Research

To date Janette Klingner has authored or co-authored more than 100 journal articles, books, and book chapters, and presented at numerous national and international conferences. She has been a co-author and Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on numerous federally funded grants. Currently, she is the PI on an i3 validation grant in partnership with Denver Public Schools and Padres Unidos, Collaborative Strategic Reading-Colorado (CSR-CO), a co-PI on two research projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), CSR for Struggling Adolescent Readers and the Literacy Learning Cohort Project. In addition, she is a co-PI for the BUENO Equity Assistance Center (Region VIII). Recently, she was a co-Principal Investigator for The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt), a Technical Assistance Center on the Disproportionate Representation of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Special Education. She has been the Co-PI on two Office of Special Education Program (OSEP) funded research grants, the PI on a Teacher Quality Enhancement Project, and the recipient of a Student-Initiated Research Grant that provided financial assistance for the completion of her dissertation. She is or has been a paid consultant on numerous federally funded projects.

Research foci include reading comprehension strategy instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse students, the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education, outcomes for students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms, and enhancing the sustainability of culturally responsive and evidence-based practices through professional development.

Janette’s interest in comprehension strategies for English language learners and students with learning disabilities began during her teaching career and led to her dissertation. This line of research expanded to focus on comprehension strategy instruction in inclusive classrooms, leading to quasi-experimental and experimental studies of the model she and colleagues developed (Collaborative Strategic Reading, or CSR). Janette has published numerous articles and book chapters on CSR, as well as two books on reading comprehension.

Janette’s initial interest in the disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education stemmed from her work as a member of a district-level bilingual assessment team responsible for preventing inappropriate referrals to and placement in special education. Project SEARCH, funded by OSEP, used ethnographic methods to study the phenomenon of disproportionate representation in depth and led to work as a co-principal investigator on the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems, funded to address disproportionate representation. Recent work has focused on Response to Intervention for English language learners. She has published numerous articles, book chapters, and books on these topics.

Her focus on the effects of inclusion prompted an investigation of academic outcomes for students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms (Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 1998) and studies of students’ perceptions of different special education service delivery models (e.g., Journal of Learning Disabilities, 1998; Exceptional Children, 1999), as well as a methods textbook for special education teachers in inclusive classrooms (2005).

Janette’s interests in inclusion and also professional development motivated her to work on Sustaining Effective Practices (STEP), an OSEP-supported research grant, which examined the extent to which teachers were still using the evidence-based practices they had learned through an intensive professional development program three years previously. This research explored changes teachers had made in the practices and factors that influenced their implementation. Findings from this line of research have been published in several articles and book chapters.