Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

In this project, the research team will iteratively develop and study MARACAS (Math and Reading Acquisition Co-Adaptive System), a set of individualized reading supports for students embedded within an adaptive mathematics learning system (MATHia) and associated teacher application (LiveLab). Teachers face significant barriers in supporting the needs of middle school students with reading difficulties (RD) when learning to solve mathematics problems. To address this need, MARACAS will be dev...

The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot test a technology-based professional learning system to support teachers in providing more effective writing instruction to seventh- and eighth-grade students with high-incidence disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, emotional and behavioral disorders, dyslexia). Students who graduate from high school without the writing skills required for college success or gainful employment are at a disadva...

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of the intervention, Universally Designed for Learning Science Notebook (UDSN), aimed at increasing fourth-grade students' science content knowledge. This study will be a replication study that builds on the results of a prior efficacy trial, but will cover a broader range of science content and have a larger sample. Eighty-two percent of fourth-grade students with disabilities performed at or below the basic level on the most recent science ...

The goal of this project is to develop and formatively evaluate the Composition Builder (CB), a web-based, guided-process writing tool that supports students in grades 6-8 in writing persuasive and expository compositions. Ensuring that students master effective writing requires a standards-based supported, digital writing environment that maximizes instructional impact for students with different learning needs, strengths and challenges. The proposed tool will incorporate the process-writin...

Students with disabilities tend to lag behind their peers in science achievement. For example, on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 13 percent of students with disabilities in Grade 4 were proficient in science, and 4 percent were proficient in Grade 12. To date, very little rigorous research has been conducted to develop and evaluate science interventions for students with disabilities. This project will develop and conduct an initial evaluation of a universally desig...

The purpose of this project was to develop and test a technology-based instructional approach to improving reading comprehension among diverse struggling fifth-grade readers, including English language learners (ELLs). Over 3 years, the researchers planned to conduct 3 studies that developed and refined a digital reading environment called a universal learning edition (ULE), which has strong, embedded supports for reading strategies and active vocabulary learning. At the end of this project,...