University of Massachusetts, Boston

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the Smooth Sailing professional development (PD) program for improving the student-teacher relationships (STRs) and academic, social, and emotional-behavioral outcomes for early elementary-age autistic students. Children's relationships with teachers during the early school years impact their concurrent and long-term school adjustment. Unfortunately, autistic students experience poorer quality relationships with teachers relative to th...

The goal of this project is to explore and compare critical aspects of two transition approaches-a college-based transition experience and a conventional high school or community-based transition experience-and examine the associations between involvement in those programs and student employment outcomes for students with intellectual disability and/or autism (ID/A). Historically students with ID/A have had one of the poorest college access and employment outcomes of all disability groups. T...

The goal of this project is to explore whether and how the information special educators provide to parents about transfer of rights and guardianship may either support or limit students' transition outcomes for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Special education regulations state that parental decision-making rights will transfer to students at the age of 18 unless parents of students with IDD obtain guardianship over their children. During transition planning...

The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct a program of research to improve teachers' use of evidence-based, culturally and contextually relevant academic and behavioral classroom practices. The PI will also participate in mentoring and training activities to develop expertise in instrument development, psychometric analysis, and the coordination of a multi-year research project. The PI intends to further develop and validate a teacher self-assessment, the Assessment of Culturally and Cont...

This project proposed to fully develop a class-wide motor skills intervention, CHildren in Action: Motor Program for PreschoolerS (CHAMPPS), for preschool children with developmental disabilities. Many of these children have delays in motor development, yet do not engage in structured motor play and physical activities to improve these skills. Enhancing motor development is an important goal itself, but fundamental motor skills are also linked to the development of cognitive processes and so...

The purpose of this project is to develop Advancing Equity (AE), a training and coaching intervention to center equity in the design and implementation of Tier 1 supports within multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) for social-emotional-behavioral (SEB) health across elementary and secondary schools. Students' SEB functioning is inextricably linked to academic success and lifelong outcomes. Support for SEB functioning for racially and ethnically minoritized students with or at risk for disa...