Michigan State University
Associated IES Content
Grant
Exploring Extended Time Eligibility and Use to Inform Equitable and Appropriate Practices
The primary purpose of this project is to explore the use of extra time accommodations during mathematics testing for students with disabilities. Extended time for testing has repeatedly been identified as one of the most common accommodations offered to students with disabilities. Although well intentioned, such frequent provision of extended time is concerning given that existing empirical work has demonstrated extended time provision to have only a very weak positive effect on test scores...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A240095
Grant
The Development and Testing of a Professional Development and Telepractice Intervention to Support Family Member Use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication
The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot test the Family Telepractice AAC Modeling Intervention (FamTAM). Family members are critical communication partners for children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Evidence suggests that children who use AAC experience the best outcomes when family members are well-trained and highly engaged in AAC use. However, families are rarely provided with the training necessary to support AAC. The FamTAM intervention wil...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A230039
Grant
Development and Validation of Complementary Measures of Early Writing: Teacher Practices and Child Outcomes
In this project, researchers will develop and validate complementary measures of early writing assessing both teacher practice (tWRITE) and child development (cWRITE). The tWRITE and cWRITE, together with the iWRITE, an intervention for teachers to enhance early writing development based on a previous IES funded study, will form the WRITE system. The innovative development of two assessments that are theoretically aligned and empirically linked will provide valid and reliable data on childre...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A210122
Grant
Effect of a 9-Month Soft Skills and Work-Based Employment Training Program in Improving Transition Students' Success: A Randomized Controlled Trial Study
The purpose of this study is to test the relative efficacy of Project SEARCH (a widely used transition program with internships) alone compared to Project SEARCH plus Assistive Soft Skills and Employment Training (ASSET)and Employment Preparation and Skills Support (EPASS) for improving work-related social skills, job readiness, and employment outcomes of transition-age high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In Michigan, 81% of individuals with IDD...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324L190002
Grant
A Longitudinal Investigation of the Friendship and Bullying Experiences of Middle School Youth with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability
The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct a program of research to better understand the risk factors and consequences of bullying for middle school students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) while she participates in mentoring and training activities to develop expertise in ASD, school-based research, multi-level modeling, and grant-writing.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324B170003
Grant
Fourth and Fifth Graders' Growth in Writing Knowledge, Motivation, and Performance: The Influence of Teacher Instruction and Assessment Practices in the Context of Common Core State Standards
Little is known about what occurs during classroom writing instruction and its relation to student writing outcomes. The proposed study examines the relation between 4th- and 5th-grade student growth in writing (i.e., knowledge, motivation, and performance) and teacher classroom writing instruction and assessment practices. The study will examine student-level and classroom-level covariates and potential teacher-related moderators. The study will also examine how much the content of the CCSS...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A160049
Grant
Development and Feasibility of the Improving Writing Resources and Interactions in Teaching Environments through Professional Development (IWRITE-PD) for Teachers of Economically Disadvantaged Children
The purpose of this project is to develop and test a professional development program, the Improving Writing Resources and Interactions for Teaching Environments through Professional Development (IWRITE PD), to support preschool teachers' use of writing during instructional activities with the goal of improving children's writing, literacy, and oral language skills. Young children's writing skills are related to their letter knowledge, word recognition, and phonological awareness skills, and...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A150210
Grant
Project i-SMART: Intervention to Support Mindset and Reading Together
The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate an intensive, supplemental reading intervention (i-SMART) that embeds growth mindset supports to improve reading and motivational outcomes for students with significant reading difficulties (RD) in the middle grades (Grades 4-5), including those with learning disabilities (LD). Reading interventions for students in middle grades yield smaller effects than those in primary grades. One possible reason why existing reading interventions sho...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A230242
Grant
CALDER Recruitment & Retention (CALDER-R&R)
CALDER-R&R examines policies addressing teacher shortages and their impact on teachers, student learning, and equity. Two important perspectives undergird the Center's work. First is the understanding that teacher shortages are not a single phenomenon. Instead, they exist in specific subject areas (for example, science and mathematics), among teachers from specific backgrounds (for example, teachers from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds), in specific schools (for e...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305C240007
Grant
Exploring Students' Progression in Developing Quantitative Knowledge-in-Use about Energy
Energy is a central idea in science. Many students, however, struggle to understand and apply quantitative ideas about energy and its conservation, in part because energy continues to be taught using the compartmentalized 19th century language of "forms". Building off prior work in middle schools, this research team will develop instructional materials and assessments for high school physics that focus on building students' quantitative energy knowledge to solve real world problems, referred...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A230401
Grant
Quantifying the Robustness of Causal Inferences: Extensions and Application to Existing Databases
The purpose of this project is to advance, extend, and apply existing sensitivity analysis techniques to make them most useful for education research and practice. Specifically, the researchers will expand the Impact Threshold for a Confounding Variable (ITCV) and the Robustness of Inference to Replacement (RIR) approaches to a variety of designs and design features, such as differential attrition, moderation analyses, and regression discontinuity designs. In doing so, the researchers hope t...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305D220022
Grant
Writing Architect: A Web-based Tool for Adapting Writing Instruction to Meet Students' Needs
The purpose of this project is to develop a tool, the Writing Architect, that will assist teachers in connecting evidence-based writing instruction with students' needs as identified in a digital classroom written composition assessment. The goal is to improve late elementary students' written composition in response to text (informational writing) and to use assessment results more effectively for instructional purposes.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A210061
Grant
Improving Education Systems Through Interdisciplinary Training and Practice: Applying Social Science to Education Policy and Implementation Research
The Michigan State University Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Program will provide training to prepare doctoral students to conduct education policy research in collaborative partnerships with education agencies and postsecondary systems.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305B200009
Grant
Evaluating Michigan's Early Literacy Law: Impacts, Implementation and Improving State Capacity
The purpose of this project is to assess the implementation, impact, and cost of the Michigan "Read by Grade 3" law which is intended to increase early literacy outcomes for Michigan students.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H190004
Grant
Online Training for Paraeducators to Improve Communication Supports for Young Children with Complex Communication Needs
The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot test an online training program, the POWR System, for paraeducators and their supervising special education teachers to improve the communication skills of young children with complex communication needs by supporting their use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. Young children with complex communication needs, who are unable to use speech to express their needs, exchange information, or develop close relationships,...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A180122
Grant
The Development and Validation of the Inventory of Phonological Awareness using Alternative Responses (IPAAR): An Assessment of Phonological Awareness Appropriate for Children with Speech Production Difficulties
The purpose of this study is to develop a computerized adaptive test of phonological awareness, called the Inventory of Phonological Awareness using Alternative Responses (IPAAR). Phonological awareness, the explicit awareness of and ability to manipulate the sound structure of language, is a key predictor of later literacy development. However, there are no standardized, validated tools of phonological awareness suited to meet the needs of children with limited speech production, despite th...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A150063
Grant
Spatial Ability as a Malleable Factor for Math Learning
Previous research shows that children and adults who perform better on spatial tasks also perform better on tests of mathematical ability. However, the relation between spatial and math ability is not yet well understood. This grant will conduct studies to clarify which aspects of spatial ability relate to different aspects of math performance, and gather evidence regarding whether training to improve spatial ability also improves math performance. Results will lay the groundwork for the dev...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A150588
Grant
Constructing Value-Added Indicators of Teacher and School Effectiveness that We Can Trust
This project sought to improve value-added models by addressing two central issues involved in establishing the validity of inferences based on value-added models (VAMs). The first issue concerns the accuracy of measures of students' achievement growth. Educational tests that under-represent the full range of desired skills and knowledge, and that substantially shift emphasis on particular constructs from year to year, will underestimate students' growth in achievement and may lead to statis...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305D100028
Grant
RCT Training Institute
Well-executed randomized experiments provide the strongest evidence about causal effects of educational interventions, products, and services. Consequently, they have a crucial role to play in establishing a base of knowledge for the improvement and reform of American education. Yet the number of individuals with the knowledge and experience necessary to design, implement, analyze, and interpret randomized field experiments in education is surprisingly small. A training institute aimed at fa...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305U110001
Grant
Development and Validation of the Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP)
Professionals who work with young children have access to very few standardized and validated tools for assessing young children's narrative abilities. This is true despite the fact that a strong consensus among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers has emerged that affirms that narratives are an important aspect of early language development that can be reliably measured and improved through intervention. The purpose of this project is to develop and validate a useable, standardized,...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A110293
Grant
Alignment Across K–12 Writing Standards, Assessments, Achievement, and Postsecondary Expectations: A State-by-State Analysis
This study will analyze all 50 states' writing content standards and large-scale assessments to identify relationships between them. The project will further examine the relationships between these state policy instruments and (1) student writing achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for fourth grade; (2) research-based writing assessment and instructional practices; and (3) postsecondary expectations in the domain of writing.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A100040
Grant
Interdisciplinary Pre-Doctoral Research Training Program
The Michigan State University (MSU) Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Program in the Education Sciences provided a doctoral specialization in the economics of education and aimed to prepare fellows in the use of quantitative methods from the field of economics to answer education questions.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305B090011
Grant
Making Sense of Concrete Models for Mathematics
To help children connect their intuitive understanding of mathematics to related symbolic procedures, some educational theorists have advocated for the use of concrete models during instruction. Current theories identify several mechanisms that might be engaged by concrete models for mathematics. These models are meant to embody mathematical relationships more transparently than everyday objects. For example, to teach place value concepts, a set of beads may be used to illustrate the relatio...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A080287
Grant
Using Contrasting Examples to Support Procedural Flexibility and Conceptual Understanding in Mathematics
In this project, researchers proposed to develop and evaluate an instructional approach that uses contrasting examples in order to foster flexible mathematical problem solving. Flexible problem solving requires that students integrate the procedural knowledge that they have gained of specific actions for solving problems with conceptual knowledge of general mathematical principles. The instructional approach asks students to compare solution procedures in the context both of algebra problem ...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H050005
External Person
Katharine Strunk
Katharine O. Strunk, PhD, is the faculty director of EPIC, and is the Clifford E. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Education and a professor of education policy and by courtesy economics at Michigan State University. She is an expert on K-12 education governance, including teachers’ unions, collective bargaining agreements, and portfolio management models, as well as teacher labor markets, school turnaround, and accountability policies. Her work has been published in highly regarded...
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