Outreach
Outreach is fundamental to the land-grant mission of Auburn University and to the College of Education's commitment to building a better future for all. Through our outreach efforts we work toward improving the learning opportunities and the futures of citizens in Alabama, the Southeast region, the nation, and the global community.
Although numerous outreach efforts are informal in nature, many have developed into major initiatives. In 2005-2006, College of Education faculty directed and/or participated in funded outreach initiatives totaling more than $2 million. Following are selected highlights:
The Auburn Autism Center was established in August 2003 with the vision of providing much needed services to individuals with autism spectrum disorder, their families, schools, and other agencies whose goal is to optimize the potential of individuals with autism. This vision translates into a model demonstration site for best practice; diagnostic services for children with autism spectrum disorder; training for families, teachers, and related professionals; outreach consultation; and research opportunities relative to effective intervention strategies.
Leadership for Effective Reform Now (LEARN) addresses the need for on-going and sustainable professional development for school administrators and teacher leaders through developing or supporting leadership academies in 10 Alabama rural school systems.
The Leadership in Action Network (LAN) is creating a sustainable leadership capacity building and research network among 9 school districts in rural Alabama. This initiative, funded by the Jesse Ball DuPont Fund, improves instructional leadership through professional development and action research, increasing student leadership capacity and investigating the effectiveness of these networks in solving issues common to the districts.
The Persistent Issues in History Network (PIH) is an initiative that uses the power of interactive technology to support student thinking about the past and the enduring civic issues with which democratic societies wrestle. The Internet-based PIH curriculum features a multimedia database of historical documents and Web-based teaching and learning that facilitate problem-based historical inquiry. Content on new historical topics is added to the database through curriculum development partnerships with PIH teachers.
The Summer Early Childhood Enrichment Program is provided over the course of a summer term by the Early Childhood Program in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. A primary goal of the program is to provide undergraduate early childhood candidates with an opportunity to develop learning experiences that are both playful and yet are aligned with the Alabama Courses of Study. Candidates learn how to make an exciting, engaging, and educational school program for children ranging is age from four to eight years. Children enrolled in the program enjoy contact with other children across a natural spectrum of ages as well as close supervision with many adults (the adult:child ratio is generally 1:3).
The Summer Learning Clinic is an intensive four week porgram that the Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education offers for students with mild learning problems, learning disabilities, behavioral difficulties and/or autism spectrum disorders. Since 1990, over 2,900 such students have received individually designed tutorial instruction through this outreach program. Instruction for students ages 6-13 is offered in reading, math, and language arts, with emphasis on areas of concern for individual students. Instruction in social skills is also offered for children with behavior deficits. For students ages 14-21, instruction is provided in important life-centered areas, such as functional reading and math skills, independent living skills, and self-advocacy skills.
The Summer Reading Program offers supervised individual tutoring by advanced undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in Auburn University's reading education program. Lessons feature explicit instruction in decoding, fluency, and comprehension, along with reading and writing. Tutors closely monitor progress during each session and give diagnostic tests during the first and last sessions to measure reading gains. After the program, tutors provide parents with a report including conclusions and recommendations.
The Sun Belt Writing Project is part of the National Writing Project, which is a profesional development organization for teachers that works to improve student achievement by improving the teaching and learning of writing in the nation's schools. The central program for the Sun Belt Writing Program is the Summer Invitational Institute, which allows the project to recruit widely respected teachers from across all disciplines and grade levels.
The Sustaining School Success Program is a grant initiative funded for the 2006-07 school year through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). Its purpose is to build a coalition of administrators, teacher leaders, and traditional and non-traditional student leaders engaged in school renewal in four rural school systems.
The TigerFit health and fitness assessments are conducted as part of a service learning effort in the Department of Health & Human Performance. Dr. Peter Grandjean, assistant professor and director of TigerFit, works with undergraduate and graduate students as well as local physicians in providing on-going exercise programming and fitness education for the students, faculty, staff and alumni of
Auburn
University
and community members of East Central Alabama.
Transforming East Alabama Mathematics (TEAM-Math) represents a unique effort to improve mathematics education in East Alabama through partnership of teachers and university faculty that includes Auburn University's College of Education and College of Sciences and Mathematics, Tuskegee University, and 12 school districts in East Alabama. The goal of the partnership is to systematically improve mathematics education in this region across the educational system, K-20, seeking to bring it into alignment with state and national standards and the best available research on mathematics teaching, learning, and program improvement.
The Transition Leadership Institute addresses issues, problems, and practices regarding youth and young adults with disabilities. It has a strong partnership with Alabama's special education and rehabilitation state agencies whose transition programs and services are designed to enhance the success of students with disabilities as they cross the "bridge" from high school to post-school life. An affiliate of the Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education, this institute assumes a leadership role in this mission through its array of programs pertaining to pre-service and in-service training, applied research, and innovative outreach initiative.
Departmental Web sites provide additional information regarding other outreach initiatives.
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