Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk Unveils Two New Institutes - January 6th, 2010

The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, located in The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, has launched a Reading Institute and a Response to Intervention (RTI) Institute to reflect its ongoing work in these areas.

The Reading Institute is directed by Dr. Sharon Vaughn, who recently published a chapter on connecting reading research to practice. The chapter’s entitled “Research on Students With Reading Disabilities” and appears in Bringing Reading Research to Life, edited by Margaret McKeown and Linda Kucan. In addition to being director of the Reading Institute, Vaughn also is executive director of the Meadows Center, director of the Center’s Dropout Prevention Institute and a professor in the College of Education’s Department of Special Education.

The Response to Intervention Institute, directed by Dr. Pamela Bell, includes the Meadows Center’s technical assistance projects that support the implementation of RTI statewide and nationally. Bell is the principal investigator for a recently initiated, grant funded project called “Building Capacity for Response to Intervention.” The project’s aim is to help Texas schools implement the RTI approach.

Response to Intervention focuses on identifying struggling learners, assessing their needs, immediately providing additional intervention that targets their areas of difficulty and monitoring their progress. Research indicates that the use of RTI prevents at-risk students from falling behind and developing learning difficulties.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910