La Patera (opens in a separate window)

For children of Spanish-speaking families, success in school depends critically on the ability to read and learn from English. Research shows that these children face numerous challenges in the early years of learning in English. UCSB will implement and study intensive training that may help these students acquire skills in reading English more rapidly. La Patera researchers will work over the next three years to assist both teachers and parents in southern California school districts to teach phonological awareness to kindergarten students not yet proficient in English. Research has shown that young children with strong phonological skills learn faster to read new words. La Patera researchers believe that more intensive training will shorten the time it takes Spanish-speaking children to crossover to English reading.

SchoolLink (opens in a separate window)

This project will support the development of web-based hypermedia resources that will link teachers and parents from participating schools and communities throughout California to researchers and instructors at UCSB. These modules will serve as a core school resource that can be used in the context of a "problem-based learning" (PBL) orientation solving difficult communal problems.

CaseLinks (opens in a separate window)

The purpose of Case-Link is to creating an Internet-based interactive, multi-media program. The program will serve as the center piece of a problem-based learning course designed to introduce general and special educators to special education. A series of case-based learning problems centering on children with a range of disabilities will be produced. All of the materials that students and instructors will need to dissect and understand the implications of the case problems will be available on Web pages. The materials on these pages will include photos and video segments of different children, their parents, peers, teachers and other school professionals, along with IEP's, and professional publications such as journal articles and book chapters.