Neag School of Education faculty member Devin Kearns has received an $650,000 grant from the Institute of Education Services (IES), as part of a larger $1.6 million grant with other colleagues, to develop a middle school co-teaching program to encourage collaboration between content-area and special education teachers and to improve the reading skills and content-area knowledge of students with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project is exciting because co-teaching is very popular, but there are few programs designed specifically to help educators improve the effectiveness of co-teaching,\u201d says Kearns, an assistant professor of special education. \u201cMany districts are implementing co-teaching models, but very few districts have provided their teachers with sufficient professional development and ongoing support to make sure co-teaching works well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Current research indicates that many co-teachers feel confused about their roles and responsibilities, and so do not provide the level of reading support that students with disabilities need. At the same time, the level of literacy necessary for postsecondary education and employment has increased dramatically over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor their long-term success, students with disabilities need reading support in every class. But they just aren\u2019t getting it,\u201d says Kearns. \u201cThis research project is focused on middle-schoolers to help them prepare for high school reading demands. High school teachers often assume students are ready to read their textbooks, but they aren\u2019t. Even students with typical achievement struggle with textbook reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-year project, funded by the IES \u2013 the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education \u2013 will take place in middle schools located in Griswold, Conn., and Worcester, Mass. Kearns and Vanderbilt University assistant professor Christopher J. Lemons are co-principal investigators with the University of Maryland, College Park assistant professor Jade Wexler. Wexler is the lead investigator.<\/p>\n
The researchers will work with 22 co-teaching pairs \u2013 one special education teacher and one content-area teacher \u2013 and 264 of their eighth-grade students. The main product of the project will be a fully developed program to help middle school co-teachers provide better content-area reading support for students with, and at risk for, disabilities.<\/p>\n
The researchers are trying to create a program focused on developing teacher skills and that will result in student achievement. \u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of data showing the relationship between teacher professional development and student achievement,\u201d Kearns says. \u201cOne important goal is that this system of helping teachers develop their skills will result in real outcomes for students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the researchers\u2019 focus is to create a program that school districts and teachers can implement without investing a lot of time and money. \u201cWe going to try and minimize the amount of support that\u2019s required for teachers to do this well,\u201d Kearns says. \u201cOne tricky thing about new programs is that schools get lots of support at the beginning from the developer. And then that goes away, and the program falls apart. We\u2019re designing this so that doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cJade, Chris, and I were all teachers, and we understand what schools are like. We want our program to be manageable. We want teachers to be able to learn what to do and start doing it quickly and easily.\u201d Kearns adds. \u201cWe know it won\u2019t work if it takes too much time or is too complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, he says, \u201cIf co-teachers learn a way to improve reading and content-area skills that will fit into their busy days, student with disabilities \u2013 and their peers \u2013 will leave middle schools with the reading skills they\u2019ll need to succeed in\u00a0high school and beyond. We\u2019re excited to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project begins this fall.<\/p>\n