Jason Chow, associate professor of special education and of hearing and speech sciences, received two training grants for $2.49 and $3.72 million from the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education to prepare leadership personnel in special education.
Rachel Schles, assistant professor of the practice of special education, received a $1.23 million training grant from the Tennessee Department of Education for a Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) endorsement program—Vanderbilt Peabody College’s first low-residency teacher education program.
Project Sustain: Preparing Leaders with Expertise Promoting the Uptake, Implementation, and Sustainability of Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education
Project Sustain is a $2.49 million collaboration between faculty at Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland to prepare highly qualified leaders in special education to be experts in the use, implementation, and sustainability of evidence-based practices in schools to strengthen the outcomes of high-needs children with disabilities. Students in the doctoral program will be trained as scholar-practitioners to directly address the research-to-practice gap and to use implementation frameworks in the design of high-quality research that aims to address issues of adoption and sustainment of “what works.” They will learn to conceptualize and conduct rigorous research focused on adopting, implementing, and sustaining evidence-based practices in classrooms, schools, and across educational systems.
Chow is the project director. His Vanderbilt colleagues on the grant are Kristen Granger, assistant professor of special education, and Jennifer Ledford, associate professor of special education. University of Maryland faculty are Veronica Kang, assistant professor of special education, and Jade Wexler, professor of special education. The project will train eight Ph.D. scholars, with each institution training four students in the program over the course of four years.
Project Intersect: Preparing Speech-language Pathology Leaders at the Intersection of Research and Practice in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Special Education to Advance the Next Generation of Speech-language Pathologists
Project Intersect is a $3.72 million doctoral leadership grant. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Texas Christian University, and San Diego State University are collaborating to provide rigorous Ph.D. training to three speech-language pathology scholars at each institution. They will develop the knowledge and skills to improve outcomes for high-need, linguistically diverse students with disabilities who receive school speech-language services. The goal of this training grant is to support scholars and future leaders who have expertise in special education systems and research. In their academic-research careers, Intersect scholars will increase the quality of research evidence on how to improve outcomes for students with disabilities receiving school speech-language pathology services and teach undergraduate and graduate pre-service speech-language pathologists and school-based professionals who serve high-need, linguistically diverse students with disabilities.
Chow is a co-principal investigator on the grant in his role as associate professor of hearing and speech sciences at VUMC. His collaborators are Melanie Schuele, professor of hearing and speech sciences at VUMC; Emily Lund, associate professor of speech-language pathology at TCU; and Alyson Abel-Mills, associate professor of speech-language pathology at SDSU.
Endorsements in Vision Across Tennessee
The Endorsements in Vision Across Tennessee (EVA-TN) project responds to the need to address the shortage of Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) throughout the state, particularly in high-need locales. The Visual Disabilities teacher training program at Peabody College will provide high-quality and rigorous training for current Tennessee teachers to become TVIs. Importantly, as Peabody’s first low-residency teacher education program, 75 percent of EVA-TN’s classes will be remote, and students in the program will only be required to attend in-person classes in Nashville once a month during the fall and spring semesters and more frequently in the summer. This hybrid schedule will give teachers across the state the flexibility to earn this critical endorsement and a master of education while continuing to teach in their communities. Working teachers will complete the two-year program through a combination of coursework, practicum experiences, and enrichment activities.
The grant covers full tuition for 20 scholars. The first cohort of eight students began the program in June. The second cohort will begin in June 2026. Rachel Schles, assistant professor of the practice of special education, is the principal investigator on the grant.
