UC-speddr

About/ News-main / News-archives / uc-speddr-conf07

January 9, 2007
For immediate release

UC Santa Barbara’s the Gevirtz School hosts the first UC Conference for Research in Special Education, Disabilities, and Developmental Risk (SPEDDR) on January 22-23 at the Harbor View Inn. This event is free (thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor) and open to the press and students throughout the UC system, but not open to the general public, due to space limitations. The conference will feature papers, symposia, and posters from graduate and post-doctoral students from all the University of California campuses on topics such as treatment and interventions related to disability; families and disabilities; English Language Learners; teaching and learning as it relates to Special Education; cultural and linguistic differences; and policy development and implementation.

In addition to the presentations, the conference will also feature guest speaker Marshall Raskind, Ph.D. , Director of Research and Special Projects at Schwab Learning, who will give the Keynote Address on January 22 at 11 am in the conference room at the Harbor View Inn. Dr. Raskind’s research has bee cited in Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine, and The New York Times. He is a Fellow and Vice President of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, a member of the Research Committee of the Council for Learning Disabilities, and a former member of the Professional Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Harriet Levine, Chair of the Conference, says, “The Student Steering Committee for the proposed Center for SPEDDR, including representatives from seven of the UC campuses, met for the first time in January 2006. We decided at our first meeting that the best way to facilitate communication among graduate students was through a UC System-wide conference. We are very excited to begin collaboration with our fellow graduate students throughout the UC System. Having access to the work of other graduate students, the expertise of faculty, and the resources at other campuses adds to our experience as graduate students and opens up new opportunities for research and development in the field of Special Education, Disability and Developmental Risk.”

Mike Gerber, professor and chair of the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School, commented: “The new center’s steering committee is extremely pleased and very impressed that the students have shown such leadership and initiative in successfully planning this first ever statewide student research conference on Special Education, Disabilities, and Developmental Risk. It is an important landmark for UC and the state of California, to have a new generation of scholars come together in this way to help set the course for the future.”

The UC system is about to establish a California-wide Center for Research in Special Education, Disabilities, and Developmental Risk as a Multi-Campus Research Unit that will unify and solidify UC resources. Primary aims of the Center are to enhance the University of California’s ability to attract from a national pool of talented students, win large extramural grants, improve national visibility of UC efforts, and enhance the doctoral preparation of the next generation of research, teacher education, and other related public service doctorates. Already, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, and UC Los Angeles and the UC Office of the President have each made ongoing financial commitments to the Center, and UC Davis and UC Berkeley have indicated their support.

[Harriet Levine and UC SPEDDR committee chair Alexis Filippini are available for interviews; to arrange an interview, contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]

School-wide Links
Courses Apply	Computing Contact