Academic Centers
The McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership
The McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership focuses on professional development, program evaluation, research and public awareness to help cultivate leaders in early childhood education.
Reading Recovery® Regional Center for Comprehensive Literacy
A Reading Recovery center is dedicated to developing and supporting professional learning networks linking Pk-12 educators and leaders with a systemic approach to improving literacy instruction for all children. Reading Recovery is the most effective early literacy intervention for preventing early reading difficulties when embedded within a systemic comprehensive approach to improving teacher expertise through continuing education, job embedded coaching, action research and evaluation. Center partnerships include school districts from multiple states (IL, MN, WI, FL).
Center for Teaching through Children's Books
The center advocates excellence in teaching with quality literature for children and adolescents, encompassing multicultural voices, social justice issues, outreach activities, digital books and resources, and partnerships with schools, libraries and other organizations.
Center for Practitioner Research
The Center for Practitioner Research promotes practitioner research as an essential form of educational research, fostering collaborative scholarship that contributes to knowledge, practice, advocacy and policy in education.
The Reading Center
The Reading Center provides student instruction, professional development, district, school and classroom consultation and research. The center functions as a training site for graduate students in the Reading Specialist program, as well as for a selected group of undergraduate trainees. The Reading Center also houses a reading curriculum center as well as a collection of children's literature used for instruction.