School Psychology Leadership Specialization in Response-to-Intervention Research and Systems Change
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Educational Psychology, received funding from the U.S. Department of Education to create a doctoral specialization track in Response-to-Intervention (RTI) to begin in Spring 2005. The grant will provide funding to doctoral students who will take coursework and have supervised field experiences that train them to conduct research in RTI as an alternative model for identifying educational disabilities. In addition, doctoral students will learn to provide consultation to districts on how to implement and evaluate RTI models of service delivery. As such, the doctoral school psychology program at UNL will be enhanced for students taking this specialization track to generate leaders in the field who can help schools through research and practice in state-of-the-art methods to meet the needs of students with academic difficulties.
The goals of the project are to recruit high quality school psychology doctoral students and prepare them to be leaders in (a) providing culturally-sensitive response-to-intervention services to addresses complex educational needs of students with disabilities; (b) delivering consultative, intervention-based services within the educational setting; and (c) conducting research and contributing to the knowledge base in the areas of response-to-intervention and systems change. Through their involvement and completion of the specialization track, doctoral school psychology students will acquire competencies related to knowledge, skills, and leadership. Specifically, participants will demonstrate (a) knowledge of academic and behavioral interventions, systems of consultation, psychoeducational evaluation, response-to-intervention models; (b) skills in the practical application of response-to-intervention procedures, including consultation and student evaluation, culturally-sensitive educational services, intervention design and evaluation, application of systems change principles, and program evaluation; and (c) leadership competencies related to systems level consultation and evaluation, research design, including single-case experimental designs and student growth modeling, generating external funding to support research and program development, and capacity building.
For additional information on this investigation, please contact:
Dr. Edward Daly or Dr. Merilee McCurdy
Project Key Investigators: Edward Daly (PI), Merilee McCurdy (PI), Susan M. Sheridan, Gina M. Kunz
Graduate Assistants: Amanda Albertson, Melissa Andersen, Sara Kupzyk, Courtney LeClair, Stephanie Schmitz, & April Turner
