Accessing the Curriculum via Computer-Enhanced Study Strategies

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Abstract

Project ACCESS (Accessing the Curriculum via Computer-Enhanced Study Strategies) is a four-year, four-school project designed to develop and implement a model for promoting whole-school, systemic adoption of proven computer-enhanced study strategies as a means of providing access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities. So-called computer-based study strategies (CBSS) have been researched and refined for the past ten years at the Center for Electronic Studying, University of Oregon. Use of CBSS by secondary students with learning disabilities consistently result in marked improvement in all parameters of academic success. Through the CBSS Outreach Project, these strategies are taught throughout the western United States. Such efforts have allowed a large number of individual students to benefit from CBSS. At the present time, there is a critical need to go beyond individual benefits and to investigate how CBSS can be instituted in whole schools and school systems on a permanent basis.
The proposed project has five major objectives: 1) to increase school-wide adoption and implementation of computer-based study strategies at three levels: elementary, middle and high school, 2) to increase teacher knowledge about and integration of computer-based study strategies within the general and special education curriculum, 3) to increase access of students with disabilities to the general education curriculum through the systemic adoption of computer-based study strategies 4) to increase the academic performance and school satisfaction of students with disabilities through the systemic adoption of computer-based study strategies and 5) To increase participation of students with disabilities in statewide assessments.
The project is a collaborative effort between the Eugene 4J School District and the Center for Electronic Studying at the University of Oregon. Intended outcomes include data on the effects of CBSS on curriculum access, academic performance, school satisfaction and assessment participation of students with disabilities, information about the factors influencing systemic adoption of CBSS and a wealth of on-line and print materials designed to facilitate replication of CBSS adoption worldwide.