BRT News

Distinguished Teacher Award Presented to Dr. Julie Alonzo

June 2022 Each year, the University of Oregon recognizes a select group of faculty for excellence in teaching. These awards are U of O’s highest teaching honor, with nominations coming from students, faculty, and staff. This year’s recipient for Distinguished Teaching Award goes to BRT’s own, Dr. Julie Alonzo. The award winners, their approach, and their caring for students are central to U of O’s mission that is built on teaching excellence and academic leadership in scholarly endeavors. And to…
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Article Published: Preventing Reading Disabilities in Prekindergarten Using a Technology-Aided Tool

A critical gap exists between research-driven early reading disability (RD) prevention efforts and practice. To help bridge this gap, we describe the development of a technology-based tool to help preschool teachers implement responsive “assessment-guided” practices (screening, intentional teaching, and reflective monitoring, evaluation, and individualizing of learning progress) to reduce children’s risk for RD prior to school entry. Sáez, L. M. & Irvin, P. S. (2022). Preventing reading disabilities in prekindergarten using a technoligy-adied tool. Education Technology Research and Development. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-022-10116-w 

Literature Synthesis Writing Guide

Literature Synthesis Writing Guide. (2022). Alonzo, J., Irvin, P. S., Markedonova, Y., & Tindal, G.   Literature Synthesis Writing Guide Book Overview: We describe each chapter as an incremental step in the writing process. Though they are incremental and sequential, resulting in individual components of the synthesis, they come together in your completed paper from the beginning to the end. The book provides a guide for completing a synthesis, not a description about a synthesis.

The Alignment between easyCBM Mathematics and Literacy Assessments and State and National Standards (2101)

Sáez, L., Whitney, M., Swanson, D. & Alonzo, J. The alignment between easyCBM mathematics and literacy assessments and state and national standards (2101). (Technical Report No. 2101). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon.I n this technical report, we present the results of a 2020-2021 study of the alignment between the easyCBM© mathematics and literacy assessments and the content standards adopted in the fifty U.S. states. The study used a three-wave process. First, a team of researchers gathered…
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Development of the Prekindergarten Learning Receptiveness Assessment (LRA) Greenhouse: Process and Preliminary Findings (Technical Report No. 2001)

Sáez, L, & Irvin, P. S. Development of the prekindergarten learning receptiveness assessment (LRA) greenhouse: Process and preliminary findings. (Technical Report No. 2001). Eugene, OR: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon. In this technical report we document the development and piloting of the Learning Receptiveness Assessment (LRA) Greenhouse for Prekindergarten. This technological tool was designed to prevent reading disabilities by supporting effective assessment-guided instructional decision-making by Preschool teachers. The LRA Greenhouse comprises a tablet-based formative assessment and app-enabled research-based…
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Congratulations to BRT’s Own, Dr. Julie Alonzo

Announcing New Faculty Hire – Dr. Julie Alonzo March 2020 I am pleased to announce the hire of Dr. Julie Alonzo, currently a Research Associate Professor and Co-Director of Behavioral Research and Teaching (BRT) as Lecturer in EMPL, academic program director for the DEd program, and contributor to other EMPL leadership preparation programs. Julie will serve a vital role in anchoring the DEd program, in particular, and engaging in continuous improvement of the academic program. Many of you know Julie…
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Data Science Initiative Seed Funding Program Grant

Community Health and School Readiness: Closing the Gap A team of researchers in the College of Education will use a new grant to look at why some groups of children are at risk for performing more poorly in school. Known risk factors contribute to poor academic achievement; poverty, exposure to environmental toxins, and minority ethnicity or racial status are just a few. By identifying the challenges associated with lower academic achievement before children enter kindergarten, researchers hope to reduce systemic inequities and improve outcomes from education…
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Research Probes Cause of Poor Academic Achievement in Children

A team of researchers in the College of Education will use a new grant to look at why some groups of children are at risk for performing more poorly in school. Known risk factors contribute to poor academic achievement; poverty, exposure to environmental toxins, and minority ethnicity or racial status are just a few. By identifying the challenges associated with lower academic achievement before children enter kindergarten, researchers hope to reduce systemic inequities and improve outcomes from education into adulthood. Daniel Anderson, Leilani Sáez and John…
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CORE – UO Research Supports Literacy Evaluation Program

April 2020 University research to improve reading fluency assessments will soon be helping teachers across the nation, thanks to a licensing agreement with the education technology company Analytical Measures Inc. College of Education research associate professor Joe Nese developed the Computerized Oral Reading Evaluation (CORE) to reduce the workload for teachers who must frequently test their students’ reading levels. Evaluation combines an innovative psychometric model and a custom set of reading passages with speech recognition software to better evaluate student…
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Celebrating a Milestone

Celebrating 5 years at BRT February 13, 2020 Rob Robinson, one of our Analyst Programmers, was recognized by the University of Oregon in the final months of 2019 for his five years of stellar service to UO. Since coming to the University of Oregon from California State University, Fresno, Rob has both headed up both tech operations at BRT and taken the lead as the primary computer programmer supporting the widely-used easyCBM® system. “Rob is an incredible colleague,” noted BRT…
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