• ABOUT US
• R&D DIVISIONS
• CAREERS
• NEWSROOM
• CONTACT US
• HOME

Model Demonstration Coordination Center (MDCC)

SRI’s Center for Education and Human Services (CEHS) has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), to establish a Model Demonstration Coordination Center (MDCC). MDCC is working closely with OSEP and several cohorts of model demonstration project (MDP) grantees as they develop and assess promising practices in a range of topic areas, which include progress monitoring, tertiary interventions for children with challenging behaviors, and others. The purpose of the Model Demonstration grant program and the aim of the MDCC are to help OSEP achieve the mission of its Research to Practice Division (RTP), which “provides leadership and oversees the implementation of knowledge development, transfer, and use to improve educational results for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities.” To assist the MDPs in contributing to that mission, the MDCC is documenting promising practices in the topic areas in which each cohort of MDPs focuses, as well as providing information to help OSEP bridge the chasm that can exist between identifying evidence-based practices and achieving their widespread use.

Specifically, the MDCC is addressing questions related to the efficacy of particular research-to-practice models—how well they achieve specified outcomes, for whom, and in what contexts. The MDCC also is addressing the kinds of questions that will be on the minds of potential adopters of those models, such as district administrators, principals, and teachers: what it takes to implement a new program or practice and what the implications of adopting a model are for their districts, schools, and classrooms.

SRI is performing the following functions:

• Facilitating a collaborative partnership with MDP grantees and advisory teams in designing the evaluation of each cohort of models and enhancing grantees’ work by creating opportunities to learn and share ideas.
• Developing a cross-site evaluation plan, instruments, and procedures to assess the context, implementation, and efficacy of each model and across models within a cohort.
• Identifying key issues in translating research to practice, developing approaches for MDP grantees to use in collecting data, and analyzing and synthesizing data across MDPs and cohorts to illuminate the issues.
• Developing a data dictionary to promote data commonality and a web-based data system to track, enter, and process data efficiently across sites, while minimizing burden on data managers and making data accessible to MDP grantees and the MDCC for analysis and reporting.
• Applying multiple analytic methods to answer research questions regarding both the relative efficacy of models and bridging the gap between research and practice.
• Producing high-quality, compelling, useful, and accessible products that communicate research findings to key audiences.

(U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, 2005-2010)

Key Staff

Principal Investigator: Mary Wagner

Project Director: Phyllis Levine

Data Programmer/Manager: Patrick Thornton

Staff: Jennifer Yu