College of Education Research Office

LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research is proud to coordinate, facilitate and work in collaboration with NASA and community partners to engage and inspire high school students in Innovation, Discovery, and Exploration in Aerospace and Science (HS IDEAS). LBJ Institute will partner with NASA's Johnson Space Center and five independent school districts in the surrounding San Marcos Area to begin a three-year curriculum model for the MUREP’s Aerospace Academy (MAA) under its Future Aerospace Engineers and Mathematicians Academy (FAMA) program. Participating students will gain STEM skills throughout the school year to increase their capacity to engage and complete predetermined research-based NASA student capstone projects. In addition to students attending monthly STEM development sessions and a residential summer camp to conduct research investigations for the capstone projects, they will also learn to present work and project findings in research journals, conferences, and other academic outlets.  Parents will also be invited to the monthly sessions to learn more about NASA, funding college, and STEM opportunities for their students. HS IDEAS is an extension of LBJ’s existing residential PEACE GEMS program – Pre-Engineering Academic and Career Exploration for Girls interested in Engineering, Mathematics and Science – opened up to all students, grades 9-12. This is also the 3rd FAMA project that LBJ Institute has been awarded, fostering a solid STEM pipeline for local students - the former projects were developed and designed for elementary and middle school students, who are now enrolled as HS students and will be invited to participate in this project.

MUREP is NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Program. NASA awarded $3.8 Million to 8 institutions for the FAMA program. This complements NASA’s mission to support career aspirations of students from underrepresented and underserved communities to enter careers in STEM. Through cooperative agreement awards, MAA funding affords Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) the opportunity to develop exciting new avenues to inspire local high school students in STEM fields. Dr. Kristina Henry Collins, Associate Director of the LBJ Institute and Associate Professor of Talent Development for Curriculum & Instruction will serve as the primary investigator for HS IDEAS. Dr. Anthony Torres, an Associate Professor in the Engineering Technology Department is the co-investigator. Ms. Angie Behnke, a grant specialist for the LBJ Institute, is the program coordinator.

Dr. Yun-Wen Chan, Assistant Professor in Curriculum and Instruction, was awarded a $20,000 Taiwanese Overseas Pioneers Grant for Young Scholars from the Ministry of Science and Technology. This grant supports Taiwanese young scholars in fields of humanities and social sciences to stay focused on writing books. Dr. Chan’s research focuses on environmental citizenship. She is writing a book called “Making Sense of Place as Political Entity: A Pluralistic Environmental Citizenship.” Dr. Chan argues: to achieve sustainable societies, we need to cultivate students to make sense of the political complexities of sustainability challenges and learn to cope with these complexities in civic environmental contexts. This book will be an expansion of her claim based on: (1) a case study that engaged Taiwanese youth in a taboo wetland policy controversy deliberation, and (2) a current project that encourages TXST preservice teachers in deliberating local sustainability challenges.

Dr. Russ Lang (PI) and Mrs. Katy Davenport (Co-PI) were awarded $312,000 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Autism Grant Program. The 2-year project is housed in the College of Education’s Clinic for Autism, Research, Evaluation and Support (CARES). The primary goal of the project is to improve capacity of TX public schools to provide evidence-based services to students with ASD. Specifically, CARES’ Board Certified Behavior Analysts (Caitlin Murphy and Allyson Lee) will provide training to 120 special and general education teachers and paraprofessionals serving 1,150 students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Round Rock ISD, Pflugerville ISD, and San Marcos ISD. Behavioral Skills Training will be provided through a combination of online and in-person instruction in each teacher’s typical classroom. Training will be individualized for the needs of each participating educator and their specific students with ASD.  Direct measures of skill improvement will be considered to appraise outcomes.

Drs. Alyson A. Collins and Stephen Ciullo, along with Co-PIs Karen R. Harris and Steve Graham from Arizona State University, were awarded a $3,000,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences. This project was funded through a special competition to accelerate student learning as a response to pandemic-related challenges. The project includes two randomized control trials focusing on professional development (PD) and coaching for co-teachers (general and special educators collaborating to support students with and at risk for disabilities) in Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). The two studies aim to boost the performance of students with and at risk for disabilities in text-based writing by providing co-teachers with in-person and online delivery of PD as well as ongoing coaching. Findings will guide school partners and key stakeholders in planning future PD and writing instruction for students with and at-risk for disabilities. For more information, please read the news article: bit.ly/3zgyMvN

Congratulations to Drs. Minda Lopez and Jim Van Overschelde for receiving a $92,000 sub-award from UT Austin Charles A Dana Center. Texas State University’s Research for EDucator Equity and Excellence (REDEE) Collaborative has received a $92,000 sub-award from the University of Texas at Austin, Charles A. Dana Center.  The project, entitled, “Addressing Misalignment at Critical Transition Points in Texas Education” addresses research pertaining to high school graduation in Texas. Using data from the ERC database, we will explore student, teacher, school, and district characteristics associated with successful end-of-course exam performance, high school persistence, and on-time high school graduation. We will also explore how teachers teaching out-of-field impacts student success in high school and what factors lead to successful postsecondary degrees and/or high job earnings.

The REDEE Center will conduct research on Project Lead the Way (PLTW) to examine the short- and long-term impacts on student outcomes of PLTW’s different STEM curricula (e.g., engineering, biomedicine, computer technology). Student outcomes being examined include changes in STAAR assessment scores, high school graduation, annual salary in the first few years following high school graduation for non-college going graduates, and post-secondary enrollment and major for college-going graduates. This quasi-experimental study will compare outcomes between 330,000 PLTW student against matched non-PLTW students using coarsened exact matching and hierarchical linear modeling. A subaward to University of Texas – Commerce with Dr. Sarah Guthery is included.

The REDEE Center will conduct data preparation and analyses of the state’s Education Research Center (ERC) data to examine Texas teacher preparation trends at the state level and for each of the 20 education service center regions. The analyses will include examinations of teacher preparation trends, teacher employment trends, teacher assignment and misassignment trends, and student outcomes, with a particular focus on student outcomes in Math.

Drs. Kristina Henry Collins, Leslie Huling, and Deepika Sangam have been awarded $300,000 from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), empowered by NASA’s Human Research Program. The program is an important aspect of TRISH’s ongoing commitment to increase engagement from underrepresented groups in the field of space health research. The main goal is to develop an infrastructure to attract and sustain a larger network of underrepresented and underutilized post-doctoral and early-career (UUPEC) research professionals in order to create a space health community more representative of the general population. The LBJ Institute’s Space Health Inclusion Partnership (LBJ SHIP) will create a suite of development and engagement opportunities including culturally responsive mentoring training, a space health research immersion institute, and online micro-credentials related to the challenges of humans in space, real-time exploration of TRISH funding opportunities, and the anatomy of competitive space health research initiatives. LBJ SHIP aims to disrupt deficit models of intervention related to bridging gaps for underrepresentation in the STEM pipeline; our goal is to work with UUPEC research professionals to foster ways that space health research can fit into their current research priorities. Interested UUPEC research professionals in STEM should contact Dr. Kristina Henry Collins at k.henry.collins@txstate.edu.

Danielle McEwen, Dr. Lindsey Oakes, and Dean Michael O’Malley have been awarded $100,000 for 2022-2023 (renewable up to 4 years for $400,000 total) from the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities to help create an inclusive postsecondary education program for youth with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Admitted students will have fully integrated living options and take self-selected interdisciplinary courses related to their individualized career goals, along with service-learning and internship opportunities. Students will receive a non-academic certificate upon completion of the program and participate in commencement. 

Dr. Shelly Forsythe, Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum And Instruction, has received a grant of $31,500 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This NSF Noyce Research project will serve the national need of building capacity to develop equitable and effective science teaching practice by investigating the use of video analysis tasks in teacher preparation. The project involves a collaboration of science teacher educators from seven partnering universities: Vanderbilt University, Texas State University, Teachers College Columbia University, West Chester University, University of Northern Iowa, Florida International University, and Kennesaw State University. The project will (1) analyze and modify the Framework for Analyzing Video in Science Teacher Education and associated tools to ensure that they explicitly support noticing for equity; (2) identify, modify, and pilot research instruments to analyze teachers’ profession vision, its link to equitable science teaching practice, and how this vision changes over time in relation to teacher effectiveness and retention; (3) develop a cross-site, longitudinal research study that incorporates the practical instructional tools for video analysis and the research tools for studying effectiveness, as well as retention, of STEM teachers in our partner high-need school districts. 

Dr. Anthony Deringer, Dr. Kent Griffin, Dr. Rob Dussler, Allie Thomas, Dr. Christine Norton, Miranda Wait have been awarded $59,920 to implement various Outdoor/Adventure Education Programs with San Marcos Consolidated Independent Schools. The programs (collectively known as the Spring Lake Outdoor Education Project) seek to impact students’ personal and social responsibility, mental health, and wellness through fostering healthy relationships with nature. The project uses outdoor and adventure education to connect students with their places and provide them with knowledge and skills that can lead to lifelong health in the outdoors.

Dr. Melissa A. Martinez, Associate Professor in Educational Leadership, has received a sub-award of $36,093 as Co-PI of a study with a research team from UT Dallas and awarded by the Greater Texas Foundation. This grant will support a study that utilizes a Concurrent Mixed Model Design to characterize the population of students who enroll persistently and temporarily part-time in Texas public two-year institutions, identify the reasons why they enroll part-time and locate areas in policy, practice, and programming that might be reformed to improve their outcomes. Dr. Martinez will contribute to the qualitative portion of the study conducting interviews with community college administrators at ten Texas community colleges, as well as interviews and focus groups with students who are enrolled part-time at a purposeful sample of four (of the 10) Texas community colleges offering a range of supports to part-time students to understand: factors or mechanisms influencing part-time enrollment; challenges and needs of part-time students as they pursue college completion; and resources, services, or programming part-time students have found helpful in supporting their success in college.

Dr. Damian Valles, Assistant Professor in the Ingram School of Engineering and Dr. Ting Liu, Professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance, have received a grant of $344,029 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This NSF grant will support a 3-year project to involve undergraduate students at Texas State in research in the emerging areas of Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) and Smart and Connected Health (SCH) for individuals with disabilities and first responders. The undergraduate students will design and develop concepts, systems, and applications that target aspects of S&CC and SCH on emotion recognition, cognitive and motor function, postural control and hygiene of individuals with disabilities (autism spectrum disorder, multiple sclerosis); and study the use of new engineering data and visual cyber techniques in smart city firefighting autonomous data collection. Drs. Semih Aslan, Yumeng Li, John Farrell, and Maria Resendiz will serve as senior personnel on the grant.

Congratulations to Drs. Minda Lopez and Jim Van Overschelde for receiving a $92,000 sub-award from UT Austin Charles A Dana Center. Texas State University’s Research for EDucator Equity and Excellence (REDEE) Collaborative has received a $92,000 sub-award from the University of Texas at Austin, Charles A. Dana Center.  The project, entitled, “Addressing Misalignment at Critical Transition Points in Texas Education” addresses research pertaining to high school graduation in Texas. Using data from the ERC database, we will explore student, teacher, school, and district characteristics associated with successful end-of-course exam performance, high school persistence, and on-time high school graduation. We will also explore how teachers teaching out-of-field impacts student success in high school and what factors lead to successful postsecondary degrees and/or high job earnings.

Kathy Ybanez-Llorente, Associate Professor in the Professional Counseling Program in the Department of Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education and School Psychology and Dr. Maria Resendiz, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders, have received a grant of $424,761 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the Minority Health Research and Education Grant Program- Academic Clinical Partnerships. The grant will fund the ACCESS project (Attaining Culturally sensitive Counseling Education for Speech, linguistic and trauma-informed Services) for two years.

The primary purpose of the ACCESS project is to address the mental health workforce shortage by setting up sustainable academic-clinical partnerships to increase valuable student intern clinical placements in medically underserved communities. The project will increase intern knowledge of multicultural counseling, trauma-informed interventions, and culturally/linguistically diverse services. Additionally, the ACCESS project will support recruitment efforts to increase the number of Hispanic and African American students enrolled in the targeted allied health discipline.

Congratulation to Dr. Stacy Hunter for being awarded a $408,493 grant over a two-year period on behalf of the National Institute of Health National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health to support her research entitled "Yoga Postures and Slow Deep Breathing in Altering Mechanistic Outcomes in Hypertension."

Drs. Maria Haiyasoso and Paulina Flasch, Assistant Professors in the Counseling Program, Department of Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education and School Psychology in the Professional Counseling program, have received a grant of nearly $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women for the creation of coordinated victim services at Texas State University. The grant will fund the Bobcats REACH (Response, Education, Awareness, Care and Healing) Project, a collaborative effort of community and campus partners and resources to enhance safety for students and enable response in a coordinated and trauma-informed manner when students experience domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking. The REACH Project will comprise victim services and trauma-informed counseling; coordinated campus and community response; education and training for the campus community; and prevention and awareness efforts.  

REACH Project partners include the San Marcos Police Department, Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center, Hays County District Attorney’s Office, Texas State Professional Counseling Program, University Police Department, Title IX Office, Clery Act and Campus Security, Student Health Center, Health Promotion Services, the Texas State Counseling Center, Housing and Residential Life, Student Affairs, and Dean of Students Offices including Fraternity & Sorority Life, Student Conduct and Community Standards, Student Emergency Services, and Attorney for Students Office.

Texas State University’s Research for EDucator Equity and Excellence (REDEE) Collaborative has received a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support research that explores issues associated with the Texas educator pipeline starting with admission into a Texas educator preparation program (EPP), success during the EPP, completion of the EPP, successful testing to become an educator, certification as an educator, employment as an educator, success in educating students, and ending with persistence as an educator. The over-arching goals of this study are (a) to increase the quality of future educators prepared by EPPs, (b) to reduce the loss of potential future educators and existing high-quality and effective educators, and (c) to increase the academic success of the P-12 students taught be these educators. 

The Round Rock STEM-for-All Partnership is a public/private initiative that will combine a workforce research initiative with a well-integrated portfolio of STEM engagement and educator professional development opportunities for learners of all ages in the Texas 31st Congressional District. Research data will be collected and analyzed from area employers and education providers concerning current and future workforce needs to identify gaps and to promote collaborative planning to better meet local needs. The STEM engagement and educator professional development collaborative includes summer engineering camps for elementary students, STEM Internship Programs for secondary students, monthly STEM nights at area schools, summer engineering institutes for pre-service teachers from the Texas State Round Rock campus, Saturday teacher professional development sessions for K-12 teachers, a speaker series for the community, and STEM exhibits and interactive activities at area community events.

Congratulations to Drs. Taylor Acee (PI), Russ Hodges (Co-PI), Eric Paulson (Co-PI), and Jim Van Overschelde (Co-PI) for receiving a $315,837 grant on behalf of the Greater Texas Foundation.

Congratulations to Dr. Eric Paulson (PI) & Dr. Jodi Holschuh (Co-PI) for receiving a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to support their research entitled "Postsecondary Educator Micro-Credentials: Best Practices for Teaching and Learning."