November 2001 University Reporter

By Joe Peters

UMass Boston’s Center for Social Development and Education (CSDE) is no stranger to national recognition. The center has enjoyed continuous federal funding in each of its 27 years and support from groups such as the prestigious Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Even with this history, its most recent accomplishment is an outstanding achievement.

The U.S. Dept. of Education (DOE) recently awarded the center $1.6 million for two ground-breaking programs with nationwide implications. Of the 200 proposals the DOE reviewed, it chose to fund only 12, two of which were sponsored by CSDE.

“The continuity of federal funding represents how we are regarded by the national government,” says Gary Siperstein, CSDE director.

For the next three years, part of that work will be developing an evaluation tool for elementary school systems. The end product of the program, which is receiving $1.1 million of the federal funds, will be a computerized method for helping teachers test young students and determine whether they are at risk for exhibiting social problems later.

The other proposal was for a project under the direction of Paul Benson, a member of UMass Boston’s Sociology Department and a senior researcher at CSDE. Benson’s project intends to look at the growing movement toward greater parent involvement in the education and development of children with autism.

Benson will follow 120 families in Greater Boston over the next three years in the hope of identifying factors that lead to success, not just in how parents cope with making their home an extension of school but also in how the children themselves progress in this environment.

Ultimately, the study will lead to new curricula and workshops developed by the center.
CSDE traces its roots to projects examining social acceptance in the classroom of students’ with developmental disabilities. During the three decades of its existence, the center has broadened its focus to all social aspects of education. While the center’s social focus is rare, Siperstein notes social development is integral to a child’s overall education.

“One of the major reasons why children fail in school or why they drop out is for social issues not for academic ones,” he says.

U.S. Department of Education Funds CSDE Research on Children and Autism