National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention

Overview

The National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention (NCLII) is a new consortium funded by the Office of Special Education Programs. This consortium will prepare special education leaders to become experts in research on intensive intervention for students with disabilities who have persistent and severe academic and/or behavioral difficulties. NCLII scholars will participate in a core curriculum focused on intensive intervention and will contribute to the Intensive Intervention Network, a website designed to advance research on and implementation of intensive intervention. The project will provide opportunities for scholars to participate in cross-institutional research activities. In addition, the consortium will provide opportunities for scholars to intern with national centers supported by the Office of Special Education Programs (i.e., Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform; National Center on Intensive Intervention; IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University) and the Institute of Education Sciences (i.e., Accelerated Academic Achievement Center).

Project Design

Purpose

The aim of NCLII is to increase the number of special education leaders who have expertise in meeting the co-occurring academic and behavioral needs of students with disabilities who have “intense service needs”—students with high-incidence (e.g., learning disability, emotional disturbance) and low-incidence (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability) disabilities who require intensive intervention due to persistent and severe academic (i.e., reading and/or mathematics) and behavioral difficulties.

Participants

NCLII will fund 28 doctoral scholars at seven partner institutions—Vanderbilt University, Southern Methodist University, University of Connecticut, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Minnesota, The University of Texas at Austin, and Virginia Commonwealth University.