By Matthew Keck —
The University of Louisville and Kentucky researchers have won a $2.3 million grant to train their special education faculties. It is being funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs.
Ginerva Courtade, associate professor and chair of the Department of Special Education at U of L, will be a co-director of the project. Melinda Ault, associate professor of special education at UK, will be the other co-director.
This project is called Project PURPLE (Preparing Urban and Rural Personnel as Leaders in Education) and will be funding five doctoral-level scholars from each university beginning the Fall 2020 semester.
“We look forward to using our partnership to recruit and support a diverse group of scholars and to implement a comprehensive program focused on evidence-based practices for students with disabilities in urban and rural high-need schools,” said Courtade.
Those who participate in this project will be working directly with nationally recognized faculty from both universities.
Ault said that with aging faculty, special education departments in Kentucky are decreasing by as much as 50 percent in coming years. “Without special education faculty, institutions of higher education cannot prepare adequate numbers of special education teachers, an area that has a critical shortage in Kentucky and nationwide,” she said.
U of L and UK will be working together to train participants in this project.
File Photo // The Louisville Cardinal
