About Teaching Research

The Teaching Research Institute(TRI) at Western Oregon University was established in 1961 as an educational research, development and evaluation department providing special education services to children with disabilities and their families. Services include:

• inservice training
• service delivery projects
• parent education and training
• program evaluation
• research and model development

The Teaching Research Early Childhood and Training Department is a leader in the development of service delivery models for infants and young children. These models include data-based systems to track and monitor child progress, approaches to serve children with disabilities in typical community educational programs and models to serve infants in their home and care settings. In the past five years the Early Childhood and Training Department has operated six federally funded model demonstration/dissemination projects specific to young children (ages 0-8) with disabilities.

Among the department’s accomplishments are two nationally validated models: The Teaching Research Inservice Model and The Teaching Research Integrated Preschool Model. The Program Effectiveness Panel (PEP) of the US Department of Education approved both as exemplary educational models.

Teaching Research has been involved in the local delivery of direct services to children with disabilities for over 22 years and remains active through the enrollment of children 2 ½ to 5 year of age and of varying abilities in their inclusive child development center at Western Oregon University. TR has a close relationship with the College of Education operated at Western Oregon University, and the Center for At-Risk Youth and the college of Human Development and Family Studies at nearby Oregon State University.