HIGH POINT, N.C., June 10, 2015 – Dr. Sarah Vess, assistant professor and chair of the Department of Special Education, recently presented the findings from two research studies at the national Council for Exceptional Children Conference in San Diego, California. Both studies, which were conducted with the help of High Point University students majoring or minoring in special education, are focused on ways to improve the education of children with disabilities.
Vess conducted the research for her first presentation, “Incorporation of RTI Field Experiences Into Preservice Teacher Education,” with Kayla Dolan, a 2014 HPU graduate. The study examined whether it would be effective for undergraduate teacher preparation programs to include a field experience related to Response to Intervention, an approach used by teachers for the early identification of students with learning or behavioral needs.
“Our findings indicate that pairing student teachers with cross-discipline mentors, such as school psychologists or curriculum facilitators, may increase RTI knowledge and satisfaction with the field experience more than pairing students with a classroom teacher,” Vess says.
For the research presented on her second study, “Comparison of Two Reading Fluency Interventions Utilized With Struggling Middle School Readers,” 15 HPU students assisted in the large-scale treatment vs. control study conducted at a local middle school last year. The HPU students worked as interventionists with struggling middle school readers on a weekly basis as Vess’ study compared two different reading interventions.
“This study did not find a significant difference between the two interventions we tested, thus one was not superior to the other, but we did find evidence that reading activities designed to help struggling readers may be beneficial at the middle school level,” says Vess. “We found that the middle school students who participated had higher growth rates in reading than the norm and the more sessions they attended, the higher their reading growth.”
Vess is committed to involving undergraduate students in her research and serves on HPU’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Works committee.