Our Impact

The program that provides peer learning support in the service of transforming teaching and learning in undergraduate STEM classes at CU Denver. The Learning Assistants (LAs) take a pedagogy course in the SEHD (SCED 4050/5050). In our research program with NDSU and FIU, we support many doc students, post-docs, and undergraduate research assistants.

The project addresses the need to prepare educators to improve instruction for English Learners, including those at-risk or with disabilities, in a high needs rural county school district that includes several dual language schools. The teachers participate in coaching, co-planning, and co-teaching training, with specific emphasis on using the research-based methods of instructional conversations and literature logs to support English learners’ academic achievement and language development.

Model has been developed and refined over a period of 24 years through five projects funded by the Offices of Special Education Program and English Language Acquisition (OSEP and OELA) of the US Department of Education and the Colorado Department of Education. CO-TOP, a Training of Trainers (TOT) model enhances the capacity of Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) to prepare licensed professionals (teachers and related service providers to supervise and train paraprofessionals through the use of research based training materials (modules and manuals) and resources developed by The PAR2A Center

In collaboration with the National Center for Deaf Blindness, developed and administrates a credentialing system for interveners (i.e. paraprofessional who work with deaf-blind students). Through NICE, interveners submit evidence of knowledge and skills as outlined in standards for interveners published by the Council for Exceptional Children. The PAR²A Center oversees NICE including portfolio submissions, the review board, the review process, and communication of certification decisions to applicants.

This collaboration over the last 10 years has developed partnerships with multiple school districts to offer courses in the Pathways2Teaching program. The concurrent enrollment program is designed to encourage high school students to become teachers and other related education professionals with a specific focus on increasing representation of students of Color in a teacher pathway.

The partner districts have adopted the CO-TOP model to provide a 8 credit certificate to high school students in two technical schools as part of their Career and Technical Education programs. On completion of the certificate, the high-school students can seek employment as paraprofessionals in school districts or transfer the credits to a two or four year college.

This SEHD partnership with the Colorado Education Association, Charter School Institute and CDE has 30 school districts participating in a survey given by the state department of education biennially to all teachers, leaders, and other education professionals in the state.

Early Intervention (EI) Colorado serves families who have children birth through two with developmental delays. It is under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and must provide assurances that providers have the appropriate training. In an effort to ensure that providers have the most current information about evidence-based practices in early intervention, EI Colorado contracted with the PAR²A center to create the modules.

Through Transitions to Teaching grants (TTT) of the The PAR2A Center and T-PREP, there has been collaboration with several rural districts and provided training and supports to build capacity for teacher leaders to take on the role of mentors for teacher candidates and first year novice teachers.

This partnership was built from a 2009-2010 research project with DPS and has led to the creation of tools for a coaching culturally responsive practice. The goal is a nearly open-source resource for schools and researchers to use. The latest version has been validated and will have another field test in 2019/20; the ECE version is in development and will have its first field trials fall 2019.

SEHD's involvement in the partnership includes an annual, iterative research project investigating ways in which schools in the metro region are supporting student social emotional learning (SEL).

This is a research-practice partnership with the Connecticut Science Center (CSC), University of Connecticut, and Western University (Canada).

SEHD's partnership includes working with the Boys and Girls club of America and two schools in the Aurora school district to successfully implement the grant activities.

This is a partnership with Denver Public Schools to develop a Unified Equity Plan.

This SEHD partnership with Denver Public Schools supports The Flyfisher group to develop a community-based education program to serve children and adults in Denver's Five Points community.

This partnership includes supporting the organization in development of racial equity focus as well as the development of equity analysis tool.

Partnership with DPS to coordinate CLDE courses requirements, support residents and provide guidance for compiling CLDE Portfolio (Culminating Experience)

This partnership includes serving on a special Task Force entitled "Cultural Encounters". The task was to develop strategies for difficult dialogues across cultural contexts and have conducted tow programs at the American Counseling Association's national conference (2018, 2019). Role in the partnership was to develop the theoretical framework for difficult dialogues, and specific skills and strategies to manage these conversations. This is now in a manual and the task force is seeking funding to publish the manual from the American Counseling Association.

SEHD is partnered with multiple IHEs working together with Denver Public Schools to develop capacity for shared research and learning about residency model teacher prep programs.

In partnership with 12 rural school districts, Generation Schools Network and Battelle for Kids and funded by the Hewlett Foundation the partnerships develops rural alternative accountability processes as well as peer reviews.

SEHD's partnership includes assisting with programming and counseling for Asian American students, mentoring undergraduate students on an as needed basis as well as assisting with Split Stories programming.

The Alternative Teacher Preparation program at the partner schools collaborate with School of Education and Human Development (SEHD), Office of Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) to provide an opportunity for their program participants/interns to receive a M.A. Degree in Education and Human Development. After acceptance into the alternative licensure program at the partner schools, interns may apply for the 36 credit Master of Arts degree in Education and Human Development offered through CPE in the SEHD with an emphasis in Human Learning & Development (HLD), Early Childhood Education (ECE), Early Literacy (ELT), or Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE).

Through federal grant funding, and in conjunction with other IHEs, we offer professional development to teachers in Colorado in support of linguistically responsive teaching.

Denver Public Schools is setting up a new program to partner with IHEs in teacher training.

Partnership with districts around the state are using CLDE professional development created by CU Denver faculty. We are partnering with districts to create graduate credit options for teachers. In the summer of 2019, we will have our first teacher get this credit. In the summer of 2020, we will have 20 teachers take the credit as a part of the partnership, but have the potential to have hundreds more. It is our hope that 3 graduate credits will lead many more teachers to pursue the CLDE endorsement.

This partnership with St. Vrain Schools to provides a low cost D2 endorsement plus and M.A. option along with professional development. First cohort will start fall 2019.

The ongoing partnership work with the Jefferson County Public Schools includes leadership development, instructional redesign, technical advising and other work as requested as well as taking cohort lead for the Jeffco 11 principal licensure cohort.

The Virginia is for Learners Innovation Network partnership includes 6 days of future-ready leadership development, capacity-building, and organizational action-planning for 156 school leaders across 31 school districts in Virginia

The North Dakota Innovation Academy partnership includes 7 days of future-ready leadership development, capacity-building, and organizational action-planning for 72 school leaders across 14 school districts in North Dakota.

The partnership involves working with Denver Scholarship Fund to provide FAFSA assistance.

This partnership involves the SEHD's Research Center assisting in survey development and validation.

SEHD in partnership with St. Vrain Valley school district. The object is to adapt the CLDE 1000 course to be taught as a concurrent enrollment course for high schoolers.

This National Science Foundation funded partnership with two school districts promotes and studies the impact of PD on teachers' growth toward a pedagogy that builds on students' conceptions and on their students' multiplicative and fractional reasoning.

This partnership funded by the Rose Foundation is geared toward fostering upper-elementary and middle school teachers' (3-8) deep conceptual understanding of fractions and thus their ability to teach those concepts to students.

The partnership DPS Student Teacher Residency (STR) involves coordination with STR Program Manager and Seminar Instructors (DPS). Residents range from ECE to Secondary teacher candidates and they earn a CLDE endorsement and take condensed CLDE courses which require syllabi modifications and differentiation. Partnership collaborative efforts include coordination with SEHD undergraduate student advisors, Denver Public Schools, Continuing Professional Education, the Office of Partnerships and the Graduate Student Advisor. STR's BAMA model enables graduates to pursue an MA. STR CLDE instructors also coordinate with mentor teachers to arrange for Residents' school site visits.

The partnership provides informal consultation to the staff working at Z-Place, an early childhood center in the Denver Public Schools.

The partnership with DPS continues work with course offerings and teaching through the BEN for the DPS CLDE certificate.

The mission of this partnership is to collaborate across systems to plan, design, coordinate, and advocate for well-aligned higher education pathways that effectively prepare and advance early childhood professionals who improve outcomes for children and families in Colorado.

A collaboration with COAEYC in planning the screening of the documentary "No small matter" and a subsequent discussion.

The partnership with DPP included designing and implementing a professional development to ECE teachers in the areas of Language and Literacy.

Funded by the Federal Preschool Development Grant, the primary goals of the project have been to: [a] develop a B-3 Professional Leadership Plan for the State of Nevada; and [b] analyze state policies to identify barriers to alignment across the B-3 (birth through 3rd grade) continuum.

Funded by DOE 2016-2021. This project is involves creation of online modules pertaining to culturally and linguistically responsive practices for school psychologists and years 3-5, solely researching effectiveness of these methods.

This is a bilingual preschool in Boulder where we provide professional development.

P-TEACH is a high school pathway into education at the St. Vrain School district. It serves high school juniors and seniors who take up to seven education dual enrollment courses that apply to their high school diploma and can also transfer into the Education and Human Development B.A. in the SEHD at CU Denver in the major or as electives.

Development of the Colorado Early Childhood Professional Development Pathway as part of the Colorado EC PD CO-OP which has been funded to pilot a systemic approach to address the need for early childhood workforce training by establishing a sustainable competency-based professional development offering.

In partnership with the GrowHaus (GH), which is an organization focusing on food justice, food education and food distribution. Our partnership is to offer an annual summer early learning experience where children 3-10 and educators from SEHD and community organizations engage with plants, animals, many outdoor learning and food related experiences to nurture care for one selves, one another and a love of the earth.

This initiative creates trainings and resources for school staff that improve capacity in this area, researching capacity and practices of school psychologists in this area

The taskforce that supports districts in improving their practices surrounding disproportionality, particularly in regard to discipline and special education

Clayton serves as our partner in the Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program. The Buell Foundation grant offers an annual graduate level certificate in early childhood leadership. Annually 20 Fellows from areas across the state of CO enroll in a 15-month fellowship co-designed and co-taught by Clayton and CU SEHD faculty.

Partnership between Maria Droste Services (MDS) and the UC Denver counseling program to create an MOU to provide an internship site placement to meet the needs of our Couples and Family Therapy (CFT) program. An agreement has been made for the Dean to provide clinical supervision as long as MDS provides clinical training sites for the CFT program.

The partnership on this national center is focused on providing technical assistance to states to improve the use of evidence-based practices for young children with disabilities receiving Part C (birth to 3) and Part B 619 (preschool) special education services; technical assistance will be provided to states starting in 2019

This partnership provides professional development though a 4-university partnership with this national center focused on evidence-based practices and systems level supports associated with young children’s development of social emotional competence. The Center is federally funded for 5 years (2017-2022); the project has just begun but intensive and targeted technical assistance will be provided to approximately 6-10 states; professional development resources will be developed/refined and disseminated through the center website and other means for all states.

The partnership provides program evaluation for the Bal-Swan Early Childhood Center in Broomfield, CO. The focus of the program evaluation is inclusive early learning.

This partnership supports a new D2 CLDE endorsement program for K-12 teachers in St. Vrain starting in Fall 2019. The work includes reviewing applications, mentoring St. Vrain teachers, reviewing Culminating Experiences and meeting with the district ELD coordinators to plan for the district-led practicum class.

The partnership encompasses the facilitation of a monthly meeting of the English Language Development Directors from 23 school districts in the Front Range area. We coordinate the meetings, the notes and communications for the group.

The Colorado Council of Teachers of Mathematics (CCTM) is a professional organization which provides networking, advocacy, and support for mathematics teachers across the state of Colorado. All Colorado mathematics teachers are welcome to join the organization to connect with colleagues across the state. CCTM is an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the largest professional organization of mathematics teachers in the country.

The partnership helps to solidify the relationship between CU Denver-SEHD and DPS district and teachers. The partnership allows SEHD to have positive impact on education of elementary students and teachers and encourage teachers to continue their professional education at CU.

SEHD partnership with Adams 12, Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley schools providing professional development for teachers in the district to improve their literacy and general instruction with all students, in particular CLD students and students struggling with reading/writing.

Focus of this partnership is educator preparation. Over 12 years hundreds of teachers have taken the courses to build their capacity for working with bilingual students. Many of these teachers have come to SEHD to complete their endorsements and MAs.

The partnership offers three graduate level CLDE classes to Mapleton teachers: CLDE 5030 Language Development; CLDE 5050 Assessment and Advocacy for Multilingual Learners; and, CLDE 5820 Teaching Multilingual Learners. Classes are hosted and paid for by Mapleton. The partnership work consists of coordinating schedules, instructors, admission outreach, graduate faculty appointments, FCQs, and course quality, as well as coordinating with CU Denver instructors to mentor Mapleton teachers/administrators to teach the classes.

The partnership with DPS offers three graduate level CLDE classes to DPS teachers: CLDE 5030 Language Development, CLDE 5050 Assessment and Advocacy for Multilingual Learners, CLDE 5770 Linguistic Analysis of English. Classes are hosted and paid for by DPS. The partnership consists of coordinating schedules, instructors, admission outreach, graduate faculty appointments, FCQs, and course quality, as well as coordinating with CU Denver instructors to mentor DPS teachers/administrators to teach the classes.

The Marginal Syllabus sparks and sustains conversations about educational equity via open and collaborative web annotation. The project embraces a political and technical double entendre; the Marginal Syllabus partners with authors whose writing may be considered marginal – or contrary to dominant education norms, and online conversations among educators and authors occur in the margins of digital texts using web annotation.

MA program designed to prepare urban early childhood professionals who support children and families within community organizations.

Provides technical assistance to First 5 California and the California Department of Education on their quality initiatives and quality rating and improvement system

The Denver Preschool Program contracted with NORC and CU Denver to conduct a longitudinal study examining the impact of a tuition credit and the quality of children’s preschool experiences on children’s learning and social outcomes through high school

The Walton Family Foundation contracted with CU Denver to conduct a study that examined the early childhood data landscape in Arkansas, to explore whether child outcomes can be used to identify high quality early childhood programs, and the factors in early childhood programs associated with better school readiness

Mile High Early Learning contracted with CU Denver and NORC to conduct an evaluation of their teacher well-being strategies, including a wage enhancement on teacher retention and well-being

The partnership involves working with schools in La Junta, Colorado along with Otero Junior College to help build the STEM Rural Partnership for the Rural Math/Science pathway.

The partnership is involved in the planning of the work our student teachers do in JeffCo meeting with JeffCo Admin and HR, site professors, other CU Denver faculty.

This partnership involves traveling to approximately 6 Middle and Secondary schools to support our STEM students in the field with help on lesson planning, connecting the field and SEHD.

Partner as an EFT Steering Committee member, planning education and conducting outreach.

This partnership is providing professional development for teachers in Mexico City and is currently conducting research.

This partnership provides professional development and conducts research in San Antonio Independent School District.

ASPIRE to Teach serves as CU-Denver's “grow your own” teacher preparation pathways in partnership with rural school districts that prepares community members who want to stay and teach in the rural areas.

This partnership offers professional development for teachers in the district to improve their literacy and general instruction with bilingual students while helping the district meet DOE expectations/requirements.