NSF PR 99-62 - October 8, 1999
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Unique Interagency Education Research Initiative Kicks
Off With First Grants
Projects to Build New Learning,
Teaching Strategies in Core Subjects
The National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department
of Education (ED) and the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD) this week announced
awards under a new and unique Interagency Education
Research Initiative (IERI). The 14 grants total $28.5
million to 12 institutions in nine states. They will
support research to identify education strategies
that improve the teaching and learning of reading,
mathematics and science from pre-kindergarten through
grade 12. The strategies will focus on the use of
information and computer technologies in education.
"The first round of IERI awards is an important
step toward improving the quality and utility of educational
research for the betterment of our schools,"
said Arthur Bienenstock, associate director for science
in the President's Office of Science and Technology
Policy. "This interagency team has responded
ably to the calls of the President's Committee of
Advisors on Science and Technology to support these
interdisciplinary, rigorous, large-scale studies in
precollege education."
"These research projects are addressing real-world
problems facing today's teachers and parents, including
how to best help children successfully develop reading
and math skills early in their academic careers,"
noted James Griffin, the IERI Team Leader from ED's
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI).
"The majority of these studies include children
from diverse racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds,
ensuring that the research will reflect the day-today
realities of students, parents and teachers."
These awards "demonstrate a diverse collection
of studies with strong methodologies that could have
a wide impact on education," said John Cherniavsky,
NSF's program manager for the initiative. The awards,
he explained, examine the effects of school-wide change
on academic performance, as well as how technology
can play a meaningful role in classroom instruction
and the professional development of teachers.
Reid Lyon, chief of the child development and behavior
branch at NICHD, emphasized the interdisciplinary
nature of the IERI, saying the rigorous education
research methodology "draws on cognitive science
research, clinical studies, and educational practice."
Under the University of Michigan's $4.1-million project,
"Developing Measures of Instructional Improvement,"
researchers will build upon OERI-supported, four-year
longitudinal studies in leading whole school interventions
involving 20,000 elementary school students in high
poverty areas. While increasingly popular whole school
models have shown promise in small-scale evaluations
for raising elementary school student achievement
in reading and mathematics, they have not yet been
subject to large scale evaluation. The results of
this project will move the field beyond the current
"case study" approach to evaluating whole
school reform. It will do this by developing new ways
to identify the components of these interventions
that lead to improved student performance in mathematics
and reading.
The University of Texas Health Center-Houston's nearly
$4 million interdisciplinary study, "Early Development
of Reading Skills: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach,"
will use multiple interventions and assessment methods
to address questions of how to best tailor, sequence
and integrate early reading instruction to promote
literacy. A particularly exciting component of this
study involves the use of advanced brain imaging technology
to track changes in neural function of students receiving
different types of instruction as they learn to read.
The results of this project will inform efforts aimed
at the prevention, early identification, and remediation
of early reading difficulties.
Another IERI award is a $3.6-million grant to Carnegie-Mellon
University for its "Classroom Use and Efficacy
of an Automated Reading Tutor that Listens."
Using speech understanding and synthesis technology
developed with NSF support, this project will explore
the efficacy of an automated reading tutor for young
children who are at risk for reading difficulties.
The unique tutor "listens" as the student
reads aloud and coaches the student, using a cognitive
model of the reading process, to help the student
develop skills necessary for reading. Experiments
with successive prototypes of the reading tutor that
run on commercially available computers will lay the
foundation for its transition into affordable, effective,
sustainable and scalable interventions of major benefit
to children.
For more information on IERI, see: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/eri-ed-nsf/IERIAwards/default.html
Editors/other contacts:
Attachment: List of IERI
Awards
For more information on PCAST's "Report to the President
on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education,"
see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/INSTC/PCAST/pcast.html
Attachment
Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) Awards
University of Michigan
Deborah Ball Amount: $4,105,152
Developing Measures of Instructional Improvement
University of Texas Health Center-Houston
Jack Fletcher Amount: $3,974,486
Early Development of Reading Skills: A Cognitive Neuroscience
Approach
Carnegie-Mellon University
David Mostow Amount: $3,645,114
Classroom Use and Efficacy of an Automated Reading
Tutor that Listens
Education Development Center
David Dickenson Amount: $3,626,975
Using Technology to Support Preschool Teachers' Professional
Development
Yale University
Robert Sternberg Amount:
$3,022,986
An Evaluation of Teacher Training for Triarchic Instruction
and Assessment
San Diego State University
Randolph Philipp Amount:
$2,832,544
Integrating Mathematics and Pedagogy (IMAP): An Investigation
of the Effects on Elementary Pre-service Teachers'
Beliefs and Learning of Mathematics
Vanderbilt University
Diana Sharp Amount: $1,617,542
Cognitively-Based, Multimedia Support for a Balanced
Approach to the Development of Early Reading in School
and Home Contexts
University of California-Berkeley
Prentice Starkey Amount:
$1,586,709
The Early Development of Mathematical Cognition in
Socioeconomic and Cultural Contexts
University of California-Riverside
Kathleen Metz Amount: $999,786
What Are the "Developmental Needs" of Young
Children in Science?: Revision of Developmental Constraints
on K-3 Science Education
Michigan State University
Nell Duke Amount: $994,219
Dick, Jane, and Spot Meet the Information Age: Diversifying
Genres Used in Early Literacy Instruction
University of California-Riverside
Robert Calfee Amount: $944,112
Reading and Writing about Science: A Design-Experiment
Strategy
Michigan State University
Victoria Purcell-Gates Amount:
$839,785
Explicit Explanation of Genre Within Authentic Science:
Does It Facilitate Development and Achievement?
University of Missouri-St. Louis
Matthew Keefer Amount: $253,482
An Inquiry-based Approach to Professional Development:
Using Prototypes to Help New Teachers Reflect on Project-based
Learning
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Frank Rusch Amount: $99,794
Planning Grant for a Data Center
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