Project Description:
This project, entitled, Equity and Excellence in Higher Education, is designed to address the inter-related problems of poor educational outcomes for college students with disabilities and college faculty’s lack of knowledge in the area of effective curriculum and instruction for diverse learners. This project is designed to make a significant contribution to the field by disseminating a proven method of college faculty development to colleges in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to positively impact the quality of higher education for students with disabilities.
The goal of this project is to ensure that students with disabilities receive a quality higher education through the implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of a model of comprehensive professional development for college faculty and support personnel. The project will provide training opportunities using this established model of professional development in both NH and Massachusetts, partnering with the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts at Boston to offer this training to college faculty and administrators. The project will establish an advisory board consisting of college students and graduates who experience disabilities, faculty from a variety of academic and technical areas, disability support coordinators and other support personnel, AHEAD representation, and key administrators, to assist in directing the three components of the comprehensive model of professional development:
1)The provision of in-depth and applicable training in the area of effective curriculum design and instruction such as using principles of Universal Design for Learning (Onosko & Jorgensen, 1997; CAST, 2002). Training will be provided through multiple sources.
2)Research-to-practice technical assistance through the support of “reflective practice groups†comprised of faculty and support personnel dedicated to practicing, refining, and evaluating curriculum design and instructional strategies.
3)Student-specific technical assistance for students with extraordinary learning challenges.
All project materials will be available in accessible format. Project materials will also be disseminated nationally, using electronic and conventional methods, such as an accessible project web site, professional organizations (AHEAD), clearinghouses, and the National Center for the study of Postsecondary Educational Supports at the University of Hawaii. Additionally, project staff will present at conferences in New England and nationally.
