From left to right: John Hagar, Dean Sally White, and Linda Rhen

During a two-day visit to Pennsylvania this July, John Hagar, assistant secretary of the office of special education and rehabilitative services, made sure his travels took him to South Mountain.

It’s there, at the College of Education and its Center for Promoting Research to Practice, that some of the nation’s most innovative research in education is taking place.

Hagar made the trek to Iacocca Hall along with Jim Button of the Office of Policy and Planning. They were joined by Linda Rhen, director of the bureau of special education for the Pennsylvania department of education.

Why the fanfare?

Hagar, Rhen and other education advocates and policy-makers have continued to recognize Lehigh’s commitment to children with learning disabilities. Their interest in the issue partly stems from a 2002 report issued by the President’s Commission in Excellence in Special Education, which challenged educators to think of children with disabilities as general education students.

It’s an approach to which Lehigh has staked a claim.

Ground-Breaking Research
The day before his visit to Lehigh, Hagar was speaking to the Pittsburgh Teacher-to-Teacher Conference 2006 when he mentioned Lehigh University’s Ed Shapiro, director of the Center for Promoting Research to Practice.

Hagar was talking about progress monitoring, an area of research that assesses and evaluates students’ academic performance beginning at an early age—sometimes, pre-kindergarten.

Shapiro, along with his colleagues Naomi Zigmond at the University of Pittsburgh and Fran Warkomski, Director of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN), are the principal investigators for Project MP3 (Monitoring Progress of Pennsylvania Pupils). It’s just one of three national projects funded by office of special education and rehabilitative services that is designed specifically to address the field of progress monitoring.

So Hagar’s visit to Lehigh to speak with Shapiro and his Project MP3 researchers was especially inspiring.

“I was honored to have Assistant Secretary Hagar select Project MP3 out of many others he could have visited,” said Shapiro. “Clearly, his visit represents the national importance that the project holds with the U.S. Department of Education.”

Project MP3 is a three-year grant will help develop a model for monitoring and identifying children with problems in reading ranging in age from pre-elementary through fourth grade. Along with Lehigh, the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance and Training Network are partners in the project.

Sally White, dean and professor in the College of Education, agrees with Shapiro. The college, once again recognized as one of the nation’s premier graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report, has made innovative research and faculty recruitment a priority.

“Ed and his colleagues have already contributed so much in the field of early intervention. The outcomes from Project MP3 could very well have implications not only here in Pennsylvania, but across the country,” White explained. “We really are on the cusp of some exciting developments that could change the way we identify—and address—students with learning disabilities.”

Project REACH
That rings true for other Lehigh initiatives in the College of Education as well, each generating national interest in its own right. Project REACH is no exception.

A national center also funded by Hagar’s office, Project REACH—or Research Exploring Alternatives for Children—works with students who have been identified as having the most intensive social, emotional and behavioral needs. Lee Kern, professor of special education at Lehigh, is the principal investigator along with Frank Gresham, Lousiana State University.

Kern and her associates talked with Hagar about the project, which is in its third year and includes 106 students from both Pennsylvania and California.

“Assistant Secretary Hagar and his office have been avid supporters of the project, and the funding provided by them has really allowed us to develop new approaches for students with social, emotional and behavioral difficulties,” said Kern. “Thanks to their support, our research will continue to improve the lives of children with disabilities.”

The project helps to explore individual intervention techniques that make classrooms positive and productive learning environments for all students.

The visit also included a working lunch that allowed the College of Education’s graduate students to discuss these research activities—as well as current trends in education policy on the state and federal level—with both Hagar and Rhen.

In particular, Rhen spoke about the efforts within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to launch the Response-to-Intervention initiative, a method to potentially identify and intervene with students at early ages who are at-risk for learning disabilities based on their responses to scientific, research-based interventions. Shapiro and Joe Kovaleski of Indiana University of Pennsylvania are co-facilitating statewide training efforts, along with support personnel from PaTTAN and Intermediate Units across Pennsylvania.

“It was a great opportunity to showcase not only the high-level of research our college is committed to, but also the people that make it happen,” added White. “Ed, Lee and their project teams are really what drive our reputation.”

Article written: August 2006