Database of Federally Funded Technical Assistance and Research Centers

Bookshare

Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

Bookshare is an ebook library that makes reading easier. Members can access a huge collection of ebooks and read their way with the most customizable ebooks for people with reading barriers.

The library has 1,233,523 titles and is the most extensive collection of accessible ebooks in the world. It includes books for school, career, and reading pleasure, as well as titles in over 34 languages. The collection is supported by a dedicated volunteer community and partnerships with over 1000 US and international publishers.

Director(s): Ayan Kishore, CEO

Specialty Area

  • Accessible Education Materials

Primary Audience

  • Families
  • Schools
  • Teachers

Services

  • Content Expertise

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information

Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS Center)

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE),  the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) supports schools, districts, and states to build systems capacity for implementing a multi-tiered approach to social, emotional and behavior support. The broad purpose of PBIS is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of schools and other agencies. PBIS improves social, emotional and academic outcomes for all students, including students with disabilities and students from underrepresented groups.

Director(s): Heather George, Tim Lewis, Kent McIntosh, Brandi Simonsen

Specialty Area

  • Education Leadership
  • Evidence Based Practices & Scaling Up
  • Family Engagement
  • Intensive Supports
  • Multi-tiered Systems of Support
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS)
  • Response to Intervention
  • School Climate & Behavior
  • School Mental Health
  • Social and Emotional Learning
  • Special Education
  • System Alignment

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • Families
  • School Counselors
  • School Districts
  • Schools
  • State Education Agencies

Services

  • Assessment Tools
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Content Expertise
  • Research

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information

Other Specialty Areas: Implementation Science; Prevention Science

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning

The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning (AEM Center) at CAST is a knowledge-development, information dissemination, and technical assistance project whose activities and actions are designed to:

  1. Expand and disseminate knowledge about Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) and technologies among key stakeholder groups.
  2. Increase AEM Center stakeholders’ skills; and motivation.
  3. Improve and enhance the organizational, material and structural capacities of AEM stakeholders so that they effectively use AEM resources.

The overall goal established by CAST and OSEP pertains to improvements in the availability and use of accessible educational materials and technologies for learning.

Director(s): Cynthia Curry

Specialty Area

  • Accessible Education Materials
  • Equity
  • Family Engagement
  • Multi-tiered Systems of Support
  • Response to Intervention
  • Transitions (from grade to grade)

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • Families
  • School Counselors
  • School Districts
  • Schools
  • State Education Agencies
  • Teachers

Services

  • Assessment Tools
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Content Expertise
  • Convening Stakeholders

Regions/States

National

Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Ohio, Texas

Level of Support

Intensive

Additional Information

Other Primary Audiences: Higher Education; Workforce Development; Publishers; EdTech Developers

Technical Assistance and Training

Other Specialty Areas: Access to AEM and assistive technology; Policy

National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII)

The Mission of the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) is to build the capacity of state and local education agencies, universities, practitioners, and other stakeholders to support implementation of intensive intervention in literacy, mathematics, and behavior for students with severe and persistent learning and/or behavioral needs, often in the context of their multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) or special education services. NCII’s approach to intensive intervention is data-based individualization (DBI), a research-based process that integrates the systematic use of assessment data, validated interventions, and intensification strategies.

Director(s): Rebecca Zumeta Edmonds, Ph.D., Center Director, Sarah Arden, Ph.D., Deputy Director

Specialty Area

  • Educator Preparation
  • Effective Instruction
  • Evidence Based Practices & Scaling Up
  • Family Engagement
  • Intensive Supports
  • Measuring Student Growth
  • Multi-tiered Systems of Support
  • Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS)
  • Response to Intervention
  • School Climate & Behavior
  • Special Education
  • System Alignment

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • Families
  • School Counselors
  • School Districts
  • Schools
  • State Education Agencies
  • Teachers

Services

  • Consulting
  • Content Expertise
  • Convening Stakeholders
  • Facilitation

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

Tiered

Additional Information

Other Specialty Areas: Intensive Intervention; Data-based Individualization

National Instructional Materials Access Center

Created by IDEA 2004, the NIMAC is a federally-funded, searchable online repository of source files for K-12 instructional materials. We receive files in the XML-based NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) format, and states use these materials in the production of accessible formats such as braille, large print, and digital text. The NIMAC currently has over 74,000 files from more than 160 publishers.

Director(s): Rebecca Sheffield, U.S. Dept. of Education OSEP Project Officer for NIMAC

Specialty Area

  • Accessible Education Materials
  • Educational Technology

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • Families
  • School Counselors
  • School Districts
  • Schools
  • State Education Agencies
  • Teachers

Services

  • Content Expertise

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information

National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: The Collaborative (NTACT:C)

The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: The Collaborative (NTACT:C) is a Technical Assistance Center co-funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).  They provide information, tools, and supports to assist multiple stakeholders in delivering effective services and instruction for secondary students and out of school youth with disabilities.

Director(s): David Test, UNC Charlotte, Paula Kohler, University of Central Florida, Deanne Unruh, University of Oregon

Specialty Area

  • 21st Century Skills
  • Career and Technical Education
  • Education Leadership
  • Evidence Based Practices & Scaling Up
  • Family Engagement
  • Organizational Leadership
  • School Climate & Behavior
  • School Mental Health
  • Secondary Transition
  • Special Education
  • Transitions (from grade to grade)

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • Families
  • School Counselors
  • State Education Agencies
  • Teachers

Services

  • Assessment Tools
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Content Expertise
  • Convening Stakeholders
  • Facilitation

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

Tiered

Additional Information

Other Primary Audiences: State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies; Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors; Secondary Students with Disabilities

Other Specialty Areas: Transition to post-school environments; Data Analysis and Use

PROGRESS Center

PROGRESS Center (which stands for Promoting Rigorous Outcomes and Growth by Redesigning Educational Services for Students With Disabilities Center) provides information, resources, tools, and technical assistance services to support local educators and leaders (kindergarten through transition age) in developing and implementing high-quality educational programs that ensure students with disabilities have access to free appropriate public education (FAPE) which allows them to make progress and meet challenging goals, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017).

Director(s): Tessie Rose Bailey, Center Director, Rebecca Zumeta Edmonds, Principal Investigator

Specialty Area

  • English Language Learners
  • Evidence Based Practices & Scaling Up
  • Family Engagement
  • High-Quality Educational Programming
  • Intensive Supports
  • Measuring Student Growth
  • Multi-tiered Systems of Support
  • Response to Intervention
  • Special Education

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • School Districts
  • Schools
  • State Education Agencies
  • Teachers

Services

  • Assessment Tools
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Content Expertise
  • Convening Stakeholders
  • Facilitation

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

Tiered

Additional Information

Private and charter school associations and entities