Greg Roberts

The purpose of this project is to develop, refine, and pilot test a job-embedded professional learning model for fourth- and fifth-grade teachers focused on increasing the quality of language and literacy instruction for English Learners (ELs). This project builds on the team's previous Model Demonstration work as leaders of Project ELITE, funded by the Office of Special Education Projects, U.S. Department of Education, which focuses on building educators' capacity to meet the language and l...

A large direct contributor to comprehension problems in middle school students with or at risk for reading disabilities is pervasive difficulty in making inferences necessary for understanding what is read. Because literacy attainments in middle school are highly predictive of postsecondary success, middle school provides a later developmental window within which to intervene for struggling adolescent readers. Consequently, a technology-based inference-making intervention, Connect-IT-Compute...

The postdoctoral research program will provide postdoctoral fellows with extensive research training in multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), including the development and evaluation of interventions for students with disabilities and innovative and robust methodology, such as a sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials. The overarching goal of this program is to prepare four fellows (with 2 years of training each) to conduct rigorous intervention research focused on students with dis

This project will develop an intervention to address a significant problem for students with word-level reading disability (WLRD; i.e., specific learning disability in basic reading, dyslexia): reading words and text with automaticity. There is evidence that (a) poor reading fluency is a consistent and persistent characteristic of WLRD across written languages, and (b) word- or text-reading fluency skills are particularly resistant to intervention. The intervention will address previously un...

The purpose of this project is to develop an adaptive intervention model (AIM) used by instructional leaders to provide ongoing professional development (PD) to content-area middle school teachers as they implement Tier 1 evidence-based literacy practices. Significant numbers of adolescents do not adequately understand complex texts, impeding their school success, access to postsecondary learning, and job opportunities. The problem is even greater for students with disabilities, as evidenced...

The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct a program of research for improving the reading outcomes of students with or at risk for co-occurring reading disabilities and attention problems. In addition, the PI will participate in mentoring and training activities to develop knowledge and skills related to this particular group of students, the use of single-case design to inform intervention development, and the analysis of group design data. A growing body of research indicates that a sub...

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of the reading comprehension intervention, PACT-Promoting Adolescents' Comprehension of Text, for middle school learnerswith disabilities. PACT has demonstrated efficacy for improving outcomes for students without disabilities, but has not been rigorously evaluated for learners with disabilities. Data from the prior efficacy study do suggest the intervention is promising for learners with disabilities. Many adolescents with disabilities do no...

The goal of this project is to build and optimize an adaptive intervention within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) model to improve elementary school students' academic and behavior outcomes. The overall adaptive intervention will consist of various combinations of academic (reading or math) and behavior (self-regulation) strategies designed to improve academic engagement and learning. Behavior problems and academic problems often co-occur, as learning difficulties may lead to frustr...

The purpose of this study is to design and test a technology-based intervention aimed at improving how middle school students with reading disabilities make inferences while reading. Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that students with disabilities continue to perform at the basic level with little change in comparison to their typically developing peers in the past few administrations of this assessment. There is preliminary evidence that improvements in ...

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of Tier II Algebra-readiness Intervention Modules (Project AIM) designed to improve mathematics achievement for sixth- and seventh-grade students with difficulties in mathematics. Student success in Algebra I has been linked to greater ability to be successful at the post-secondary level and to garner higher-wage jobs. There is a critical need to ensure middle school students with mathematics difficulties are better prepared for Algebra I. Ho...

The purpose of this project is to test the effectiveness of the Promoting Acceleration of Comprehension and Content through Text (PACT) intervention, which has been shown to have efficacy in improving middle school students' content-area reading comprehension. Researchers have found that a significant number of adolescents and young adults do not understand complex text, which in turn negatively impacts their ability to succeed in school, attend college, and be successful in the workplace. I...

This project will test the efficacy of providing intensive reading instruction and/or a program to prevent dropout to high school ELLs who are at risk for not completing high school. In general, ELLs are less likely to graduate from high school than their monolingual peers. This may be related to lower skills in reading comprehension in English and higher rates of absenteeism and disciplinary problems than their monolingual peers. Students will participate in the intervention in 9th and 10...

The goals of this project are to (a) improve our knowledge of cognitive processes that underlie reading for understanding to identify malleable processes that may be targets of intervention, and (b) provide knowledge about the role of engagement and motivation in enhancing reading comprehension outcomes, and integrate and apply the findings from these studies to develop and test the efficacy of interventions for students with reading comprehension difficulties in grades 7-12. This work is gr...

The purpose of this project is to test the efficacy of an individualized reading intervention (Reading Interventions for Adolescents; RIA) and a dropout prevention intervention (Check & Connect; C&C) separately and combined for secondary students with reading difficulties who are also at risk for dropping out of school. Despite improved knowledge about effective reading interventions for students in the younger grades, much less is known regarding effective interventions and reading instruct...