Education & Human Development

Center for Urban School Partnerships

Conducting Outreach to Stakeholders

The CUSP has engaged in numerous outreach activities to bring evidence-based practices to school stakeholders, teachers, students, and communities.

School Impact Summits

School Impact Summits were hosted in the following areas to bring evidence-based practices to stakeholders – Houston, San Antonio, Brownsville, Austin areas.

Each Summit conducted in collaboration with Centers at Texas A&M University (e.g., CRDLLA, ELRC, ERC) and the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), focused on strategic themes facing urban and high poverty schools in all areas including foundational literacy, STEM, special education (e.g., Dyslexia), motivation, cultural responsiveness, and affect.

Speakers at these events have all been reviewed by the What Works Clearinghouse and met the highest standards for conducting rigorous research and brought sound evidence-based research practices to the attendees.

Presentation Highlights

  • Dr. Carol Connor (University of California – Irvine) – presented Assessment to Instruction – a tool that has received over 40 million dollars in funding and has shown over 95% pass rates among children who are growing up in poverty.
  • Dr. Elsa Cardenas-Hagan (University of Houston & IDA) – presented on Dyslexia among Hispanic Spanish Speaking English learners and evidence-based treatment options
  • Drs. Beverly Irby and Rafael Lara (Texas A&M University – TAMU) presented on ELLA-V for Bilingual Learners
  • Dr. Julie Thompson (TAMU) presented on technology supported literacy practices for non-verbal autistic children
  • Dr. Donald Sheffield (The Pennsylvania State University) presented on “Practice Makes Permanent” powerful findings from systematic academic focused after school programs in high minority communities.
  • Dr. Karen R. Harris (Arizona State University) presented writing research with special education and high minority classrooms
  • Dr. Carolyn Denton (University of Houston) presented powerful strategies to overcome Dyslexia
  • Dr. Steve Graham (Arizona State University) presented teacher knowledge about literacy teaching strategies
  • Dr. Daphna Oyserman (University of Southern California) presented about Identity-Based Motivation a powerful motivational approach showing strong academic outcomes for learners in Chicago Public Schools
  • Dr. Andrea Beerwinkle (TAMU) presented textbook analyses showing why children are misled in instruction
  • Mr. Javier Garza (Principal Brownsville ISD) presented 100% pass rates for reading in elementary grade students in high poverty and high minority schools.

Local, National, and International Presentations

Local, National, and International presentations at conferences to disseminate findings from rigorous research:

Presentations at Conferences

  • Pirnay-Dummer, P., Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B.J.F. (2019). Developments in Syntax-Based Prescoring and Autoscoring on Short Written Answers. American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada, April 2019.
  • Xu, Z, Wijekumar, K., Lin, S., Yang, X. (2019). The Effects of web-based text structure instruction on Chinese ELs’ Higher-Order Reading Comprehension Skills. American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada, April 2019.
  • Wijekumar, K. Harris, K.R., & Graham, S. (2019). Scaling up We-Write. Pacific Coast Research Conference – Coronado, CA, February 2019.
  • Garza, J. Wijekumar, K., & Beerwinkle, A.L. (2019). Super improvements in reading comprehension with the framework for accelerating strategic comprehension of text. Texas Association of School Administrators, Mid-Winter Conference, Austin, Texas, January 2019
  • Wijekumar, K. (2018) Randomized Controlled Trials in Education, European Literacy Network COST Action Conference, Porto, Portugal, November 2018.
  • Pirnay-Dummer, P., Wijekumar, K., & Harris, K. (2018 July). New Methods and Limitations of using Syntax-Based Prescoring on Short Answers, SIG Writing, Antwerp Belgium.
  • Beerwinkle, A., & Wijekumar, K. (2018) Text Structures in Middle School Science Instruction. American Educational Research Conference, New York, NY, April 2018
  • Beerwinkle, A., & Wijekumar, K. (2018) Intelligent Tutoring Systems for the Text Structure Strategy. European Literacy Network Conference, Porto, Portugal, November 2018
  • Wijekumar, K., Garza, J., Beerwinkle, A., & Zhang, S. (2018) Researcher and practitioner perspectives on improving content  area reading comprehension. European Literacy Network Conference, Porto, Portugal, November 2018
  • Wijekumar, K., Bannerjee, M., Beerwinkle, & Zhang, S. (2018) Improving reading comprehension for all learners. Brownsville Independent School District Literacy Conference, October 2018.
  • Garza, J. & Wijekumar, K. (2018). Best reading comprehension practices for Spanish speaking children – University of Monterrey – Mexico. Full Day Workshop
  • Wijekumar, K. (2017). Keynote: Powerful reading comprehension results with teacher-led technology integration across the globe. European Literacy Network Conference on Reading Comprehension, Lyon, France, November 2017
  • Wijekumar, K. (2017). Pragmatic Scaffolding for Computational Thinking Using Text Structures: Theoretical and Empirical Lenses on K-12 Classrooms, 8th Annual International Conference on Computer Science Education: Innovation & Technology, Fort Canning, Singapore, October 2017
  • Wijekumar, K. & Beerwinkle, A.L. (2017). Improving content area reading comprehension – super results from a recent study. School Impact Summit, Brownsville, TX, September 2017
  • Wijekumar, K. (2017) Text Structure in the Classrooms, Brownsville Independent School District Opening Day Conference for Administrators., August 2017.
  • Joshi, R.M. & Wijekumar, K. (2017). Symposium: Teacher perception and teacher knowledge about  literacy skills. Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference, Nova Scotia, Canada, July, 2017.
  • Wijekumar, K., Graham, S., Harris, K., & Meyer, B.J.F. (2017). Teacher perception and teacher knowledge about reading and writing  at upper elementary grade level, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference, Nova Scotia, Canada, July, 2017.
  • Lindner, A., Wijekumar, K., & Joshi, R.M. (2017). English Spelling Errors Among English Language Learners: A Latent Class Analysis Study.  Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference, Nova Scotia, Canada, July, 2017.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2017). Promoting Reading Comprehension and Writing with Text Structures. Kenyata University Seminar Series, Nairobi, Kenya, June 2017
  • Pirnay-Dummer, P.N., Wijekumar, K. & Graham, S. (2017). Using Automatically Computed Type-of-Word Chains in Linear Models to Predict Topic-Relatedness and Quality of Writing, American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX April 2017
  • Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B.J.F., Lei, P., Hernandez, A., & Beerwinkle, A., (2017). Elementary Spanish-Speaking English Learners Improve in Comprehension With Text Structure Instruction on the Web. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX April 2017
  • Ji, X.R., Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B.J.F., Lei, P, Joshi, R.M. (2017). Using Latent Transition Model to Identify Effects of an Intelligent Tutoring System on Reading Comprehension, American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX April 2017
  • Jiang, X., Lei, P-W., Meyer, B. J. F., & Wijekumar, K. (2017, October). Exploring the diagnostic capacity of a standardized reading comprehension test. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Educational Research Association, Trumbull, CT.
  • Li, X., Lei, P.-W., Meyer, B.J.F, & Wijekumar,K. (2017, April). Comparison of Bi-factor and Unidimensional IRT Model for Reading Comprehension Test. Poster presented at the AERA Conference
  • Wijekumar, K. (2017). Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Struggling Readers Show Strong Improvements in Reading Comprehension When Taught the Structure Strategy Using a Web-Based Tutoring System, American Educational Research Association, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX April 2017
  • Wijekumar, K. & Beerwinkle, A. L. (2017). School Impact Summit, San Antonio, TX April 2017
  • Li, X., Lei, P.-W., Meyer, B.J.F, & Wijekumar, K. Comparison of Bi-factor and Unidimensional IRT Model for Reading Comprehension Test. . Poster session presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, San Antonio, TX.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2017). Symposium on Text Structure Impact on Reading and Writing. Annual Meeting of the Society for Research in Educational Effectiveness, Washington DC. March 2017
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Successful progression from Goal 2 to Goal 3 grant projects. Invited presentation at the Annual Principal Investigators Meeting of the US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, Washington D.C. December 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016) Text structure-based reading and writing programs for schools. Presentation at The University of Malta, November, 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Mentoring African American Children through K-12 Schools. Shell Educational Initiatives Group, Beaver, PA, November 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Scaffolding fourth and fifth graders’ learning of text structure strategy using intelligent tutoring, Presentation at the 2016 Technology and Media in Children’s Development Special Topic Meeting , Irvine, CA, October 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Technology solutions for literacy. Annual School Impact Summit, The Woodlands, TX, October 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Web-based tutoring systems for reading comprehension and writing. Huntsville Independent School District Leadership Retreat. September 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Self-Regulated Strategies Development Model for Writing at Elementary Grades. Aldine Independent School District. August 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Writing Theory and Self-Regulated Strategies Development Model Based Interventions at the Elementary Grades. Annual Conference of the Society for Scientific Study of Reading, Porto, Portugal, July 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K., Harris, K.R., Graham, S., Lei, P-W., & Meyer, B.J.F. (2016). Reading comprehension and persuasive writing with sources. Presentation at the SIG-Writing Conference, Liverpool, UK, July 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). American Psychological Association, Annual Conference, Judge for Poster Session and presentation at Co-Chairs Meeting. Denver, CO, June 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B.J.F., Lei, P-W., Hernandez, A., & August, D. (2016). Upper Elementary Grade Spanish speaking English Language Learners Show Improvement in Reading Comprehension. Presentation at the Annual Conference of the World Educational Research Association, Washington, DC, April 2016.
  • Wijekumar, K. (2016). Improving content area reading comprehension with Spanish speaking English learners. Presentation at the Annual Kidd Literacy Conference, New Mexico State University. March 2016. Wijekumar, K. (2015). Text structure based comprehension using web-based intelligent tutoring systems. European Literacy Network Working Group Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, Nov 2015.

Professional Development Sessions

Conducted professional development sessions to over 5000 teachers across Texas and beyond:

Professional Development Locations

Local

  1. Brownsville Independent School District
  2. Houston Independent School District
  3. Aldine Independent School District
  4. El Paso Independent School District
  5. Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District
  6. Los Fresnos Independent School District
  7. Navasota Independent School District
  8. Bryan Independent School District
  9. Read-by-3rd-Bryan Texas
  10. Caldwell Independent School District
  11. Huntsville Independent School District
  12. Las Cruces Public Schools (New Mexico)
  13. Gadsden Public Schools (New Mexico)
  14. Moon Township School District (Pennsylvania)
  15. Aliquippa School District (Pennsylvania)

International

  1. Kenyata University – Kenya
  2. University of Malta, Malta
  3. University of Porto, Portugal
  4. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  5. University of Melbourne – Australia
  6. Brandenburg University – Germany

Community Outreach

Outreach to communities in English and Spanish – KAMU Literacy Minute Segments & Videos to bring evidence-based practices to the general public.

Over 40 segments have been created and aired on the Public Radio Station, kamu.tamu.edu.

Segments Available in English and Spanish

Videos Available in English and Spanish

Publications

  • Graham, S., Wijekumar, K., Harris, K.R., Lei, P., Fishman, E., Ray, A., & Houston, J. (in press). Writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behavior predict students’ persuasive writing performance in the context of robust writing instruction. Elementary School Journal.
  •  Wijekumar, K., Graham, S., Harris, K.R., Lei, P., Barkel, A., Aitken, A., Ray, A., & Houston, J. (in press). The roles of writing knowledge, motivation, strategic behaviors, and skills in predicting elementary students’ persuasive writing from source material. Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
  • Wijekumar, K., Beerwinkle, A., Joshi, R.M. (2019). Etiology of teacher knowledge and instructional skills for literacy at the upper elementary grades, Annals of Dyslexia. 69(1), 5-20,  DOI: 10.1007/s11881-018-00170-6
  • Wijekumar, Meyer, Lei, Beerwinkle, (in press). Improving Content Area Reading Comprehension with 4th and 5th Grade Struggling Readers with a Web-Based Intelligent Tutoring System, Journal of Learning Disabilities
  • Xu, Z., Banerjee, M., Ramirez, G., Zhu, G., & Wijekumar, K. (2018) The effectiveness of educational technology applications on adult English language learners’ writing quality: a meta-analysis, Computer Assisted Language Learning, DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2018.1501069
  • Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B.J.F., Lei, P-W, Hernandez, A., August, D. (2018). Effects of web-based text structure instruction for 4-6th grade Spanish Els reading comprehension. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 31,9: 1969-1996.
  • Beerwinkle, A., Wijekumar, K., Walpole, S. & Aguis, R. (2018). An Analysis of the Ecological Components within a Text Structure Intervention, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal , 31,9: 2041-2064.
  • Ji, Xuejuen, Beerwinkle, A. & Wijekumar, K. (2018). Using Latent Transition Model to Identify Effects of an Intelligent Tutoring System on Reading Comprehension, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, , 31,9: 2095-2113.
  • Meyer, B.J.F.,& Wijekumar, K. (2018) Comparative Signaling Words Generated for Expository Texts by 4th – 8th Graders: Variations by Reading Comprehension Levels and Text Structure Strategy Intervention, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, , 31,9: 1937-1968.
  • Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B. J. F., & Lei, P. (2017). Web-based text structure strategy instruction improves seventh graders’ content area reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(6), 741-760. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000168
  • Wijekumar, K., Meyer, B.J.F., Lei, P., Xuejun, J., Joshi, R.M. (2017, April 5). Evidence of an Intelligent Tutoring System as a Mindtool to Promote Strategic Memory of Expository Texts and Comprehension with Children in Grades 4 and 5. Journal of Educational Computing Research.  DOI: 10.1177/0735633117696909
  • Berninger, V. W., & Joshi, R. M. (2016). New directions in preservice and inservice professional development for teaching students with and without specific learning disabilities in middle childhood and early adolescence. In R. Schiff & R. M. Joshi (Eds.). Handbook of intervention in LD Classrooms. (pp. 255-274). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
  • Joshi, R. M., & Binks-Cantrell, E. (In Press). The Emperor’s New Clothes in the Preparation of Reading Teachers. In P. McCardle, D. Compton, & J. Washington (Eds.). Dyslexia: Revisiting etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and policy. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes.