Dr. Jennifer Cheatham, to enhance the reading and language outcomes of participating students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Specifically, 240 students with IDD will be randomly assigned to a literacy intervention treatment condition (Friends on the Block (FOTB)) or a business‐as‐usual (BAU) control condition. Students in the treatment condition will receive the intervention from Project Teachers across two academic years. In addition to examining treatment effects on reading and language outcomes, we will explore moderators (e.g., IQ, SES) of the treatment. Friends on the Block is a comprehensive early literacy intervention designed to be inclusive and address the specific challenges and strengths of students with IDD; it includes a range of customizable and motivating materials comprised of: (1) a researcher‐developed book series, (2) explicit lessons that provide extensive opportunities for students to integrate skills and apply them in a meaningful context, and (3) multiple learning games to support practice and review. The books include narrative stories about the main character, Sam, and his friends on the block and related expository texts. The FOTB program is flexible and customizable, so teachers can adjust the pacing and instructional activities to meet the needs of various learners, particularly those with intensive needs, such as students with IDD.
Simmons faculty members Stephanie Al Otaiba, Ph.D. and Brenna Rivas, Ph.D. received a development grant from the Institute for Education Sciences ($1,399,721). The purpose of the grant is to design a read-aloud intervention to improve kindergartners’ social and emotional vocabulary and their listening comprehension. The team will develop and field test 16 book units featuring multi-cultural characters and settings. They plan a mixed methods approach to ascertain the feasibility and promise of the intervention for kindergarteners in low-income schools.
The Dallas Noyce Scholars Program is a partnership between 91ƬSϼ (SMU) and the Dallas College School of Education to create a community-focused pathway for mathematics teacher preparation in the Dallas community. The intent of this program is to allow qualified students with a sincere desire to teach in high-need schools to benefit from an exceptional learning opportunity at SMU with $30,000 in scholarship funding from the National Science Foundation, and possible additional scholarship funding from SMU. While the primary thrust of the grant is scholarship funding, we are simultaneously studying how different features of the program impact teacher preparation and retention.
National Science Foundation has awarded Corey Clark, Ph.D., Leanne Ketterlin Geller, Ph.D. and Eric Larson, Ph.D. a $1.5 million four year grant to research teaching computer science and computational thinking via Minecraft. Efforts to increase intrinsic interest in math and data science have proven difficult to apply evenly across gender, race, and socio-economic factors. This research project will assist in creating a more stable, ethical, and inclusive data science workforce by broadening the interest in data science to a more diverse population of students. This research spans the fields of game design, human computer interaction, machine learning, curriculum design and educational assessment by integrating essential computer science standards directly into Minecraft. The game and infrastructure produced through this research will serve as a vital computing resource for middle and high school educators that will be sustained beyond the current project.
This grant will provide scholarships of $8,000 to 10,000 to a unique cohort of up to 10 pre-service teachers undergraduate and graduate teacher preparation programs in the