Struggling Readers Focus of $3.1 Million DOE Research Grant to UAlbany

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 08, 2011) --

The four-year project will investigate the effectiveness of reading mediation strategies for intermediate-grade students.

University at Albany Associate Professor Lynn Gelzheiser has received a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to research intervention strategies for struggling readers.

The four-year project will investigate the effectiveness of the Interactive Strategies Approach-Extended (ISA-X) program as a reading mediation strategy for intermediate-grade students with deficiencies in reading skills.

Gelzheiser, the associate director of the School of Education's Child Research and Study Center, and UAlbany colleagues Kevin Quinn of Educational and Counseling Psychology, Donna Scanlon of the Reading Department, Frank Vellutino of Educational and Counseling Psychology, and sociologist Glenn Deane will conduct research in moderate to high poverty school districts in the Capital Region. Participants will be struggling readers in grades 3 and 4 who have adequate cognitive ability and below average scores in reading comprehension. The will be drawn from pools of students who have individualized education program (IEP) goals and those receiving supplemental reading instruction.

Teachers from the students' schools will participate in workshop-format professional development, attend group follow-up sessions, and receive individual coaching. Teachers will provide the ISA-X intervention, which includes emphasis on the development of interactive use of code and meaning-based strategies for word identification, collaborative discussion of texts, and the use of thematically related texts to develop background knowledge to support the reading of more challenging texts.

UAlbany's Child Research and Study Center was founded more than 40 years ago to provide diagnostic and consultation services to individuals and agencies in the community on behalf of learning disabled children, and to conduct research in the study of learning disabilities and other developmental disorders.

For more news, subscribe to UAlbany's RSS headline feeds

Educationally and culturally, the University at Albany-SUNY puts "The World Within Reach" for its 18,000 students. An internationally recognized research university with 58 undergraduate majors and 128 graduate degree programs, UAlbany is a leader among all New York State colleges and universities in such diverse fields as public policy, nanotechnology and criminal justice. With a curriculum enhanced by 300 study-abroad opportunities, UAlbany launches great careers. For more information about this globally ranked University, visit https://www.albany.edu/. For UAlbany's extensive roster of faculty experts, visit www.albany.edu/news/experts.shtml.