CAST: Universal Design for Learning

Led by project director Richard Jackson, the UDL Fellows postdoctoral program aims to prepare leaders for the field of universal design for learning (UDL). Funded by the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, the program is a collaboration between CAST and Boston College's Lynch School of Education.

In funding the project, the USDOE acknowledged UDL's promise to improve K-12 and postsecondary education for all learners and thereby meet the demand by federal law (IDEA, ESEA, Higher Education Act) to provide every learner with a high-quality education.

UDL Fellows spend one year in residence at CAST and collaborate with research scientists, policy experts, and teacher education professionals from CAST and Boston College on UDL-based projects in two of the following four leadership areas:

• Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
• Policy Development at National, State and Local Levels
• Curriculum and Instructional Practices
• Formative and Summative Assessment Systems

These four areas were identified as priorities for growing the UDL field by participants in a National UDL Summit hosted by CAST and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation in November 2007.

UDL Fellows are paid $60,000 per year, receive tuition credits at Boston College, and have access to the university's resources and facilities.

For further information, email project staff at udlfellows@cast.org.

2011 Fellows

Patricia Ralabate, Ph.D.

Now the Director of Implementation at CAST, Patricia Ralabate is responsible for coordinating opportunities and resources to enable scaling of UDL implementation. This work includes leading efforts to create a systems change approach to the development and dissemination of an innovative suite of tools, resources and processes that support practitioners at various stages of UDL implementation.

Don Glass, Ph.D.

Now an independent education consultant based in Washington, DC., Don Glass's focus is professional learning design for understanding and applying UDL, with a specialization on curriculum design and evaluation, and arts teaching and learning. He is also currently an instructor for the MassOne Focus Academy.

2010 Fellows

Elizabeth Dalton, Ph.D.

Since completing the UDL leadership post-doctoral program at Boston College and CAST, Betsy Dalton has been working on several UDL related efforts in Rhode Island, nationally, and internationally. A keynote address entitled "Harnessing the Power of Digital Text to Build a UDL Environment" for the RI International Dyslexia Association was presented last spring. In June, Betsy was elected as vice president of the Special Education Technology Special Interest Group of ISTE and conducted several UDL PD sessions at the national ISTE conference in Philadelphia. Over the summer, Betsy traveled to Africa and presented on UDL at the International Association of Special Educators Conference in Windhoek, Namibia and conducted UDL training for teachers and therapists at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Betsy continues to work at the Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College. This summer and fall she designed and presented UDL sessions for the Faculty Center on Teaching and Learning at the College, is currently chair of the RI UDL Workgroup (whose members represent several RI colleges and programs) and is coordinator of UDL and AT at the Sherlock Center and a member of the RI College Special Education faculty.

Elizabeth Hartmann, Ph.D.

Liz Hartmann is an Assistant Professor of Education at Lasell. She uses the UDL framework to guide the development of Lasell’s Master of Education Program, which started in January of 2011. At the undergrad level, Liz is using the UDL framework to integrate general and special education course content and field experiences. In her research, she examines how the UDL framework can be used to support learners with multiple and complex special needs.

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