Special Education Faculty & Staff
Program Faculty
Carol Sue Englert
Ph.D., Indiana University
carolsue@msu.edu
Carol Sue Englert is a professor of special education. Her research interests include literacy instruction for students at risk for school failure with a specific focus on the examination of discourse in literacy events. Her more recent work involves a collaborative research project with special education teachers to design, implement, and integrate a literacy curriculum emphasizing the role of oral and written language in a discourse community.
Ph.D., Indiana University
carolsue@msu.edu
Carol Sue Englert is a professor of special education. Her research interests include literacy instruction for students at risk for school failure with a specific focus on the examination of discourse in literacy events. Her more recent work involves a collaborative research project with special education teachers to design, implement, and integrate a literacy curriculum emphasizing the role of oral and written language in a discourse community.
Summer Ferreri
Ph.D., Ohio State University
sferreri@msu.edu
Summer Ferreri is an assistant professor of special education. Her primary research focus is on the development, implementation and evaluation of effective interventions to increase academic success and decrease disruptive behaviors for students with severe disabilities. More specifically, her research utilizes the concepts and principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and single-subject research methods to investigate efficacious interventions for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has conducted research with children with special needs to determine the most effective and least intrusive methods to decrease disruptive, self-injurious, self-stimulatory, pica, and aggressive behavior. She has conducted research on behavioral assessments of impulsivity in relation to dimensions of reinforcement, temporal discounting, reinforcement schedules, and conditioned and terminal reinforcers with children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Ph.D., Ohio State University
sferreri@msu.edu
Summer Ferreri is an assistant professor of special education. Her primary research focus is on the development, implementation and evaluation of effective interventions to increase academic success and decrease disruptive behaviors for students with severe disabilities. More specifically, her research utilizes the concepts and principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and single-subject research methods to investigate efficacious interventions for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has conducted research with children with special needs to determine the most effective and least intrusive methods to decrease disruptive, self-injurious, self-stimulatory, pica, and aggressive behavior. She has conducted research on behavioral assessments of impulsivity in relation to dimensions of reinforcement, temporal discounting, reinforcement schedules, and conditioned and terminal reinforcers with children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Harold Johnson
Ed.D., University of Cincinnati
hjohnson@msu.edu
Harold Johnson is a professor of special education (deaf/hard of hearing). His research focuses upon how web-based technologies and resources can be used to reduce isolation, facilitate collaboration, recognize excellence and enhance teaching/learning within K-20 deaf education. He investigates how student learning in school can be tied to student living outside of school. One of his current projects concerns the use of a “Virtual Professional Development School” (VPDS) for deaf education. He is exploring how science and mathematics teaching can be improved within the VPDS and the subsequent impact of this improvement upon students' learning, language and literacy skills.
Ed.D., University of Cincinnati
hjohnson@msu.edu
Harold Johnson is a professor of special education (deaf/hard of hearing). His research focuses upon how web-based technologies and resources can be used to reduce isolation, facilitate collaboration, recognize excellence and enhance teaching/learning within K-20 deaf education. He investigates how student learning in school can be tied to student living outside of school. One of his current projects concerns the use of a “Virtual Professional Development School” (VPDS) for deaf education. He is exploring how science and mathematics teaching can be improved within the VPDS and the subsequent impact of this improvement upon students' learning, language and literacy skills.
Troy Mariage
Ph.D., Michigan State University
mariaget@msu.edu
Troy Mariage is an associate professor of special education. His research interests are in the areas of literacy instruction for students with mild disabilities in elementary classrooms. He has conducted work in early reading instruction, writing instruction, and cognitive strategy instruction that leads to self-regulated learning. More recently, he has extended his work by seeking to understand how to create schools as learning organizations that create the capacity for continuous learning and improvement. Currently, he is conducting a study to explore how teachers can provide concurrent academic and social support for students with significant learning and behavioral difficulties.
Ph.D., Michigan State University
mariaget@msu.edu
Troy Mariage is an associate professor of special education. His research interests are in the areas of literacy instruction for students with mild disabilities in elementary classrooms. He has conducted work in early reading instruction, writing instruction, and cognitive strategy instruction that leads to self-regulated learning. More recently, he has extended his work by seeking to understand how to create schools as learning organizations that create the capacity for continuous learning and improvement. Currently, he is conducting a study to explore how teachers can provide concurrent academic and social support for students with significant learning and behavioral difficulties.
Cynthia Okolo
Ph.D. Indiana University
okolo@msu.edu
Cynthia Okolo is a professor of special education. Her research focuses on improving content-area literacy for students with learning problems and disabilities. She is especially interested in ways in which instructional and communication technologies can facilitate these goals. Her current projects include a collaboration with Freedom Scientific to develop an instructional program that integrates strategies for learning from text with a set of literacy software tools. Another project is examining the integration of literacy strategies and technology in history classrooms. Most of her work has been conducted in middle and high schools and in diverse classrooms that include students with and without disabilities.
Ph.D. Indiana University
okolo@msu.edu
Cynthia Okolo is a professor of special education. Her research focuses on improving content-area literacy for students with learning problems and disabilities. She is especially interested in ways in which instructional and communication technologies can facilitate these goals. Her current projects include a collaboration with Freedom Scientific to develop an instructional program that integrates strategies for learning from text with a set of literacy software tools. Another project is examining the integration of literacy strategies and technology in history classrooms. Most of her work has been conducted in middle and high schools and in diverse classrooms that include students with and without disabilities.
Claudia Pagliaro
Ph.D., Gallaudet University
pagliaro@msu.edu
Claudia Pagliaro is an associate professor of special education (deaf/hard of hearing). Her research focuses on mathematics instruction and learning with deaf and hard-of-hearing students (P-12). She is particularly interested in the areas of problem solving and the influence of a visual language (American Sign Language) on mathematics understanding. Pagliaro has been the PI/Co-PI on several federally-funded research and teacher preparation projects including most recently, Solving Story Problems in the Primary Grades, which has brought new insight into problem-solving instruction and learning with deaf/hard-of-hearing elementary students; the Building Math Readiness in Young Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Children: Parents as Partners development project, which helps parents to prepare their pre-K/K deaf/hard-of-hearing children for formal mathematics learning; and the Pacific Island Learning Initiative (PILI) in Deaf Education project, which prepares teachers for deaf/hard-of-hearing students in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. Pagliaro has presented her work nationally and internationally, and has numerous publications in distinguished research and practitioner journals as well as invited chapters in textbooks.
Ph.D., Gallaudet University
pagliaro@msu.edu
Claudia Pagliaro is an associate professor of special education (deaf/hard of hearing). Her research focuses on mathematics instruction and learning with deaf and hard-of-hearing students (P-12). She is particularly interested in the areas of problem solving and the influence of a visual language (American Sign Language) on mathematics understanding. Pagliaro has been the PI/Co-PI on several federally-funded research and teacher preparation projects including most recently, Solving Story Problems in the Primary Grades, which has brought new insight into problem-solving instruction and learning with deaf/hard-of-hearing elementary students; the Building Math Readiness in Young Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Children: Parents as Partners development project, which helps parents to prepare their pre-K/K deaf/hard-of-hearing children for formal mathematics learning; and the Pacific Island Learning Initiative (PILI) in Deaf Education project, which prepares teachers for deaf/hard-of-hearing students in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. Pagliaro has presented her work nationally and internationally, and has numerous publications in distinguished research and practitioner journals as well as invited chapters in textbooks.
Joshua Plavnick
Ph.D., Michigan State University
plavnick@msu.edu
Joshua Plavnick’s research interests involve developing and evaluating interventions that target social and communicative behavior for individuals with autism. He is specifically interested in applying principles derived from behavior analysis and observational learning to develop novel educational interventions. His research involves experimental analyses of video modeling as a strategy to teach communication and social skills to pre-K through 12th grade students with autism. He is also interested in procedural fidelity of educational interventions for individuals with autism delivered in public school settings.
Ph.D., Michigan State University
plavnick@msu.edu
Joshua Plavnick’s research interests involve developing and evaluating interventions that target social and communicative behavior for individuals with autism. He is specifically interested in applying principles derived from behavior analysis and observational learning to develop novel educational interventions. His research involves experimental analyses of video modeling as a strategy to teach communication and social skills to pre-K through 12th grade students with autism. He is also interested in procedural fidelity of educational interventions for individuals with autism delivered in public school settings.
Gary Troia
Ph.D., University of Maryland
gtroia@msu.edu
Gary Troia is an associate professor of special education. His research interests include the connections between oral language and literacy in typical and atypical learners, writing assessment and instruction, and teacher professional development in literacy. His recent work involves examining alignment between states' content standards and assessment frameworks in writing and how alignment between these influences writing outcomes and enables students to meet postsecondary writing expectations. He also is examining predictors of writing quality within a multi-level linguistic framework to help researchers and educators develop better measurement tools for writing.
Ph.D., University of Maryland
gtroia@msu.edu
Gary Troia is an associate professor of special education. His research interests include the connections between oral language and literacy in typical and atypical learners, writing assessment and instruction, and teacher professional development in literacy. His recent work involves examining alignment between states' content standards and assessment frameworks in writing and how alignment between these influences writing outcomes and enables students to meet postsecondary writing expectations. He also is examining predictors of writing quality within a multi-level linguistic framework to help researchers and educators develop better measurement tools for writing.
Program Staff
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Internship Coordinator Lisa Plascencia Phone: 517-353-5401 337 Erickson Hall lisaplas@msu.edu |
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