Project 2: Using Precision Education Factors to Individualize Education (T2)

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Summary/Abstract Using advancements in genomics, combined with rich data resources describing the environments around developing children, and an understanding of cognitive and behavioral correlates, precision education is a contemporary approach to individualizing education to the specific genes, environments, and psychological risk and protective factors (called “precision education factors”) of the individual child (Hart, 2016). In this high-risk project, we leverage an existing sample of at-risk first graders, 50% of whom are English learners, who have completed a small group reading intervention project with longitudinal measures of reading and language ability. We combine theories and methods from genomics, geographical information systems (GIS), psychology, and education, to study the role of precision education factors on in a sample reflecting the real- world complexity of children who have multiple vulnerabilities. Matching the broader Center themes, we expand our classification systems to include everything we know about an individual's genetics, environments, and psychological risk and protective factors, into a predictive model of student achievement, specific learning disorder classification, and response to intervention. The sample will include 500 first-grade children, followed through second grade, who have been identified as at risk for reading difficulties and who have completed a small group reading intervention through a different project. We will collect new genomics, environmental, and cognitive/behavioral factors data, which when combined with the extensive reading and language data collected by the original intervention project, will allow us to address the overall goal of the proposed research through three specific aims. First, we will apply a precision education approach to predict reading and language development (Specific Aim 1). Second, we will apply a precision education approach to predict specific learning disorders (Specific Aim 2). Third, we will apply a precision education approach to predict response to intervention (Specific Aim 3). We will do this work in a sample with multiple vulnerabilities, including being at risk for reading difficulty as well as being English learners. We will use bidirectional engagement, including recruitment coordinators from the local communities, a local advisory board of community stakeholders, and focus groups of community stakeholders to better understand the implication of findings from this project, allowing us to build bridges between research and practice. Training opportunities for career researchers and community members are structurally integrated throughout the project.