Stepping Up Projects

What does Stepping Up mean?

The Office of Special Education Programs’ (OSEP’s) Stepping Up Technology Implementation grants fund projects to help develop and integrate evidence-based technology tools and approaches for use in education for students and youth with disabilities.

Since 2012 more than 36,000 students have been helped by Stepping Up, including more than 10,000 students with disabilities.

Institutes of higher education and research institutes have combined for 50 individual Stepping Up projects as of 2024.

Resources from Stepping Up grants are available in the following focus areas:

Most projects have a suggested grade level designed to ensure that children, students, and youth are using technology best suited for them. Resources address a variety of ages from early childhood through grade 12.

The intended user of a project may vary between students, educators, parents or other personnel involved with special education.

Tool	Description	Grade Level / Intended Users
AERO	Improve the degree to which an existing online reading intervention curriculum meets the needs of Spanish-speaking English Learner students in grades K-3 and their teachers.	Early Childhood – Grade 2 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
APLM-Online	Adaptive Professional Learning Model (APLM) Online provides instructional coaching tools to use with teaching teams and their administrators focused on writing instruction and assessment. Tools support infrastructure readiness for professional learning and classroom implementation as well as goal setting, instructional decision-making, progress monitoring and coaching logs.	Grades 6-12 • School Staff • Educators/Teachers
CA-CSR	Computer Adapted Collaborative Strategic Reading (CA-CSR) supports teacher-directed reading comprehension instruction by increasing accessibility to text and supports for English Learners with disabilities.	• Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
Communication Matrix	Helps educators and families understand the status, progress, and needs of people functioning at the early stages of communication other than speaking or writing.	• Educators/Teachers • Parents/Families
MAP-R	A tech enhanced supplemental literacy instruction with a focus on vocabulary and morphological knowledge to enhance reading comprehension for multilingual learners with and at risk for disabilities.	Grades 3-5 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
Tar Heel Shared Reader	For students with significant cognitive disabilities who do not read connected text with comprehension above a second grade level. Goal to improve literacy, communication, language, and academic skills of this group of students.	Grades 3-8 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
WEGO	A technology-based writing intervention package to improve essay writing skills for students with and without disabilities while enhancing teachers’ data-driven decision making on writing instruction.	Grades 3-8 • Children/Students • Parents/Families • Educators/Teachers • School Staff
WRITE: Progress Monitoring	Provides automated scoring of student writing with instructional recommendations. Assists in data-based decision making and student needs with evidence-based writing interventions.	Grades 6-8 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers

Tool	Description	Grade Level / Intended User
CORGI	A digital graphic organizer that supports students to develop content-specific practices and habits of mind. Students develop thinking and reasoning in a flexible, accessible environment designed for Universal Design for Learning.	Grades 6-12 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
ESCOLAR	A technology-based online curriculum for science learning in upper elementary school grades. Includes student and teacher resources to support individual student needs during science.	Grades 3-8 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
KinderTEK	Teaches and solidifies foundational math vocabulary and skills using evidence-based instructional principles. The iPad apps and accompanying reports and management features were developed through years of testing with thousands of students by educators in real classrooms.	Early Childhood – Kindergarten • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
NumberShire	NumberShire™ is an educational game with an intensive focus on critical whole number concepts and skills for students in kindergarten through second grade.	Early Childhood – Grade 2 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
SNUDLE/OASIS	Using the digital Science Notebook (SNUDLE), OASIS is designed to build model the capacity of coaches, teachers, schools, and districts to implement effective science instruction for all learners in application of the science inquiry learning required by most states.	Early Childhood – Grade 12 • Educators/Teachers • Faculty/School Staff

Tool	Description	Grade Level / Intended User
Future Quest: Island Explorations	An online college and career awareness curriculum that uses gaming strategies to motivate and support improved self-concept, social and emotional competence, and early college and career awareness.	Grades 3-5 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
Check & Connect App	A tool designed to facilitate the implementation of the Check & Connect mentoring intervention for K-12 students showing warning signs of disengagement.	Grades K – 12 • Educators/Teachers • Faculty/School Staff
EnvisionIT	EIT is a teacher-guided, digital curriculum for students with and without disabilities focused on helping students develop key literacy and career skills needed for the 21st Century workplace.	Grades 5-12 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers

Tool	Description	Grade Level/ Intended User
FLITE STEM Coaching	The Flexible Learning through Innovations in Technology (FLITE): STEM Coaching Suite provides support to coaches and supports teachers working with students with disabilities in mathematics and science.	Early Childhood – Grade 5 • Educators/Faculty • Faculty/ School Staff
ReadyCoach	ReadyCoach is coaching platform for instructional coaches, teachers, and other school personnel who support students with disabilities in need of reading and/or behavioral supports. Designed on the basis of the research-based data driven instructional coaching model, school staff to receive grouping and intervention recommendations.	Early Childhood – Grade 8 • Educators/Faculty • Faculty/School Staff
CAP-PD	CAP-PD uses customizable instructional slides teachers can use to implement evidence-based vocabulary. The instructional modeling vignettes builds teacher knowledge of key practices.	Grades 5-8 • Educators/Teachers
SETTT for Success	Support teacher trainers to design, develop, implement, and evaluate high-quality teacher professional development to improve comprehensive academic instruction for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.	Grades 3-12 • Faculty/Staff • Educators/Teachers
Step Up AT	Support teachers and parents in effectively using evidence-based assistive technology practices to increase early learning outcomes for preschool children with disabilities.	Early Childhood – Kindergarten • Parents/Families • Educators/Teachers • School Staff
COACHED	COACHED is an online coaching and reflection tool. Coaches and educators can select goals, tag video segments and integrate comments to enhance the implementation of evidence based teaching practices.	K – 12 • Faculty/School Staff

Tool	Description	Grade Level/ Intended User
CodewithZB	To use an artificial intelligence assistive robot and coding to improve the communication and social skills of elementary-aged students with disabilities by problem-solving skills, collaboration and critical thinking.	Early Childhood – Grade 5 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers
ibestt	Online coaching and collaboration system that guides school-based teams implement individualized behavior support plans in classroom settings to improve the quality and fidelity of delivering support plans.	• Parents/Families • Educators/Teachers
Individual Growth & Development Indicators for Infants and Toddlers	Standardized assessments that allow educators to monitor infant-toddler development, web-based tools data-driven intervention decision making for children not making expected gains in language, social engagement, cognitive problem solving, and/or gross movement.	Early Childhood • Educators/Teachers
VOISS/VOISS Advisor	VOISS is a virtual reality experience that uses social situations and scenarios to effectively teach and support middle school student practice social skills.	Grades 3 – 12 • Children/Students • Educators/Teachers • School Staff

Tool	Description	Grade Level/Intended User
Braille Brain	Braille Brain is an online resource for individuals who wish to learn braille. Three courses are available to learn the literary Unified English Braille code, Unified English Braille Advanced codes (coming soon) and Nemeth code.	• Educators/Teachers • Parents/Families
CViConnect	CViConnect provides professional development and coaching in the area of brain based visual impairments to support the use the CViConnect App with students who have CVi. The platform supports the instructional cycle and data-informed decisions for targeted interventions.	• Children/Students • Educators/Teachers • Parents/Families
AvenuePM	Eight free apps based on curriculum-based measures. Use Progress Monitoring to track students’ weekly/ monthly performance and set learning and IEP goals.	Grades K- 6 • Educators/Teachers • School Staff

The opinions expressed in any of these materials do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any outside information included in these materials.

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Last modified on September 6, 2024

What does Stepping Up mean?

Stepping Up Projects

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