Maya Israel
University of Florida, FL·Education Research
Children with disabilities are often left out of early computer science (CS) classes. Their teachers may not have the strategies to include them.
- Fields
Education Research
Computer Science
- Topics
computer science education
CS for All
K-8 education
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Identify the needs, barriers and strategies that general and special education teachers face when teaching K-8 computer science to all students, through a research-practice partnership in Broward County, Chicago and a national teacher community.
- Track how Universal Design for Learning and High Leverage Practices are carried out across K-8 CS classrooms, using shared measures and design-based improvement cycles.
- Examine how 4th and 5th grade general and special education teachers adapt computer science professional development to include students with disabilities in two Arizona districts.
- Measure how the TACTICS professional development affects teachers' competence and students' CS learning, ability beliefs and attitudes, for students with and without disabilities.
More about the research
The research in these grants asks how to prepare general and special education teachers to teach computing and robotics to every student from kindergarten through 8th grade. It focuses on two approaches. Universal Design for Learning plans lessons so that many kinds of learners can access them from the start. High Leverage Practices are proven core teaching techniques from special education. Both projects work closely with school districts and study how professional development changes what happens in classrooms.
Why it matters
Many students with disabilities miss early chances to learn computing, a skill that matters for future careers. Evidence-based teacher training in inclusive practices could help schools give these students real access to computer science and robotics. The work will also show what K-8 students with disabilities can accomplish in STEM.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: Teaching All Cs Through Inclusion and Collaboration with Special education (TACTICS)
NSF · Aug 2024 – Jul 2028
Collaborative Research: Universal Design through Professional Development and Systems Change to Increase Access to K-8 Computer Science Education for Learners with Disabilities
NSF · Jan 2025 – Aug 2027
Closest labs
Fred Martin
University of Texas at San Antonio, TX·Education Research
Document current understandings, policies and practices for using and teaching AI literacy in partner middle school districts in Texas and New York, working with teachers and technology coaches.
Christopher Bogart
Carnegie Mellon University, PA·Education Research
Identify how early-career developers and experienced students divide programming work between themselves and AI tools, using interviews and direct observation to find patterns of overtrust, lost task awareness and skill decline.
Suzanne Taylor
Montana State University, MT·Education Research
Examine how a three-year professional learning system changes rural third- through fifth-grade teachers' pedagogical design capacity, their ability to adapt science lessons around locally and culturally significant place-based phenomena.
The school
University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.