About KUCRL


KU Campus Aerial Shot

The University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (KUCRL) is a multidisciplinary research team whose overarching goal is Creating Solutions to Educational Challenges. KUCRL is dedicated to development and research of educational programs and practices that improve outcomes for all learners, including those with learning differences or disabilities. KUCRL provides technical assistance, responsive professional development, program evaluation, and high impact instructional coaching for teachers and administrators seeking to improve both student achievement and social emotional learning skills. Our recent research and development focuses on online learning for students with disabilities, personalized learning in blended learning classrooms, and the use of technology (e.g., social media, games, virtual reality) to enhance learning for all students. KUCRL is home to the Strategic Instruction Model (SIM), an evidenced based collection of learning strategies, content enhancement teaching routines, and explicit instruction programs. These interventions and practices address higher-order reasoning skills, adolescent and adult literacy, language and reading comprehension strategies, written expression strategies, math skills and strategies, social emotional learning skills, and explicit instruction and routines that respond to diversity in today’s schools. 


Vision

The Center for Research on Learning is dedicated to dramatically improving the way students learn, the way teachers teach, and the way programs operate at the state, local, and school level. We are champions for all students, with a focus on those with learning differences.


Mission

Creating Solutions to Educational Challenges

The University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning exists because we believe in challenging the educational status quo in all our work. We believe in thinking differently about solutions to educational challenges.

The way we challenge the status quo is by conducting rigorous research and designing creative products and providing support services that address challenges of educational practice. Our products and services are feasible, user friendly, and highly effective.

We evaluate educational models, systems, and programs, provide exceptional professional development and instructional coaching, develop effective literacy interventions and programs for adolescents and adults with learning differences, and use technology to enhance learning. 


History

"I remember Gordon Alley, Gary Clark and I were presenting, at the CEC convention in Chicago in 1976, doing a presentation on secondary LD. We anticipated maybe 30 people might be at this presentation. There were 300, which indicated how desperate people were to get answers for this huge need. The impression that is still in my mind today, very visibly, is teachers frantically taking notes on anything we said. We left the presentation, were standing at the elevator, and teachers were still asking us questions. We recognized that we had the formulation of some ideas in our minds, but we had no data behind it. So we resolved that we had to capture funding to do research to go along with the teacher preparation we were doing. That gave birth to the Center." ~ Don Deshler

Don Deshler 1980s

Affiliations - Research that improves lives

CRL is part of the larger KU Life Span Institute, a network of more than 450 KU scientists, staff and students. Our discoveries help improve the health and development of people in Kansas, across the nation, and around the world.

Life Span Institute image

Impact and Reach

CRL has:
- Created over 150 Educational Products and Technology Supports
- Supported over 850,000 teachers worldwide

CRL Stats

Partners and Collaborators

As part of our mission to Create Solutions to Educational Challenges, CRL partners with educators in school districts around the nation and researchers and professors from other divisions of KU and other universities to conduct our research. This helps us to design and create products that address the real-world challenges of educational practice.

UCA Mashburn Center SIM Update