Apply for a Two-Week Summer Workshop on Quasi-Experimental Design and Analysis

The National Center for Education Research (NCER), in conjunction with the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at Northwestern University, announces a new two-week training workshop on quasi-experimental design and analysis.

All applications are due by April 20, 2017 and decisions will be made by May 1, 2017.

Dates: July 31-August 11, 2017
Location: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Through this two-week workshop, attendees will learn state-of-the-art quasi-experimental methods for evaluating education interventions. Participants will conduct hands-on analyses of data collected from quasi-experimental designs. Participants in prior quasi-experimental workshops that did not include hands-on training are encouraged to apply. The format will consist of lectures, small group discussions, individual consultations, and small-group practical exercises.

For workshop details, click here.

Application materials are available online at the Institute for Policy Research web site.

For questions about the 2016 Quasi-Experimental Design and Analysis workshop, please contact Rebecca Morris.

For questions about the IES grant supporting this training, please contact Dr. Phill Gagné

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NCSER Announces the 2017 Summer Research Training Institute on SMART Designs

Applications are being accepted for a Summer Research Training Institute on sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMARTs) used in the development and evaluation of adaptive interventions.

All applications must be received no later than April 24, Monday, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

What: Summer! Research Training Institute on SMART Designs
When: June 14-16, 2017 (full-day on June 14 and 15, half-day on June 16)
Where: Washington, D.C.

Interventions in educational settings often require an individualized approach in which the intervention to be delivered is adapted and re-adapted over time in response to the evolving needs of the individual. Adaptive interventions provide one way to operationalize this approach.

The goal of this Institute is to increase the national capacity of education researchers to conduct novel and methodologically rigorous trials for developing and evaluating adaptive interventions. This training is funded by the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) in the Institute of Education Sciences.

For general information about the Training Institute please click here.

For additional information and application procedures for the Training Institute please email National Capitol Contracting (NCC), the NCSER Contractor coordinating this training at: SMARTTraining@nccsite.com.

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Save the Date: 2017 NCES STATS-DC Data Conference

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will host the 2017 NCES STATS-DC Data Conference on August 1 – August 3, 2017 in Washington, D.C.

The Data Conference welcomes proposals for presentations about Common Core of Data (CCD), data collection, data linking beyond K-12, data management, data privacy, data quality, data standards, data use (analytical), data use (instructional), fiscal data, and Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS). Those interested are encouraged to submit a proposal to present a session once registration opens.

More information, including hotel and registration information, will be coming soon!

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IES Releases Education Technology Compendium

Education technology supports teaching and learning for students at all grade levels and across various subjects. Since 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has funded over 400 projects focused on education technology.

A new compendium is now available and provides information about current and completed education technology projects funded by IES’s two research centers—the National Center for Education Research (NCER) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER). The compendium is designed to provide information on completed and current projects in an easily accessible and usable format.

With IES funding, researchers have developed or studied technologies for classroom, school, and education research purposes, including more than 270 web-based tools, 85 virtual environments and interactive simulations, 95 intelligent tutor and artificial intelligence software systems, 50 game-based tools, and 105 computer-based assessments.

For additional information, please view A Compendium of Education Technology Research Funded by NCER and NCSER: 2002-2014.

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REL Midwest Offers Lessons Learned for Working in Collaborative Research Partnerships

Two new reports from Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest describe lessons learned from its efforts to work with states, districts, and other practitioners on identifying and addressing educational challenges.

Reflections from a Professional Learning Community for Researchers Working in Research Alliances

Conducting collaborative research is challenging — especially for researchers who have never partnered with practitioners to conduct research. To address these challenges, REL Midwest formed a professional learning community for its researchers. The researchers found that the structure provided a safe space to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their traditional research training and experiences. It also allowed them to work together to solve challenges related to the collaborative research approach. This report is a reflective piece that summarizes the REL Midwest professional learning community’s lessons learned and describes how its members worked to align available resources to the specific needs of the researchers and developed tools to help one another resolve challenges.

Establishing and Sustaining Networked Improvement Communities: Lessons from Michigan and Minnesota

Networked improvement communities are a relatively new type of collaborative research partnership between researchers and educators. With facilitation from researchers, educators identify problems of practice, the factors that drive the problems, and promising solutions. They then engage in iterative cycles of designing, implementing, testing, and redesigning solutions, while learning from variation across the settings in the networked improvement community. This report shares REL Midwest’s lessons learned from working with educators in Michigan and Minnesota to establish and sustain networked improvement communities, and offers guidance to researchers and educators as they form networked improvement communities in different contexts.

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Awarded Projects March 2017

College of Education
Awarded Projects
March 2017
Principal Investigator: Herman Knopf (AZCEECS/SSESPECS)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: University of South Carolina (Subcontract – NIH Flow Through)
Project Title: Child Care Accessibility Index: Leveraging SC Child Care Administrative Data to Inform State CCDBG Subsidy Policies
Project Period: 9/3/2016 – 9/29/2017
Award Amount: $21,265.99
Principal Investigator: Donald Pemberton (Lastinger Center for Learning)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: Study Edge
Project Title: Support of Algebra Nation Michigan 2016-17
Project Period: 1/1/2017 – 9/30/2017
Award Amount: $10,000.00

 

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Submitted Projects March 2017

College of Education
Submitted Projects
March 2017
Principal Investigator: Susan Butler (STL)
Co-PI: Philip Poekert (Lastinger Center for Learning), Nancy Ruzycki (Materials Science and Engineering)
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Proposal Title: FACTOR: Fostering a Community of Learners to Support Computational Thinking
Requested Amount: $2,491,540
Principal Investigator: Nicholas Gage (SSESPECS)
Co-PI: Ashley MacSuga-Gage (SSESPECS), Joni Splett (SSESPECS), Mary Kristina DePue (SHDOSE)
Funding Agency: US Department of Justice/National Institute of Justice
Proposal Title: Project PASS: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Positive Alternatives to School Suspension
Requested Amount: $2,961,253
Principal Investigator: Dorothy Espelage (Department of Psychology)
Co-PI: Walter Leite (SHDOSE), Philip Poekert (Lastinger Center for Learning)
Funding Agency: US Department of Justice/National Institute of Justice
Proposal Title: Enhancing School Resource Officers’ Effectiveness through Online Professional and Job Embedded Coaching
Requested Amount: $499,431
Principal Investigator: Philip Poekert (Lastinger Center for Learning)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: Heartland Educational Consortium
Proposal Title: Heartland Certified Coaching
Requested Amount: $183,600
Principal Investigator: Philip Poekert (Lastinger Center for Learning)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Proposal Title: Miami-Dade Early Learning Coaching Certification Program
Requested Amount: $23,100
Principal Investigator: Philip Poekert (Lastinger Center for Learning)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: National Career Academy Coalition
Proposal Title: Career Academy Leaders’ Collaborative…an institute for transformational leadership development
Requested Amount: $16,500
Principal Investigator: Philip Poekert (Lastinger Center for Learning)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: Episcopal Children’s Services
Proposal Title: CoachJAX! Advanced Coaching Academy
Requested Amount: $8,500
Principal Investigator: Stephen Smith (SSESPECS)
Co-PI: Nancy Corbett (SSESPECS)
Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Education/OSEP
Proposal Title: Personnel Development to Improve Services for Children With Disabilities – Interdisciplinary Preparation in Special Education – Serving Children Who Have High-Intensity Needs (EBD Prep)
Requested Amount: $996,764
Principal Investigator: Joni Splett (SSESPECS)
Co-PI: N/A
Funding Agency: Society for the Study of School Psychology
Proposal Title: A Mixed Methods Comparison of Universal Screening and School Referral
Requested Amount: $19,919
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Research Spotlight: Danling Fu

Q & A with Danling Fu, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning

What basic questions does your research seek to answer?

Currently I have two research projects I have been working on (1) Comparative studies of K-12 Literacy Instruction between the US and China, and (2) Translanguaging pedagogical model and Emergent Bilinguals in the US.

The research question for the first study:

How do the practices of literacy instruction in the US and China reflect their respective cultural and literacy traditions?

The research question for the second study:

How does “translanguaging pedagogical model” prepare emergent bilingual students to meet the literary demands of the 21st century globalize world?

What makes your work interesting?

My comparative study suggests a shift of research on literacy instruction at K-12 level in the US towards a more global perspective, which is part of an ethical and democratic imperative that furthers a conversation among researchers and educators across the globe about literary traditions, pedagogy, and practice and indicates “two divergent systems may use each other as a mirror to reflect up their own perspectives and practices” (Ma, 2014, p. 5).

My second study challenges the conventional monolingual perspective in second language acquisition and transitional bilingual education, and advocates translanguaging, a pedagogical model that values all language varieties in a learner’s repertoire, leveraged as resources that can be used to facilitate communication and learning and has the capacity to meet needs of emergent bilinguals for the 21st century globalized world.

What are you currently working on?

For the first study, with my co-author in China, we have published 15 articles on the comparative studies of writing instruction (2015-2016) and we have just completed and submitted our book manuscript contracted with Shanghai Education Press (in press 2017).  Now we are moving into our second phase: comparative studies of reading instruction between the US and China.  Three secondary English teachers at PK Yonge Developmental Research School have joined my research team as the second phase of this study will include practitioners’ perspective and voice.

For the second study, in collaboration with two colleagues at Pennsylvania State University and University of Georgia, we have been working on a book proposal titled Literacy and Education for Emergent Bilinguals in the 21st Century: Reality, Challenges and Directions for the Future, commissioned with Teachers College Press, and we are at the revised and resubmission stage.

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Fulbright Awareness Month March 10 to April 10, 2017

The International Center is pleased to announce its celebration of Fulbright Awareness Month, March 10 to April 10, 2017. In collaboration with the UF Fulbright Lectures Committee, UF Honors, the Graduate School, and the North Florida Fulbright Alumni Association, multiple activities for students, scholars, faculty, and staff will provide opportunities to learn about the Fulbright application process and to hear about the experiences of past Fulbright scholars and students.

Additionally this year, information sessions for faculty interested in applying for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program will be led by Dr. Andy Riess, Assistant Director of Outreach at the Council for International Exchange for Scholars (CIES) in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Riess will also be available for consultations with interested faculty applicants.

Below is the calendar of UF events programmed for Fulbright Awareness Month:

  • Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Info Sessions, March 13th, 9am and 2pm, UF International Center, (Individual Consultations Available on the same day) (The Hub)
  • U.S. Student Program Info Sessions, March 15th, 4:05 pm, UF International Center and March 30th, 3:00 pm, UF International Center
  • “Things to Consider When Applying for a Fulbright and Preparing to Go,” Workshop by Karen Reed (for faculty), March 15th, 10:00 am, UF International Center
  • President’s Fulbright Reception (by invitation only), March 15th, 5:30 pm, University House
  • “How to Prepare a Successful Fulbright Application,” April 7th, 3:30 pm, UF International Center, by Anna Calluori and John Freeman (for faculty)

Fulbright grants and fellowships are available in all fields of study and in many world regions. For more information, see http://ufic.ufl.edu/Fulbright/index.html

To learn more about Fulbright programs and activities at UF, contact the appropriate Fulbright coordinator listed below:

Regan Garner, rlgarner@ufl.edu, U.S. Student Program

Debra Anderson, danderson@ufic.ufl.edu, Foreign Student Program

Claire Anumba, canumba@ufic.ufl.edu, U.S. Scholar Program (UF Faculty)

Scott Davis, sdavis@ufic.ufl.edu, Visiting Scholar Program

Matt Mitterko, mmitterko@aa.ufl.edu, Non-resident Tuition Waiver

Charlie Guy, clguy@ufl.edu, UF Fulbright Lecture Series Committee

Carlos Maeztu, maeztu@gmail.com, North Florida Chapter Fulbright Association

For more information, please contact Mabel Cardec at mcardec@ufic.ufl.edu

 

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Informatics Institute 3rd Annual Symposium on March 16

The UF Informatics Institute (UFII) is proud to host its 3rd Annual Symposium Thursday, March 16 from 8 am – 5 pm in Room 2365, J. Wayne Reitz Union. Students, researchers, faculty, and industry professionals from across the nation will join together to interact, share research, and collaborate. To register, see the Registration: UFII Annual Symposium webpage.

Focusing on the latest trends in informatics and the UFII mission of cross-discipline collaborative research, UFII has invited guest speakers from across the campus and outside the UF to present on topics, including election data, text mining, network science, and machine learning. UFII welcomes the participation of anyone actively utilizing cutting-edge informatics technologies and techniques, and anyone who would like to learn more about them.

For more information, see the UFII 3rd Annual Symposium webpage.

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UF Leadership Development Program Applications Open April 1

UF Human Resources Services Training and Organizational Development offers various programs for you to begin or continue your leadership exploration at a level that is most compatible with your career stage as well as your personal and professional aspirations.

Leadership @ UF invites you to examine its Leadership Programs and consider which might best fit your interests.  Please do not hesitate to contact Leadership @ UF to help you assess which program might be right for you.

Below are links to learn more about each of the leadership development opportunities:

This collaboration between UF’s Office of the Provost, Faculty Senate, and Human Resource Services, offers UF academic and professional leaders a program to deepen their leadership skills.

A program designed for emerging leaders at UF offering an immersion in the culture and organizational structure of our institution. This 9-month program includes meetings with UF leaders, a trip to Tallahassee, and a ROPES challenge course.

Any leader completing the development programs is invited to these quarterly events. These engaging forums support continued exploration of leadership issues and provide opportunities for networking and collaboration across campus.

The training content for this program is aligned with the Leadership Competency Model and offers a certificate upon completion. Faculty and staff can participate in these 3-hour workshops at their own pace.

This is a unique opportunity to receive your Supervisory Challenge certificate with a cohort of peers. This venue offers a forum to discuss application of concepts learned in the classes and create a network of support across campus.

A professional development program for faculty and staff ready to hone storytelling skills to inspire support for organizational objectives and to interact with the news media to galvanize people to positive action.

For more information, see Leadership @ UF on the UF Human Resource Services website.

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NSF Holds Spring 2017 Grants Conference

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will hold its Spring 2017 Grants Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, June 5 – 6, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency Louisville and will be hosted by Kentucky’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (KY EPSCoR). The fee to attend is $300. Registration opens at 12:00 pm EST on March 30, 2017.

NSF anticipates the conference will reach capacity very quickly and encourages you to reserve your place as soon as possible. In addition, NSF recommends that attendees book their rooms at the same time they register. The Hyatt Regency Louisville is offering a reduced rate of $121 per night for a standard guest room, plus applicable taxes.

Further information will be available on the NSF Grants Conferences and Events webpage soon.

If you have any questions, please contact Reagan Sims at grants_conference@nsf.gov or at (703) 245-7410.

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A DSP Reminder: Effort Commitment Entry into UFIRST or not into UFIRST?

An effort commitment is reflective of the promise made to the sponsor of the key personnel that will be working on the project. It is DSP’s role to ensure this promise of effort commitments of all key personnel has been entered correctly in a UFIRST Award.  Once approved this initial entry becomes the baseline commitment of each key person and is maintained for the life of the award in UFIRST.

  • No changes are made in UFIRST, unless sponsor approved. In the case of a sponsor-approved change, a UFIRST Award Modification, using the type Personnel, is the correct tool to use to modify and reflect the new baseline commitment.
  • Any other changes to effort commitments of key personnel that do not require sponsor approval, such as term-by-term adjustments or reductions within allowable sponsor tolerances are made using the myUFL>Effort Reporting>Effort Commitments and not UFIRST when making adjustments to effort commitments of the key personnel.

 For a detailed look at Effort Commitment Entry Guidance, visit the DSP Effort Reporting & Management webpage and the Cost Analysis Effort Certification webpage and read the Commitment Entry Guidelines document.

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UF Offers Data Management Plan Tools for Faculty

Funding agencies are responding to the current increase in data-centered and data-driven research by requiring that researchers think ahead about the work and data flows in their proposed projects and to document this in a data management plan (DMP).

UF researchers can draw upon institutional infrastructure and expertise in developing these plans. The Smathers Libraries and UFIT Research Computing are taking the lead in supporting researchers in their efforts to create solid data management plans in order to become more competitive in getting proposals funded.

Have you been asked to create a data management plan by a funding agency? Are you aware of the key components of a data management plan independent of the program solicitation? Do you want to create your own data management plan? You can learn through using the DMPTool.

  1. FIRST, review some of the key components of a data management plan via the data management training workshop presentation here.
  2. SECOND, create your data management plan via the DMPTool here.

If you would like to schedule a data management training workshop presentation for your department and/or request DMPTool training, contact the Data Management and Curation Working Group, Subject Liaisons, or the Data Management Librarian.

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GatorBox Cloud Storage Service to be Decommissioned

For faculty members with Research Computing investments, GatorBox has provided a Dropbox-like interface for accessing storage. The software behind this interface was created and maintained by ownCloud. This company has recently undergone several major changes, and the university is compelled to discontinue the GatorBox service as a result.

The last day of the GatorBox service is scheduled for June 30, 2017.

GatorBox users may elect to use one of the following UF-provided alternatives:

GatorBox users with questions about accessing the data stored on their Research Computing investment, or are otherwise concerned with discontinuation of the service, should feel free to contact support@rc.ufl.edu to discuss their storage needs.

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