Announcements
February 2010
Texas Youth Commission Project training continues
MCPER recently hosted the second installment of reading intervention training for Texas Youth Commission (TYC) reading teachers. MCPER once again was privileged to have nationally known presenter, educational consultant, and author Dr. Anita Archer provide the training for the reading intervention being used in this project. Dr. Jade Wexler, Shannon Hewgley, Michael Solis, Leah Sayre, and Jacob Williams of MCPER presented the remaining components of the intervention. MCPER continues to work collaboratively with TYC to develop and implement an adolescent reading intervention that is in accordance with Texas Senate Bill 1362, which requires TYC to provide at least 60 minutes per school day of individualized reading instruction to each student in a TYC educational program who exhibits deficits in reading.
Deborah Reed earns doctorate
Deborah Reed, principal investigator for MCPER’s Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies project during its development and early implementation, successfully defended her dissertation entitled The Contribution of Retell to the Identification of Struggling Adolescent Readers on February 17. Dr. Reed is a graduate of the Department of Special Education in The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education. Dr. Reed, who has been with MCPER since its inception, wasted no time getting back to work after her defense (see photo
)! Please join us in congratulating her.
Autism Institute publication highlights the critical role of family involvement
Nina Zuna, a Fellow in the Autism Spectrum Disorders Institute, has co-authored an article with researchers from the Beach Center on Disability at the University of Kansas that explores how to help families join professionals in the educational decision-making process. The article, Knowledge-to-Action Guides: Preparing Families to be Partners in Making Educational Decisions, appears in the January/February 2010 issue of Teaching Exceptional Children, a journal published by the Council for Exceptional Children. More information about the paper and the ways in which institute faculty members are working in the autism spectrum disorders community can be found on the institute’s Research and Community Engagement page.
Webinar to explore the identification of specific learning disabilities in a response to intervention framework
A Texas Center for Learning Disabilities webinar on February 17 examined the identification of specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in the context of a response to intervention (RTI) model of service delivery. Presented by Dr. Jack M. Fletcher of the University of Houston, the webinar contrasted models of SLD identification and provided methods for operationalizing a proposed model in the context of an RTI framework. A live question-and-answer session with Dr. Fletcher followed the formal presentation. The webinar is open to anyone interested in the topic. An archive of the webinar is posted on the TCLD Web site.
MCPER associate director to deliver keynote address at Idaho response to intervention conference
Dr. Greg Roberts, MCPER’s associate director, will deliver the lunch keynote address at the Idaho State Department of Education’s RTI Conference 2010. The conference will be held April 13 and 14 in Boise. National, regional, and state researchers and practitioners in the field of education will join Idaho teachers, principals, support personnel, and district administrators to learn about implementing the response to intervention (RTI) framework for academics and behavior.
MCPER joins forces with Sigma Lambda Beta, Manor ISD to provide mentors for at-risk students
MCPER’s Preventing School Dropout With Secondary Students project is working collaboratively with the UT Austin chapter of the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity and Manor ISD’s Project Mentor to provide mentors for at-risk students enrolled in Project GOAL at Decker Middle School. Sigma Lambda Beta mentors will participate in “lunch bunch” groups and other mentoring sessions with their mentees, with discussions focusing on engagement in school activities, important life choices, and future opportunities. The goal is to provide at-risk eighth-graders with a role model with whom they can relate. Mentors also will participate in a community service project with their mentee as well as attend Project GOAL’s Explore UT field trip on March 6.