Research Training Programs in Special Education: Early Career Development and Mentoring

1. Research Training Programs in Special Education: Early Career Development and Mentoring KATIE TAYLOR, Ph.D. National Center for Special Education Research Note: Additional information is available in the slide notes of some slides.

2. Agenda • Introduction to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) • Research Training Programs in Special Education • Early Career Development and Mentoring • Application Submission and Review

3. Introduction to IES and NCSER

4. IES, U.S. Department of Education ED's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. RESEARCH

5. Organizational Structure of IES

6. Objectives of IES Grant Programs • Develop or identify education interventions (practices, programs, policies, and approaches) that enhance education outcomes and can be widely deployed • Identify what does not work and thereby encourage innovation and further research • Understand the processes that underlie the effectiveness of education interventions and the variation in their effectiveness

7. NCSER • NCSER sponsors a rigorous and comprehensive program of special education research designed to expand the knowledge and understanding of the needs of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities in order to improve the developmental, education, and transition outcomes of such individuals

8. Research Training Programs in Special Education (84.324B)

9. Purpose of the Research Training Programs • To prepare individuals to conduct rigorous and relevant special education and early intervention research that advances knowledge within the field and addresses issues important to education policymakers and practitioners

10. Early Career Development and Mentoring

11. Purpose of the Early Career Program • To develop and maintain a strong cadre of independent researchers addressing the needs of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities, and their families and teachers • To provide support for an integrated research and career development plan for investigators in the early stages of their academic careers

12. Awards • Maximum Duration: 4 years • Maximum Cost: $500,000 total (direct plus indirect)

13. Principal Investigator Requirements • Must have completed a doctoral degree or postdoctoral program no earlier than April 1st 4 years prior to the start of the award and no later than the start of the award period • Must hold a tenure-track position or research scientist position at an institution of higher education or must have accepted an offer for such a position to begin before the start of the award • If an Early Career application is recommended for funding the PI must demonstrate the following: • They are a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. • They have not previously served as a PI or Co-PI on an IES grant

14. Mentor Requirements and Recommendations • Mentors may be from academic or nonacademic institutions • Mentors must include only individuals who were not your primary graduate school or dissertation advisor or postdoctoral supervisor • One mentor should be designated the primary mentor • At least one mentor must be at your home institution

15. Tips for Mentor Selection • If proposing multiple mentors, include mentors with a variety of areas of expertise, including expertise in the content area and methodology • Select mentors with research experience with children and youth with or at risk for disabilities, and/or their families or teachers, as well as your specific topic of interest • Select a mentor at your home institution to guide your career development there, as well as provide additional content and/or methodological expertise

16. Other Questions to Consider When Identifying Mentors • Are they committed to training the next generation of education researchers? Do they have experience training doctoral, postdoctoral, or early career researchers? • Do they have the time to devote to mentoring? • Do they have experience doing school-based research? Do they have existing school partners? • Have they had IES funding?

17. Research Focus Requirements • Must focus on children and/or youth with or at risk for disabilities and/or families, educators, or other professionals who support their development and education of these individuals • A child with a disability is defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) • If you propose to focus on children or youth at risk for a disability, (1) present evidence of an association between risk factors in your sample and the potential identification of specific disabilities and (2) clearly identify the disability or disability categories that the children are at risk of developing

18. Required Sections of the Training Program Narrative • Significance • Research Plan • Career Development Plan • Personnel • Resources

19. Significance Must: • Describe your need for further career development • Provide an overview of the proposed research project • Identify a research topic and project type and the rationale for your selected topic and project type

20. Special Education Research Topics (84.324A) • Autism Spectrum Disorders • Cognition and Student Learning in Special Education • Early Intervention and Early Learning in Special Education • Families of Children with Disabilities • Professional Development for Educators and School-Based Service Providers • Reading, Writing, and Language Development • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education • Social and Behavioral Outcomes to Support Learning • Special Education Policy, Finance, and Systems • Technology for Special Education • Transition Outcomes for Secondary Students with Disabilities • Special Topics: • Career and Technical Education (CTE) for Students with Disabilities • English Learners with Disabilities • Systems-Involved Students with Disabilities

21. Project Types • Exploration • Development and Innovation • Initial Efficacy and Follow-Up • Replication • Measurement

22. Exploration Explore relationships between individual-, educator-, school-, and policy-level characteristics and education outcomes and identify factors that influence those relationships Possible methodological approaches include: • Analyze secondary data • Collect primary data • Complete a meta-analysis • Combination of above

23. Development & Innovation Develop a new intervention (e.g., curriculum, instructional approach, program, or policy) OR improve an existing education intervention AND collect data on its feasibility and fidelity of implementation in education settings AND collect pilot data on the intervention’s cost and promise for improving learner outcomes

24. Initial Efficacy & Follow-Up Evaluate whether or not a fully developed intervention that has not been rigorously evaluated previously has a beneficial impact on student education outcomes (Initial Efficacy) OR Gather follow-up data examining the longer term effects of an efficacious intervention (Follow-Up)

25. Replication • Independently evaluate whether or not a fully developed intervention with prior evidence of efficacy has a beneficial impact on student education outcomes when implemented under routine conditions (Effectiveness Study) OR • Evaluate whether a fully developed intervention with prior evidence of efficacy has a beneficial impact on student education outcomes (Efficacy Replication) OR • Re-analyze existing data from a previous efficacy or effectiveness study to determine the reliability or reproducibility of previous findings (Re-Analysis Study) 25

26. Measurement Development of new assessments or refinement of existing assessments, and the validation of these assessments OR Validation of existing assessments for specific purposes, contexts and populations

27. Research Plan and Career Development Research and career development plans are designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of the Principal Investigator Plans should be integrated, so that the career development plan supports the research plan

28. Research Plan Must describe the research design, sample, key outcome measures, and data analysis procedures Must measure education outcomes of learners with or at risk for disabilities: • Developmental • School readiness • Academic • Social and behavioral • Functional • Post-secondary outcomes • Employment and earnings

29. Developing the Research Plan The RFA for the Special Education Research Grants program (84.324A) may be a helpful guide for identifying research activities appropriate for your specified project type You should propose a research plan that is feasible and appropriate for addressing your research questions IES expects less detail on the aspects of your research plan that you propose to receive additional training on (e.g., research design and data analysis)

30. Following the Standards for Excellence in Education Research (SEER) You should describe how you will follow the principles outlined in SEER to ensure that the research is transparent, actionable, and focused on meaningful outcomes The principles encourage researchers to do the following: • Pre-register studies • Make findings, methods, and data open • Identify interventions' core components • Document treatment implementation and contrast • Analyze interventions' costs • Focus on meaningful outcomes • Facilitate generalization of study findings • Support scaling of promising results https://ies.ed.gov/seer.asp

31. Career Development Plan Must describe your training plan, including: • The process of mentoring • Educational opportunities to extend your expertise Describe how both components of your Career Development Plan are integrated with and support the Research Plan

32. Example Educational Opportunities IES-funded methods trainings, such as the RCT or SMART design trainings Grant-writing workshops Advanced statistical workshops or courses to learn new analysis skill, such as MLM or SEM

33. Personnel Must describe your expertise as well as that of your mentors and any consultants. This should include: • Qualifications, roles, and time commitments • Experience conducting special education research • Experience disseminating research findings to a range of audiences • Mentors’ experience conducting research that reflects the content and methodology foci of IES • Mentors’ prior experiences with mentoring early career researchers

34. Personnel, continued Must specify the date on which you were granted your doctoral degree and (if applicable) the date you completed your postdoc Must specify the names of your dissertation or graduate school advisor and (if relevant) the postdoctoral mentor

35. Resources Must describe the institutional capacity and resources to support you in conducting the proposed project These should include: • Resources to carry out both the research and training plan • Resources to carry out your plans to disseminate results (as described in the required Appendix A)

36. Appendices Appendix A: Dissemination Plan (required) Appendix B: Response to Reviewers (required for resubmitted applications) Appendix C: Table of you and your mentors’ ongoing and recently completed special education research projects (required) Appendix D: Letters of agreement from all mentors (required) Appendix E: Letters of agreement from your institution, school partners, data sources, and consultants (required)

37. Appendices, continued Appendix F (optional): • Examples of training materials and tables/charts that support the Training Program Narrative (e.g., project timeline and a table of training activities, mentoring activities, and seminars) • Examples of materials to be used in the intervention or assessment that is the focus of your project • Figures, charts, and tables that supplement the project narrative; examples of measures to be used in the project

38. Budget for Early Career Program Up to 50% of PI’s salary Up to $5,000 per year for your mentors Travel • For you or your mentor(s) to meet when you are not at the same institution • For specialized workshops at other institutions • For professional conferences (including the required IES PI meeting in Washington, DC)

39. Application Submission and Review

40. Applications Applications are accepted once a year The authorized representative at your institution (not the PI) actually submits the grant to IES Refer to the RFA for deadlines for submitting letters of intent and applications We do NOT accept late applications

41. Finding Application Packages FY 2020 Application Packages are available on Grants.gov

42. Peer Review Process Applications are reviewed for compliance and responsiveness to the RFA Applications that are compliant and responsive are assigned to a review panel 2-3 panel members conduct a primary review of each application Applications are rank ordered according to average overall score The most competitive applications are reviewed and scored by the full panel

43. Peer Review Process Information The Standards and Review Office http://ies.ed.gov/director/sro/peer_review/index.asp

44. Notification All applicants will receive e-mail notification that the following information is available via the Applicant Notification System (ANS): • Status of award • Reviewer summary statement If you are not granted an award the first time, consider resubmitting (if you are still eligible) and talk with the program officer

45. In Summary • Read the Request for Applications and the IES Application Submission Guide carefully • Look at abstracts of Early Career projects • View IES on-demand webinars • Review Resources for Researchers • Email the program officer • Katie Taylor (Katherine.Taylor@ed.gov)

46. Program Officer Contact Information Katie Taylor Katherine.Taylor@ed.gov