Centers and Resources

Centers and Resources

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• Belin-Blank Center—Serving Gifted Education Since 1988

  The Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent offers services, support, and over 20 different programs for more than 5,000 academically gifted and talented students and their teachers from pre-K through college level each year. These activities, which touch the lives of gifted children from a wide variety of regions, backgrounds, and abilities, revolutionize gifted education and have helped distinguish the College as one of the top education programs in the country.

   

  The popular Invent Iowa competition connected approximately 30,000 K-12 students from across Iowa and beyond. This year, 335 “state inventors” representing 137 communities participated in the state convention held on the University of Iowa campus resulting in 60 merit and six scholarship winners. Over the past two decades, approximately half a million students have participated in this exciting program, some even going on to receive national notoriety.

       

  Another highlight is the number of Iowa high school students who participate in the Iowa Online Advanced Placement Academy. This year, 623 Iowa students from 346 schools in all of Iowa’s 99 counties took advantage of the opportunity to take seven AP courses online without which they would otherwise not had access. With the new Iowa Department of Education Partnership, the program received over $508,700 in support. Iowa legislators also approved support of nearly $482,000 to continue this important program in 2012.

       

  Hundreds of pre-college students participate in programs on campus each year. A total of 803 elementary and middle school students from Iowa and Illinois participated in 58 classes through Saturday academic programming throughout the school year. Approximately 315 of the youngest students participated in the Challenges for Elementary School Students (CHESS) summer program. More than 450 older students in grades 6 through 11 take classes and live on the University of Iowa campus, participating in an intensive summer learning experience. The center offers 68 classes over a six-week period. With more than 767 students from 16 states, Mexico, and China, this program continues its international reputation of excellence.

       

  The 2011 Belin-Blank Exceptional Student Talent Search (BESTS) provided above-level testing to 2,043 elementary and junior high students from 17 states plus Canada. The center collaborates in partnership for this program with Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, as well as the Iowa Testing Programs. Through China-BESTS, the University of Iowa’s first undergraduate international admission partnership, the Belin-Blank Center recommended 12 Chinese high school students for admission to The University of Iowa. These undergraduate students will be part of the Belin-Blank Center’s transition program for gifted students.

       

  College students and teachers also participate in academic programming. This year’s freshman class included 19 students from five states in the National Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (NAASE), five Iowa Talent Project (ITP) students from Des Moines, and 14 China scholars. Upper-class students included 34 NAASE scholars, 17 ITP scholars, and 10 China scholars. More than 466 teachers earned 718 credits through the Belin-Blank Center’s myriad of summer workshops and courses for professional development. In addition, through the AP Teacher Training Institute, 70 teachers earned 64 credits last year.

       

  Academics aren’t the only programs offered through the Belin-Blank Center. For gifted and talented artists, the center offers programming through the Bucksbaum Arts Scholarship Program, where 57 students participated last year. Approximately 1,275 students in grades 7-12 from 15 states submitted 2,784 pieces of art and writing to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards program regional competition coordinated by the Belin-Blank Center as an Affiliate of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. This year, 655 creative students received special recognition, and 45 went on to receive gold/silver national awards. This was the second year the Belin-Blank Center expanded to serve Iowa and ?? states to recognize gifted and talented artists and writers.

       

  The Belin-Blank Center’s Wallace Assessment and Counseling Clinic conducted 257 consultations, 162 counseling sessions, and 82 assessments for clients from four states. Alissa Doobay, Ph.D., serves as the clinic’s first postdoctoral scholar.

       

  The Belin-Blank Center continues to receive strong external support. New grant funding acquired this year totals over $1.5 million.

• CASMA

  The Center for Advanced Studies in Measurement and Assessment (CASMA), a national leader in the areas of Measurement and Assessment, pursues interdisciplinary and research-based initiatives leading to the advancement of the methods and practice of educational measurement and assessment.

  During the 2010-2011 fiscal year, CASMA activities and accomplishments included the following:

  • conducted extensive research on equating, scaling, and linking issues that relate to the College Board SAT and AP Programs,
  • provided various psychometric services to several national testing programs
  • conducted a workshop on equating and two workshops on generalizability theory
  • co-sponsored with ACT a national conference on Current Challenges in Educational Measurement
  • the Director gave keynote addresses at international conferences in Jerusalem and Taiwan
  • the Director received the Career Achievement Award from the Association of Test Publishers
  • the Associate Director was appointed Associate Professor with tenure in the Measurement and Statistics Program of the Division of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations of the College of Education
  • staff published three Research Reports on the CASMA website
  • staff published 10 papers in referred journals or edited books
  • staff gave 15 presentations to measurement audiences.

• CDRE

  The Center for Disability Research and Education (CDRE) is a new initiative in the College of Education. The mission of CDRE (pronounced ‘cedar’) is to provide a bridge between research and practice in order to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and implementation of evidence-based practices and conduct research that improves outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

  CDRE projects during the 2010-2011 year include:

  • REACH OUTcomes, a $2.5 million grant from the Office of Postsecondary Education that will expand the current REACH program to enhance inclusion of REACH students in general University of Iowa coursework and increase the transition supports for graduating REACH students.
  • Human Behavior Rating Scale (HBRS), funded through the Social Science Funding Program, supports a pilot study to investigate use of the HBRS as a school-wide screener to identify students who are at-risk for or who have academic or behavior problems.
  • The Efficacy of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) Approach, a $4.8 million grant from the Institute for Education Sciences to conduct efficacy trials for the SWH, and approach that embeds science argument within typical inquiry lessons to improve students’ understandings of science.
  • Special Education Leaders for Iowa (SELIA), a $1.2 million grant funded by the Office of Special Education Programs to train 8 doctoral students in special education and public policy to serve as faculty members in institutes of higher education.
  • Inaugural CDRE Lecture Series, on March 24, CDRE sponsored a lecture by Dr. Daniel Reschly, an internationally recognized scholar in special education and school psychology entitled, “Special Education: The Sky is Falling or the Best is Yet to Be?”

  In addition, CDRE affiliated faculty:

  • published 11 refereed journal articles
  • published 5 book chapters
  • gave 26 conference presentations
  • presented 2 workshops for K-12 educators
  • gave 2 keynote presentations

• CEA

  The Center for Evaluation and Assessment conducts a wide variety of program evaluation in collaboration with faculty across The University of Iowa campus and with school systems, colleges, and universities throughout Iowa and across the nation. Currently, CEA is working on a number of projects including:

   

  • Bringing History Home in Cedar Rapids, a professional development initiative that serves more than 250 elementary school teachers from two public school districts in the Cedar Rapids area.
  • University of Iowa Bioscience Advantage, a project that identifies academically talented undergraduate students from underrepresented minority groups and provides mentoring and training toward eventual successful entry into doctoral programs in the areas of biomedical, behavioral, or biophysical sciences.
  • Institute for Clinical and Translational Science evaluation project focused on studying collaborations among researchers across multiple colleges and disciplines, supporting the 12 core areas (key functions) in their self-evaluations, providing formative feedback to Key Function leaders and other stakeholders, and meta-evaluating the progress of the overall ICTS. For example, the evaluation focuses on community engagement through-out the State of Iowa and collaborations nationwide. The CEA-led evaluation project also provides national leadership with regard to defining constructs related to Clinical and Translational Science implementation and outcomes assessment.
  • Teacher Quality Partnership, an evaluation project for the Iowa Department of Education initiative to reform pre-service teacher education programs, teacher mentoring and induction programs, and teacher evaluation practices to produce and nurture effective teachers across the career span, as measured and documented by a teacher performance assessment.
  • FIPSE University of Iowa Sustainability Living Learning Community, an evaluation to study the development of an on-campus residential community whose goal is to foster student citizens with the knowledge of sustainable practices, and the skills to engage the democratic process for the public good.

   

• CRUE

  Last year, the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education produced the following:

  • 2.5 funded doctoral research assistantships
  • 5 refereed journal articles published or in press
  • Acquired $185,000 in new money
  • 6 presentations at refereed conferences
  • 4 completed dissertations based on data collected by CRUE

• GRSC

  This year, 71 faculty and staff applied for external funding through the College’s Grant and Research Services Center for awards totaling nearly $42 million. So far, over $7.4 million in awards were granted to 29 applicants; 26 grants requesting more than $22.3 million are still outstanding—making it the busiest year on record.

• ICATER

  A summary of the Iowa Center for Assistive Technology Education and Research’s (ICATER) activities for 2010-2011 are as follows:

   

  Equipment and Instruction

  • ICATER expanded its Mobile Assistive Technology Lab (MAT Lab) from 20 to 30 computers with funds obtained from Student Tech Fees. The 10 newly purchased computers replaced the original 10 that had been running slowly. The original 10 were repurposed for accessible document creation training. MAT Lab computers continue to be extensively used for an Assistive Technology (AT) project in the “Technology in the Classroom” course. They are available for students to check out for field experiences and also provide ICATER with a means to perform offsite trainings.
  • ICATER increased an AT focus for mobile devices and now has four iPads, nine iPod touches, three Kindles and two Intel Readers. To prepare College of Education students for using these tools in the classroom, the mobile devices are loaded with applications for text reading (Kindle, eReader, Stanza), communication (Proloquo2go), text capturing (Zoom Reader), and note taking (Sound Note, Notability), among others.
  • ICATER developed modules on AT-related topics for inclusion in the curricula of the various colleges and professional schools on campus. All College of Education pre-service professional education students, particularly K-12 teachers, acquire AT competence prior to graduation. Classes where these modules have taken place include:
  • Technology in the Classroom – 406 students
  • Foundations of Special Education – 321 students
  • Administration of Students with Special Needs – 13 students
  • School Counseling – 9 students
  • Standards Based Education and Accountability – 10 students
  • Characteristics of Disabilities – 64 students
  • Student Teacher Seminar – 150 students
  • Introduction to Educational Psychology – 30 students
  • Educational Psychology Individual Differences – 23 students
  • Introduction to Recreation Therapy – 70 students
  • Psychosocial Aspects of Disability – 12 students
  • ICATER continued work with the “Technology in the Classroom” course to develop and implement an innovative hands-on AT project where students receive training on a type of AT, check out a MAT Lab computer, work in a group to develop and present an AT demonstration to the rest of the class, video their demonstration, and post it on their ePortfolio.
  • Last year, 29 students took ICATER’s three-credit online course, “Introduction to Assistive Technology.” Students include graduate students in Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling, Higher Education and Student Affairs, as well as people throughout Iowa (and other states such as Pennsylvania and New York) interested in AT.
  • ICATER hosted its second annual Assistive Technology Summer Institute. This year, the two-day events included two sessions, one aimed at AT for elementary school students and the other focusing on AT for middle, secondary, and beyond, and combined discussions of current AT in education topics with hands-on experiences using the MAT Lab. Over 20 people with varying backgrounds including teachers, parents of students with disabilities, AT professionals, students with disabilities, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and college professors attended the event. There were also attendees from Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
  • ICATER continues to support workstations in the Education Technology Center (ETC) and has served 27 different users over the past year.

  Research

  • ICATER submitted a $1.5 million grant to IES to partner with Johns Hopkins University to develop a more efficient professional development AT model and study its effectiveness in both rural and urban school districts.
  •  ICATER submitted a $400,000 grant to the U.S. Department of Education’s Steppingstones to Technology Project to create a student-centered AT website that would deliver free AT tools, training, and practice activities to students with high-incidence disabilities.

  • Universal Access Grant Update—In 2008, ICATER received a three-year, $337,000 U.S. Dept. of Education training grant aimed at improving the quality of higher education for students with disabilities through the use of AT and Universal-Design-for-Learning (UDL) concepts. The grant, Universal Access: Creating Accessible Higher Education Opportunities, was awarded as part of the Dept. of Education’s Demonstration Projects to Ensure Students with Disabilities Receive a Quality Higher Education grant program. The following are some of the grant activities that have taken place on campus.
    • ICATER hosted a one-day UDL workshop for 27 instructors from the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Grinnell College, and, St. Ambrose University. Topics covered included UDL principles, creating a UDL syllabus, creating accessible materials, using technology to implement UDL in the classroom. Each attendee also received a Livescribe Smart Pen and were trained on the pen’s use as a UDL tool.
    • Sixty-three UI faculty and staff attended a three-part UDL Lunch-and-Learn Series. The session’s three topics were Principles of UDL, Creating Accessible Documents, and Using Technology to Implement UDL in the Classroom. Each attendee was given a Livescribe Smart Pen for their participation.
    • ICATER created a series of evaluation questions on UDL that have been included in the ACE form pool for course evaluation.
    • ICATER provided a four professional development sessions on creating accessible PDF and Word documents that were attended by 64 UI staff members throughout the University.
    • With the help of Dr. Noel Estrada-Hernandez, UI Student Disabilities Services, and a College of Education student, ICATER created a short how-to series creating accessible documents. This series looks at the importance of accessible electronic text from the perspective of a student with a disability, a disability service provider and a professor. It then walks the viewer through the steps of creating accessible PDFs, PDFs with forms, Word Documents, and PowerPoint slides.
    • ICATER maintains a website that houses both video series that have been created as well as implementation ideas and UDL tips for instructors to follow. The website is: www.education.uiowa.edu/universalaccess
    • ICATER created two booklets on implementing UDL titled, “Accessibility in Action: Implementing Universal Design for Learning in Postsecondary Classrooms” and “Accessibility in Action: Technology Tools for Implementing Universal Design for Learning Principles in Postsecondary Classrooms.”
    • ICATER worked with Georgina Dodge from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity to create an online training module on implementing UDL in the classroom for UI faculty and staff.

   

  • ICATER continues to act as a regional training center for Cambium Learning Technologies which owns Kurzweil and IntelliTools. As part of this agreement, ICATER received 25 copies of each software product and will host training sessions periodically throughout the year. Since October 2008, there have been four training sessions held here, attended by a total of 48 people from Iowa and surrounding states.
  • The Iowa Department of Education contracted ICATER for $10,000 to compile AT outcomes research for a database that educators across the state can access. This funding paid for two hourly positions for graduate students in the 2010-2011 academic year and will be renewed for the 2011-2012 academic year.
  • The Iowa Department of Education contracted ICATER to take the lead on running the Iowa AT Liaisons Meeting for the 2011-2012 school year. This will be an additional $10,000 contract.

   

  Outreach

  • ICATER tour and AT demonstrations were given for 436 perspective students and their parents during the UI Orientation sponsored by UI office of Admissions.
  • ICATER exhibited at the following events over the past year:
    • Belin Blank Recognition Ceremony
    • Iowa State Fair
    • UI ARCA Disability Awareness Day
    • Iowa Learning Disabilities Association’s Fall and Spring Conferences
    • Northeast Iowa Community College Disability Awareness Week
    • UI International Day Afternoon Keynote
    • ICATER provided AT professional development to 45 teachers at the Western Dubuque School District
    • ICATER demonstrated AT to 100 students visiting from the Cedar Rapids public schools as part of the College of Education’s African American Awareness Project
    • Through Faculty and Staff Disability Services, ICATER presented a Brown Bag Lunch on AT in the workplace that was attended by 15 people.
    • ICATER presented a UDL seminar to the College of Edcuation’s iFellows program
    • ICATER presented a one day UDL session for eight faculty at St. Ambrose University.
    • ICATER presented a one day UDL roundtable session for eight members of the Illowa AHEAD group.
    • ICATER presented a one day UDL session to 17 faculty at Loras College.
    • ICATER presented an Introduction to UDL to 50 attendees of the 4CAST Seminar on the UI campus.
    • ICATER conducted a Fall Conference on AT for Students with Dyslexia for 30 attendees from the Iowa Dyslexia Association.
    • ICATER  presented to over 1,100 people at several regional and national conferences. These presentations include:
      • Implementing UDL in the Postsecondary Classroom at the 2010 Lilly Conference on College Teaching in Traverse City, Mich.
      • Assistive Technology in Education at the 2010 ITEC Conference in Coralville, Iowa.
      • What’s New in Assistive Technology at the 2010 Iowa Rehabilitation Association Conference.
      • Using iPod Technology in High School and Postsecondary Settings at the 2010 Closing the Gap Conference in Minneapolis.
      • Using Technology to Implement UDL at the 2010 Closing the Gap Conference in Minneapolis.
      • The 2008-2009 Iowa K-12 Schools AT Needs Assessment Results at the 2010 ATIA Conference in Chicago.
      • The 2008-2009 Iowa K-12 Schools AT Needs Assessment Results at the 2011 ATIA Conference in Orlando.
      • A Hands-On Assistive Technology Workshop at the 2011 Rehabilitation for Wisconsin Conference in Elkhart Lake.
      • Free and Inexpensive Assistive Technology Options at the 2011 Rehabilitation for Wisconsin Conference in Elkhart Lake.
      • Free and Inexpensive Assistive Technology Options at the Iowa Dyslexia Association Spring Conference.
      • Using Technology to Implement UDL in the Classroom at the 2011 Charting the C’s Conference in Alexandria, Minn.

   

  Publications:

  • The Cedar Rapids Gazette, the Daily Iowan, and Education Week Magazine quoted ICATER’s associate director in AT stories.
  • ICATER wrote two chapters for the upcoming book, Handbook of Research on Human Cognition and Assistive Technology: Design, Accessibility, and Transdisciplinary Perspectives. The chapters were titled: Improving Assistive Technology Training in Teacher Education Programs: The Iowa Model and Evaluating Systematic Assistive Technology Needs.
  • ICATER wrote an article for the first edition of the New Horizons Journal titled, Implementing Universal Design for Learning Principles in Postsecondary Classrooms.
  • ICATER submitted an article on the 2008-2009 Iowa K-12 Schools Needs Assessment to the Journal of Special Education Technology.

   

  Professional Groups

  • ICATER’s associate director served as the Vice Chair of RESNA’s Educator Professional Specialty Group.
  • ICATER’s associate director served on the RESNA Education Committee.
    • ICATER continues to serve on the Iowa Department of Education’s AT Liaisons Group and has been asked to lead the group for the 2011-2012 school year.
    • ICATER’s associate director serves on a campus-wide work group on creating a centralized AT process for UI students.

   

• Iowa Testing Programs

  Iowa Testing Programs (ITP) continues to conduct research and develop new approaches to assessment and reporting on student achievement at the local, state, and national levels.

   

  Last year, 254,342 Iowa students in grades 1–8 took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and 105,027 Iowa students in grades 9–12 took the Iowa Tests of Educational Development, which are among the most widely used standardized achievement tests in the world. Due in part to the continuing sale of the ITBS and ITED throughout the nation, Iowa Testing Programs is able to subsidize the cost of these assessments to the state of Iowa.

   

  Over 28,230 Iowa students participated in the Iowa End-of-Course Assessment Program, a series of high school assessments designed to measure aspects of the Iowa Core Curriculum adopted by the Iowa State Board of Education.

   

  Nearly 1,100 Iowa educators participated in professional development opportunities including, introductory workshops for the new Iowa Assessments, scoring writing assessment pilot study results, and reviewing and revising assessment materials. More than 6,240 Iowa students contributed to future tests by completing the Iowa Writing Assessment pilot test.

   

  Last year, ITP developed two new assessment tools. The Iowa Algebra Readiness Assessment is a new online resource to help educators and parents know if students are on track to develop their full math potential. The Iowa Growth Model is a metric for reporting year-to year assessment results based on a student growth along a learning continuum.

• Office of Graduate Teaching Excellence

  98 students are registered for the Graduate Certificate in College Teaching. 17 students have completed the certificate since May 2009. We have 27 1^st-year ifellows and 24 2^nd-year ifellows.

• Statistics Outreach Center

  Last year, the Statistics Outreach Center (SOC) provided consulting assistance for 76 individuals or research teams. The center’s activity summary, broken down by the population served, is as follows.

   

  • The SOC assisted 14 faculty members with projects, ranging from short-term assistance – a single meeting to answer questions – to extensive assistance over the course of the year. Consulting with faculty included individuals doing work in a variety academic programs within the College of Education, as well as work for Iowa Testing Programs, the Belin-Blank Center, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, and the Carver College of Medicine.
  • The SOC assisted two Iowa Testing Programs staff members with data preparation. 
  • The SOC assisted 60 students over the course of the year. In most cases, assistance was provided for students’ dissertations. 
  • The SOC provided assistance for eight ITBS/ITED data requests.
  • Each fall and spring, the SOC offers two-hour introductory workshops covering commonly requested statistical software and procedures. This year, 128 individuals attended the eight different courses that were offered. The most popular short courses were “Introduction to SPSS” and “Introduction to R.” A majority of students (66%) rated the course usefulness as “very good.”
  • In 2010-11, the four research assistants who worked for the SOC divided their time between the center and Iowa Testing Programs.