External Resources

Organization: Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts

The Vaughn Gross Center is focused on improving reading instruction for all students, especially struggling readers, English language learners, and special education students. The Center provides leadership to educators in effective reading instruction through its diversified research, technical assistance, and professional development projects. From translating research into practice to providing online professional development, the Center emphasizes scientifically based reading research and instruction.

https://www.meadowscenter.org/vgc/

Organization: Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES) at the University of Houston

TIMES is a multidisciplinary center focused on the application of measurement, evaluation, and statistics to the improvement of behavioral, psychological, and educational outcomes through research, training, and dissemination.

http://www2.times.uh.edu/

Organization: The IRIS Center for Faculty Enhancement

This national effort, serving college faculty members working in preservice preparation programs, aims to ensure that general education teachers, school administrators, school nurses, and school counselors are well prepared to work with students who have disabilities and with their families. The IRIS Center is placing special education content into interactive Web-based learning modules that incorporate the STAR Legacy model (a problem-solving approach that commences with a challenge for students to resolve).

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/

Organization: National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)

NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals, and individuals with learning disabilities; promotes research and programs to foster effective learning; and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities.

http://www.ncld.org/

Organization: National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE)

NASDSE provides services to state agencies to facilitate their efforts to maximize educational outcomes for individuals with disabilities. NASDSE is a not-for-profit organization established to promote and support education programs and related services for children and youth with disabilities in the United States and outlying areas. NASDSE establishes and maintains relations between those responsible for the development of statewide and federal special education programs and those responsible for general curriculum planning at the local, state, and national levels. NASDSE activities are designed to provide professional support to its members and others interested in special education.

http://www.nasdse.org/

Organization: Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR)

The Florida Center for Reading Research conducts basic research on reading growth, reading assessment, and reading instruction; disseminates information about research-based practices related to literacy instruction and assessment for children in preschool through 12th grade; conducts applied research that will have an immediate impact on policy and practices related to literacy instruction in Florida; and provides technical assistance to Florida’s schools and to the state Department of Education for the improvement of literacy outcomes in students from pre-K through 12th grade.

http://www.fcrr.org/

Organization: Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

CEC is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides continual professional development, advocates for newly and historically underserved individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice.

http://www.cec.sped.org/

Organization: Center on Instruction (COI)

The Center on Instruction is a gateway to a collection of scientifically based research and information on K–12 instruction in reading, math, science, special education, and English language learning. The Center on Instruction is one of five content centers serving as resources for the 16 regional U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive Centers. Its Web site includes links to topic-based materials, syntheses of recent research, and exemplars of best practices.

http://www.centeroninstruction.org/

Organization: The Access Center

The Access Center is a national technical assistance (TA) center funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. Its mission is to improve educational outcomes for elementary and middle school students with disabilities. It does this through building the capacity of TA systems, states, districts, and schools, to help students with disabilities learn from the general education curriculum.

http://www.k8accesscenter.org/

Organization: Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

CAST is a nonprofit organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies.

http://www.cast.org/

Organization: Children’s Learning Institute (CLI)

The University of Texas Health Science Center’s Children’s Learning Institute, combines data and studies from the fields of psychology, neuro-development, education and child development to provide proven learning solutions derived from, and supported by, documented research. While several programs came together to form the Children’s Learning Institute in 2003, their documented research represents work that started as far back as 1990.

https://www.childrenslearninginstitute.org/

Organization: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD, established by U.S. Congress in 1962, conducts and supports research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families, and populations. Some of these topics include learning about growth and development; examining, preventing, and treating problems of birth defects, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities; and enhancing well-being of persons with optimal rehabilitation research.

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/about/

Organization: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

The mission of the Texas Education Agency is to provide leadership, guidance, and resources to help schools meet the educational needs of all students. This Web site includes a Teacher’s Tool Bag, which is a compendium of information for teachers for all grade levels from across the state. In addition, TEA provides an online library and reference catalog, as well as an online union catalog of Texas school library holdings, to districts and campuses within the state. Students and teachers may download citations and full text articles from numerous national and state sources with this initiative.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/

Organization: Texas Reading First Initiative (TRFI)

TRFI is the implementation of the Texas Education Agency’s Reading First funding, allocated under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Here you can find information about TRFI’s statewide professional development and technical assistance efforts.

http://www.texasreading.org/utcrla/pd/trfi.asp