University of Minnesota
Associated IES Content
Grant
Individual Growth and Development Indicators for Hmong Preschoolers: High-Quality Screening Tools for Diverse Learners
Research on language and literacy has provided information on English development, domain specific skills, and the trajectory of early literacy and language skills. However, little attention has been focused on low incidence populations, including ethnically and linguistically diverse students. Hmong Americans, one subgroup of Asian Americans, represent one of the most underserved cultural communities in the US. Hmong Americans represent an important Asian sub-group that may experience a neg...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A210097
Grant
Initial Efficacy Trial of a Group-Based Implementation Strategy Designed to Increase Teacher Delivery of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs
The purpose of this project is to test the effects of BASIS-T (Beliefs and Attitudes to Support Implementation in Schools - Teachers) on the implementation and student outcomes of evidence-based prevention programs (EBPP) via a hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness trial. Failing to address individual-level motivational factors of implementers is especially costly, as individual behavior change is ultimately required for successful EBPP implementation, even when organizational factors s...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A220481
Grant
Individual Growth and Development Indicators: Automated Performance Evaluation of Early Language and Literacy in Español: IGDI-APEL Español
The purpose of this project is to expand the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI) suite of psychometrically robust measures for Spanish-speaking dual language learners (DLLs) by developing and validating measures for 3-year-olds. In order to support educators in making databased decisions that will lead to improvements in student outcomes, these measures will be designed to be sensitive to the practical demands of conducting assessment in community early education settings by ...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A200090
Grant
Video- and App-Based Naturalistic Language Instruction (VALI) for Spanish-Speaking Caregivers to Support Bilingual Language Development in Children With or At Risk for Language Delays
The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct a program of research for improving outcomes among young dual language learners (DLLs) with language delays, while participating in mentoring and training activities to develop knowledge and skills related to this population, methods for developing and evaluating interventions, and writing and dissemination. Early language skills are critical for later reading and school achievement, yet little is known about effective language interventions for y...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324B200038
Grant
Development and Pilot Testing of the Sleep to Enhance Educational Performance in Schools (SLEEPS) Curriculum
The purpose of this study was to develop and pilot test Sleep to Be a Better You, (initially called Sleep to Enhance Educational Performance in Schools (SLEEPS)), a program to support middle school students' healthy sleep habits and thereby to promote better behavior, engagement, and performance in school. Sleep problems are common among middle school students, with up to 60 percent failing to get sufficient sleep (National Sleep Foundation, 2006). The Sleep to Be a Better You program uses a...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A180265
Grant
Exploring Predictors of Transition Planning Participation and Future Goal Aspirations of Secondary Students with Disabilities
The purpose of this project is to examine associations between student-, family-, and school-level factors, students' involvement in the transition planning process (as part of their Individualized Education Program [IEP]), and students' future goal aspirations for postsecondary education, employment, economic independence, and independent living. While research supports the connection between student involvement in the IEP process and post-school outcomes, there has been limited investigati...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A180178
Grant
Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII)
In this project, researchers will develop the automated, interactive, cloud-based, instructional software, Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII), meant to improve reading comprehension of kindergarten students by focusing on teaching students how to make inferences when they read. Many elementary school students are not able to understand the overall meaning of text or to make simple inferences about what is happening in the text. One possible response to this educa...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A170242
Grant
Development and Evaluation of the Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools for Teachers (BASIS-T)
The purpose of this project was to iteratively refine and pilot test the feasibility and efficacy of an implementation enhancement intervention, the Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools for Teachers (BASIS-T). This intervention is intended to strategically impact key individual-level factors that facilitate teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices and programs (EBPPs) to support students' social, emotional, and behavioral skills. In schools, implementati...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A170292
Grant
Supporting Teachers' Implementation of Data-Based Instruction in Early Writing: An Efficacy Study
The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of Data-Based Instruction: Tools, Learning and Collaborative Support (DBI-TLC), aimed at improving teachers' use of data to promote positive outcomes for children with intensive early writing needs. Although writing is critical to students' success in school and afterwards, little is known about effective ways to support teachers in improving outcomes of students who experience significant writing difficulties. Data-based instruction (DBI)...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A170101
Grant
Expanding Early Language and Literacy Spanish Individual Growth and Development Indicators to Monitor Progress: PM-S-IGDIs
The purpose of this project is develop a preschool early language and literacy progress monitoring tool in Spanish, Progress Monitoring-Spanish-Individual Growth and Development Indicators (PM-S-IGDIs), to complement a progress monitoring tool in English (PM-IGDIs) that will be developed with funding from IES. The development of a Spanish progress monitoring tool will allow for frequent assessment of the phonological awareness, oral language, and alphabet knowledge of 4- 5- year old Spanish-...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A160077
Grant
Making Progress with Progress Monitoring: Developing Early Literacy and Language Individual and Growth Development Indicators as Progress Monitoring Tools
The purpose of this project is to develop a progress monitoring tool that can be used to assess young children's language and literacy skills and identify children in need of intervention. The research team will develop and validate the Progress Monitoring Individual Growth and Development Indicators (PM-IGDIs), which will assess phonological awareness, oral language, alphabet knowledge and comprehension for 4- and 5-year-old children. The PM-IGDIs will build on and use items from existing ...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A160080
Grant
Expanding Individual Growth and Development Indicators of Language and Early Literacy for Universal Screening in Multi-Tiered Systems of Support with Three-Year-Olds
The purpose of this project is to develop an extension of an existing measurement system, Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs), to assess the language and literacy development of three year old children and screen children for supplemental intervention in oral language, phonological awareness, and alphabet knowledge/concepts of print. IGDIs are general outcome measures of early development that have been used for screening and progress monitoring in a Response to Intervention...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A160034
Grant
Developing a Technology-Based Early Language Comprehension Intervention (TELCI)
This project developed the Technology-Based Early Language Comprehension Intervention (TELCI) for first- and second-grade students with or at risk for disabilities who experience reading comprehension difficulties. According to the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress, approximately a third of fourth-grade students struggle in the area of reading comprehension, making it crucial to address these difficulties in earlier grades. A disproportionate number of students with reading co...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A160064
Grant
Methods for Addressing Measurement Error Issues in Longitudinal Educational Studies
The purpose of this project was to investigate different methods of using a two-stage framework to address measurement error in the estimation of latent theta scores obtained from standardized tests through item response theory (IRT). In the two-stage approach, an appropriate measurement model is first fitted to the data, and the resulting theta scores are used in subsequent analysis. Potential benefits of this approach include clearer definition of factors, convenience for secondary data an...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305D170042
Grant
Individual Growth and Development Indicators: Automated Applications for Performance Evaluation of Early Literary (IGDI-APEL)
The purpose of this project is to develop a tablet-based application (app) that provides a comprehensive early literacy Response-to-Intervention (RTI) experience for children and supporting material for their educators. Based on already existing paper-and-pencil materials that include assessments for screening and identification (Individual Growth and Development Indicators, or IGDI), this technology-based app will also allow for the real-time collection and analysis of student data, result...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A140065
Grant
Decision Rule Research Project: Curriculum-Based Measurement in Reading
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is frequently used to estimate the rate of individual student progress and evaluate instructional effects. CBM resources provide teachers with guidelines and decision rules for interpreting CBM scores and making instructional and placement decisions based on the data. However, these guidelines and rules have little information about their technical adequacy, indicating that potentially high-stakes decisions could be made with little support for the reliabil...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A130161
Grant
Supporting Teachers' Data-Based Instruction in Early Writing: Tools, Learning, and Collaborative Support
Learning to write is critical to students' overall literacy development. Writing provides students with the means to communicate what they know and is important for integrating knowledge and critical thinking. Beyond the K-12 school years, lack of writing proficiency can have a serious impact on postsecondary and employment opportunities. Improving student writing outcomes is particularly important for students with or at risk for disabilities that affect writing. Researchers found that only...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A130144
Grant
Research and Development of Spanish Individual Growth and Development Indicators (S-IGDIs): Early Literacy Identification Measures for Spanish-English Bilingual Children
The need to understand and prevent low academic achievement in the growing student population of English language learners is one the greatest challenges facing educators today. Existing research provides limited information regarding how trajectories of early literacy and language development in Spanish-English bilingual children predict later literacy achievement. In addition, early childhood programs that seek to promote children's later literacy performance have few tools available to he...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A120449
Grant
Computer Based Assessment System for Reading (CBAS-R): Skills Analysis and Progress Monitoring
Despite the recent increase in the number of reading assessments created for use in classrooms, very few assessments are designed to provide ongoing instructionally-relevant information to teachers. Useful reading assessments may be those that help teachers to identify students who are at risk for reading problems. In this study, researchers intend to further develop and validate the Computer-Based Assessment System for Reading (CBAS-R), which is designed to be a highly-efficient tool to mon...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A120086
Grant
Learning of Ratio and Proportion Problem-Solving Using Schema-Based Instruction: Efficacy and Sustainability
The mathematics performance of U.S. students by Grade 8 is below the international average on more advanced mathematics topics including geometry, measurement, and proportionality. One explanation for the lower levels of performance may be students' difficulties with proportional reasoning, which is considered to be a capstone of elementary mathematics and a necessity for the more advanced mathematics that students encounter in high school and college. Building upon work from a prior IES Goa...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A110358
Grant
Making the Right Connections: Improving the Comprehension of Struggling Readers
The National Assessment of Educational Progress indicates that 33 percent of 4th graders and 26 percent of 8th graders read below a basic proficiency level. Further, research indicates that 80 percent of students with learning disabilities have severe reading difficulties. Late elementary school, when comprehension of more challenging content is required, is a time when some students first begin to develop reading difficulties. Therefore, this project focuses on addressing this problem in fo...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A110046
Grant
Minnesota Partnership for School Connectedness
The middle school years are associated with declines in academic performance, motivation to achieve, and self-perceptions for many students, making this a critical time to implement strategies that build connections and engage students in learning. The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot test a professional development intervention, the Minnesota Partnership for School Connectedness (MPSC), to enhance middle school teachers' ability to increase students' cognitive, behavioral, af...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A100064
Grant
Formative Assessment and Instrumentation Procedures for Reading
Progress monitoring measures, unlike summative assessments, allow for the depiction and analysis of student growth and are uniquely suited for the evaluation of students' response to instruction and intervention. Assessments that measure individual student growth and progress must not only be reliable and valid, but they must also allow for frequent measurement, be brief and easy to administer, and consist of a number of alternate forms so that the same test does not have to be used across r...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A090038
Grant
Making the Connection: Engaging and Retaining Young Adults in Postsecondary Education
The purpose of this project is to develop a set of specific intervention strategies that promote the retention of students, ages 18-30, attending community colleges. The strategies will be based, in part, on Check & Connect (C&C), a secondary dropout prevention and intervention model that has been successfully tested and validated with high school students in multiple studies. The project seeks to determine the feasibility of adapting the secondary C&C to create a postsecondary model to in...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A090122
Grant
Enhancing the Mathematical Problem Solving Performance of Sixth Grade Students Using Schema-based Instruction
At the time of this study, there was emerging evidence to support reform-based mathematics methods and curricula, but data regarding the impact of these reforms for students at-risk for math failure were limited. In this study, the researchers planned to develop and pilot test instructional practices using schema-based instruction to enhance the mathematical problem-solving performance of sixth grade students.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305K060002
Grant
Efficacy of Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII)
This project team will evaluate the efficacy of a supplemental instructional program called ELCII (Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction). ELCII, developed with prior IES funding, provides opportunities for supplemental early instruction in language comprehension skills, which are much needed to prevent long-term negative reading outcomes. Specifically, ELCII focuses on training a core language comprehension skill, inference making, in kindergarten. The project will examine...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A220107
Grant
Assessing Teacher Applicants: What Can be Learned About Inservice Teacher Quality and Retention by Applying AI to Applicant Short-Answer Questions
The importance of teachers to student success is hard to overstate. Improving school's ability to select more effective teachers is an obvious avenue for improving their workforce. This exploration study will contribute to a small but promising recent body of research on teacher selection, which shows that districts have choice amongst applicants, and can obtain information during the application process that is predictive of both teacher effectiveness and retention. One widely used selectio...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A220479
Grant
Content-Integrated Language Instruction for Adults with Technology Support
This research team will refine and pilot test a curriculum for use in adult education U.S. history/civics and integrated English courses. Many adult education centers offer integrated English literacy and civics education classes to help adults develop English proficiency, build their knowledge of U.S. history and civics, and work towards accomplishing their goals, such as participating more fully in their communities and citizenship. However, adult education programs do not have theory- or ...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305N210032
Grant
Computer Adaptive Storybook Assessment (CASA)
The purpose of this project is to develop a new tablet-based measure in English and Spanish, Computer-Adaptive Storybook Assessment (CASA), to monitor language and literacy progress in preschoolers with disabilities or at risk for later language difficulties. Language and early literacy development are key hallmarks for later academic and social success. Studies demonstrate a relationship between language and early literacy performance during preschool across three domains (oral language, ph...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A210088
Grant
Project PACT: Development and Refinement of the Planned Action and Commitment Tool (PACT) for Strategic Measurement of Implementer Commitment
The purpose of this project is to develop the Planned Action and Commitment Tool (PACT), a measure that can be used by school districts and state departments of education to assess barriers and supports for the implementation of practices in schools that support the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A190182
Grant
Project Engage: Developing a Cloud-Based Measurement System for Data-Informed Implementation of Practices Promoting Children's Active Engagement
This project will develop a technology-enhanced observation system, the Tool to Observe Practices and Supports for Engagement (TOPSE), to simultaneously monitor and promote the use of essential provider interaction practices while measuring children's active engagement within early learning environments. Children's engagement with their environment is an essential ingredient for learning, and hence crucial to preschool child outcomes including school readiness. Although global classroom qual...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R324A170032
Grant
Addressing the Growing Diversity of Preschool Populations through Low Incidence Language Barriers: Hmong Language Development to Improve Assessment Approaches
In an age of growing early childhood accountability, research has focused on improving instruction, measurement, curricula, and professional development in early childhood education settings for most teachers and the children they serve. However, within these advances, little attention has focused on low incidence populations, including ethnically and linguistically diverse students. Current data from St. Paul Public Schools indicate that preschool Hmong students are significantly more at ri...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H170073
Grant
Research Partnership to Improve Human Resource Management in Minneapolis Public Schools
In this project, researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and St. Catherine's University will partner with the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) to examine MPS teacher effectiveness measurement and teacher hiring practices. Improving teacher selection (either through improvements in recruiting and screening or through selective retention after a period of observation and performance measurement) could lead to improved performance in the teaching workforce. Researchers, however...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305H160036
Grant
Promoting Executive Function to Enhance Learning in Homeless/Highly Mobile Children
The goal of this project was to improve student learning by applying advances in developmental cognitive neuroscience to create an intervention targeting the executive function (EF) skills of impoverished preschoolers experiencing homelessness or high residential mobility. Prior research indicated that EF skills among these children often lagged behind the level expected for school readiness and also predicted difficulties with early school adjustment. EF refers to the neurocognitive process...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305A110528
Contract
National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012)
Despite improvements over time, students with disabilities continue to face challenges in graduating and achieving other milestones towards independence after high school. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) seeks to address these challenges by requiring schools to provide the supports students need to complete high school and pursue postsecondary education and work. This study will provide an updated national picture of students' paths through high school and beyond,
Federal funding program:
Contract number:
ED-IES-10-C-0073 (Phase I); ED-IES-15-C-0046 (Phase II)
Grant
Research on Accessible Reading Assessments
Learning to read and the demonstration of reading proficiency are cornerstones of educational success. This project addresses the question of whether current large-scale reading assessments result in a valid demonstration of reading proficiency for students who have disabilities that affect reading. The mission of the Center is to conduct a systematic program of research and development to make large-scale assessments of reading proficiency accessible to such students.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
H324F040002
Grant
Minnesota Interdisciplinary Training in Education Research
The University of Minnesota's Interdisciplinary Training in Education Research (MITER) program aimed to develop education researchers able to apply experimental methodology and cognitive sciences to practical educational issues.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305C050059
Grant
High School Exit Examinations and NAEP Long-term Trends in Reading, Mathematics and Science, 1970-2004
This project will investigate the relationship between long-term trend [LTT] NAEP achievement data and external information about states' high school exit examination [HSEE] policies.
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R902B040019
Grant
Improving Comprehension of Struggling Readers: Connecting Cognitive Science and Educational Practice
In this study, the researchers proposed to develop and pilot test a set of interventions to improve students' reading comprehension. These interventions were to be based on rigorous theoretical and empirical work that had direct relevance for educational practice and that would improve the underlying reading comprehension processes of struggling readers. The researchers contended that prior research was limited because it did not focus on both online processes and offline products of strug...
Federal funding program:
Award number:
R305G040021
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