Research
Active Grants
Faculty and students in the College of Education (COE) are very active and successful in obtaining funding for research and scholarship through a variety of competitive mechanisms including Federal and State grants, foundation awards and internal (Lehigh) grants.
Current grants reflect a breadth of ground-breaking research efforts among both early-career and tenured faculty and focus on research such as improving outcomes for teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder, examining reading instruction for elementary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, developing support strategies for youth with emotion and behavior disorders to prepare for post-high school education and careers, exploring the effects of intervention strategies for young children at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and improving STEM literacy through the use of geospatial technologies.
From principal training programs to home visiting literacy interventions, our research engages families, school districts, healthcare systems, community organizations, students across the Lehigh Valley and more. Our collaborative approach to research has fostered relationships that extend regionally, nationally and internationally.
The COE’s wide-ranging work to promote educational success and positive mental health across the life span is also reflected in recently competed funded projects that involved, for example, creating an intervention to improve language outcomes of preschool children with language impairment, developing an adaptive intervention framework for students with problem behavior, and training school psychologists as Response to Intervention facilitators.
We continue to seek support for our research and scholarship through Federal (e.g., Institute of Education Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation), State (e.g., Pennsylvania Department of Education), and private foundation (e.g., Spencer Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation) sources. In addition, we continue to successfully procure internal support through Lehigh’s faculty grant mechanisms (e.g., Faculty Research Grant, Faculty Innovation Grant, Collaborative Research Opportunity Grant and Accelerator Research Grant). This funding has been critically important to our central mission of using research and scholarship to improve the lives of individuals across the lifespan by enhancing educational, psychological and social functioning.
Brook Sawyer Awarded Institute of Education Sciences Grant for Parents Plus en Español
Brook Sawyer was recently awarded a three-year Development and Innovation Research Grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The nearly $2 million grant will facilitate Sawyer’s continued development and extension of her Parents Plus program, which also was funded by the IES.
Sawyer is the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and a faculty member in the College of Education’s Teaching, Learning and Technology program. Her research aims to promote the development of young children who have disabilities or who are dual language learners (DLLs). Sawyer focuses on young children’s language development given how critical language skills are for children’s academic and social-emotional success. Read full story
Active Projects
CARE Lab
At the CARE lab, we study attachment in family and counseling relationships. We are interested in finding out what helps both children and adults be more securely attached and understanding the links between attachment and how relationships work. Also, we conduct research on the development of emotion regulation in children.
Catch and Release
This four year project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences explores the degree to which various reading skills (e.g., phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, comprehension) as well as classroom factors (e.g., mins of core literacy instruction, opportunities to respond) predict student response to evidence based supplemental reading fluency intervention as well as maintenance of intervention outcomes after students meet exit criteria for the program.
Links to Learning: Adaptive Math Assessment (LLAMA)
LLAMA is a computerized adaptive assessment for early mathematics developed in collaboration with early childhood educators, parents, and children. LLAMA uses a tablet format to engage children in fun tasks related to numbers and counting, shape and spatial knowledge, measurement, and patterns.
Project BEAM
Project BEAM is a research lab focused on behavioral and emotional risk and achievement motivation. Dr. Bridget Dever, an associate professor in the College of Education at Lehigh University, directs Project BEAM. The lab is comprised of Dr. Dever along with undergraduate, education specialist-level and doctoral school psychology students.
Parents Plus
Parents Plus is a free online program that teaches parents how to improve their preschool-aged children's language skills. Parents easily learn information through an app and are partnered with a coach that helps them guide their child through an individualized program from the comfort of their own home.
Parents Plus en Español
Parents Plus en Español is greatly needed. More than 40% of preschoolers are diagnosed with developmental language disorder (DLD) and require high-quality language services. Yet, Spanish-speaking children with DLD may not receive quality services because of a lack of Spanish-speaking speech-language pathologists and a lack of evidence-based interventions for this population. Parents can be a valuable resource for supporting children’s language skills. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop and pilot test Parents Plus en Español, a parent-implemented intervention that is designed to improve children’s Spanish language outcomes through parents’ use of evidenced-based language techniques. Parents Plus en Español will be a fully or partially online intervention that provides core training via an app along with practice-based coaching. The goals are to improve children’s language outcomes through increasing parents’ language facilitation skills and self-efficacy.
Project PEAK
Parents will gain effective behavior management strategies to use in their home and community, receive support from a child development specialist, develop a personalized plan of action and connect with other parents.
Project STAY: Supporting Teachers of Autism in Years 1-3
Project Stay aims to develop an induction program that is specially designed to meet the unique needs of beginning teachers of students with autism working in high-needs schools or districts
Reach Lab
The Research and Education for ADHD in Childhood Development under the direction of Dr. George DuPaul is part of the Reach Lab at Lehigh University. Current Projects under Reach are CORE, PEAK, BEST, TRAC and Telepresence
Supported College and Career Readiness
Students with or at-risk for emotional or behavioral problems experience extremely poor outcomes compared to their peers. This includes poor academic achievement, high frequencies of grade retention, greater rates suspension, high dropout, and higher rates of incarceration. College and Career Readiness (CCR) programs have great potential to enhance school engagement, leading to lower school dropout rates and higher post-secondary outcomes, as well as preparing students for life after high school.