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Research, Design, & Development

As part of our mission to bust all barriers to learning, CAST researches, designs, and develops innovative solutions to make education more inclusive and effective. We do so by applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning, a framework rooted in the learning sciences. CAST routinely partners with leading research organizations, institutions of higher education, corporations, and foundations to pursue this work.

UDL has come to dominate the field because of its broad applicability and its research foundation in the learning sciences, both cognitive and neurosciences.

National Education Technology Plan, U.S. Department of Education

Featured Projects

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REVISE logo and hands working together on chart paper with sticky notes

REVISE Center: A Collaborative Effort to Advance Equity in Informal STEM Education

We're helping to create more accessible and universally-designed tools for the NSF AISL Resource Center.

A group of adults collaborating together in person

Circle Up: Integrating Academic, Social & Emotional Learning

We're co-designing a training program that uses the UDL framework to weave together academic, social, and emotional learning strategies and best practices.

Mindprint Learning logo with mathematics symbols in a wave underneath the logo

MindPrint SBIR: Addressing Learner Variability in Secondary Mathematics Instruction

Learn how we're equipping educators with data to address student variability across cognitive, social-emotional, and academic skills

A science teacher working with students, SNUDLE projected on a whiteboard behind them

OASIS: Empowering Science Teachers with Research-based Coaching

We're designing sustainable, enhanced professional development for our universally designed digital science notebook.

Illustration of a student reading at a laptop surrounded by mathematical notation

MARCS: Facilitating Math Learning with Adaptive Reading Supports

Learn how we're supporting math learning through customized and adaptive reading supports and scaffolds.

COOL: Coaching on Learning logo with various learning- and collaboration-related icons surrounding it

Project COOL: A Scalable UDL Coaching Model

We're building a new model for instructional coaches, including new systems, resources, and microcredentials to impact student learning.

Photo of a student and teacher working together, screenshot of Corgi on a tablet

Corgi 2020: Scaling Models for the Classrooms of Tomorrow

Corgi graphic organizers are great on their own, but we're making them even better with a suite of professional learning resources to support their use in the classroom.

Corgi logo: Co-organize your learning

Corgi-2: Enhancing Middle School STEM Learning

We took what’s already great about graphic organizers and made them more flexible and accessible.

Photo collage of families doing makerspace activities together

Multi-Gen STEM Makerspaces Will Boost School, Career Prospects

We're developing and researching a sustainable model for multigenerational making and learning that can support a STEM career trajectory.

Students looking at a paper prototype

I-SMART: Formative & Summative Science Assessment of Struggling Students

Ensuring science assessments are truly inclusive of all learners, including those with significant cognitive disabilities.

Science Notebook tool screenshots

SNUDLE: Student Efficacy Trial

Our UDL science notebook was used in classrooms across the United States, supporting 4th grade students' science learning.

SNUDLE photo and screenshot montage

SNUDLE: Scaling an Inclusive Solution to Sensemaking in Science

Helping teachers use science notebooks to support student science knowledge, motivation for science, and sensemaking.

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