TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION HANDBOOK
	Last Updated September 30, 2006

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CENTERS

DESCRIPTION OF CENTERS

The Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research

The Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research promotes systemic change in the manner in which professional and families interact and plan for people with disabilities. Nationwide, dissemination of research findings, activities, and projects of the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research provide an impetus for creating this transformation. Engaging professionals and families of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders promises far-reaching effects for collaboration, preparation, and implementation of instructional and transitional programming to provide a higher quality of life for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

 

The Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research focuses on four avenues for advancing society's view of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. First, the Center provides preparation for selected educators on the South Plains through the Burkhart Teaching Academy . The Burkhart Teaching Academy supplies outstanding teachers working with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders with mentoring, training, and materials to improve their performance in the classroom. Second, Resources and Solutions offer area families and professionals books, DVDs, small group workshops, and individual consultation concerning issues for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Resources and Solutions also exhibit a variety of Sensory Integration materials for parents to try with their students prior to purchasing the equipment. Third, the Center continues to work with the South Plains Autism Network (SPAN) to provide families and professionals with current information on a monthly basis. During the SPAN meetings, Sibshops engage siblings of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in problem-solving and group-support activities. Finally, The Collin Burkhart Transition Collaborative brings families, educators, and community partners together to determine strength-based blueprints to aid students with transition from school to work. The blueprints map the student and family's desires and aid them in determining practical placements and decisions for adulthood. This Collaborative identifies community partners to provide comprehensive services and postsecondary opportunities for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The Center for Diversity Leadership in Education

 

The Center for Diversity Leadership in Education is an embedded center whose mission/vision, critical success factors, goals, objectives, strategies, and assessment processes will be consistent with those of the TTU College of Education. The Center for Diversity Leadership in Education will seek to engage in collaborative research and practical application partnerships with multiple entities across the University. The proposed Center will generate nuanced and comprehensive understandings of the role diversity leadership can play in the elimination of persistent inequities in public education (nationally and internationally) and in the development of a more just and caring global society.

 

The Center for Diversity Leadership will serve as a nexus through which individual researchers and academic units can gather to share and discuss multiple educational, intellectual, and societal views and perspectives and research proposals related to the provision of equitable educational opportunities in a global society; develop and maintain multiple partnerships with internal and external university entities (including international partnerships with other universities and organizational entities) to conduct relevant theory-into-practice research on how to creatively address persistent inequities in public education and in society (both nationally and internationally); serve as an administrative hub for the solicitation and distribution of funded research for individuals and partner agencies associated with the Center; serve as a clearinghouse for research on diversity, equity, and leadership; function as a place that sponsors training by experts in the development and successful procurement of long-term federal and corporate funding opportunities related to diversity, equity, and leadership; offer leadership development opportunities for those interested in diversity and equity leadership in a global society

 

Center for the Integration of Science Education and Research

As a university-wide center, the Center for the Integration of Science Education and Research is committed to the concept that research and education in the sciences are inseparable and complementary and is committed to removal of barriers: between education and research, between organizations, between academic units, between disciplines, between scientists and non-scientists, between the university and the schools.

The vision of CISER is to be a national leader in the integration of research and education in the sciences. The Center will provide a mechanism for assuring that the increasing research activity at Texas Tech will impact positively the educational experiences in the sciences of students at Texas Tech and in the regional and local K-12 schools.

CISER seeks to develop innovative programs to involve students and teachers at all levels in the research enterprise, create a seamless community of science educators from K-16, serve as a mechanism for recruiting more students and teachers into the sciences, and contribute positively to Texas Tech's reputation by developing nationally recognized programs in the integration of research and education.

As a university-wide center, the Center for the Integration of Science Education and Research will encourage and enable the integration of science education and research at all educational levels and explore innovative mechanisms for doing so, expand educational opportunities for undergraduate science students by promoting and supporting undergraduate research, and enhancing the recruitment and retention of pre-college science teachers.

 

Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research & Education in Visual Impairment

The Virginia Murray Sowell Center for Research and Education in Visual Impairment at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, prepares specialists in visual impairment, orientation and mobility, and deafblindness.  It promotes quality research to address the academic and social needs of school-age students with visual impairments and provides public service to assist local, national, and international constituencies.  The Center offers degree and certification programs in visual impairment (VI), orientation and mobility (O&M), and deafblindness (DB).  Scholarships are offered for students in both degree and certification programs.  The students in the program are often found throughout Texas and the bordering counties, as most of the programs are available through distance education.  The center also offers an Annual Distinguished Lecturer Series in which the finest and most highly qualified in their field come to Lubbock, Texas to offer valuable learning opportunities through the occurrence of lectures.

Dr. Virginia Murray Sowell developed the program at Texas Tech University which is recognized internationally.  Dr. Sowell began teaching students with visual impairments in 1955 at the San Antonio Independent School District and received her Ph.D. in special education at the University of Texas at Austin.  She started a personnel preparation program in visual impairment at Texas Tech University in 1977.  This position along with her many years of teaching provided the background necessary to begin the Orientation and Mobility Program in 1982.  In 1989, another program was established that prepared teachers of students with deafblindness.  

The Virginia Sowell Center employees nine people.  It operates as a federal and state funded grant program.  Students with either a Bachelor's or a Master's degree can receive certification as an O&M Specialist, training students how to travel independently, safely, and efficiently in their homes, schools, and communities.  O&M Specialists work with individuals with visual impairments - birth through adulthood in both educational and rehabilitation settings. 

Students can receive their Teacher of Visually Impaired Certificate if they have or will receive their teaching certificate before completing their VI coursework.  This will provide the student with the background necessary for assisting visually impaired children - birth to 22 years, to achieve their educational goals.  Students who are prepared to teach children with deafblindness usually have a bachelor's degree and are teachers.  They are employed by public schools, residential schools for the blind and agencies serving children and youth with deafblindness. Vision specialists also work with children, parents, other educators, O&M specialists and other community agencies.  They teach children the compensatory skills needed to function independently within society.

The Virginia Sowell Center's program offers face to face instruction at a distance, where the faculty will travel to a central site in a region to teach classes, internet classes, on-campus instruction, for which students move to Lubbock to attend classes on campus, and/or a combination of the above.