Anne Foegen

 

Anne Foegen

Associate Professor

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

 

Mid-Career Achievement in Research Award

 

Anne Foegen is nationally recognized and widely respected for her pioneering research in teaching mathematics to secondary-aged students with learning disabilities. A major phase of her research has focused on developing progress measures that teachers can use to evaluate the development of secondary-level students’ mathematical skills. She has also been praised for conducting rigorous validity and reliability studies of such measures as a means of ensuring their usefulness in practice.

Her colleagues note that she is among a very small number of researchers currently tackling a critical national need – determining the best ways to teach algebra to “at-risk” students for whom proficiency in the field is a gateway to a host of job opportunities. This research has been developed in the Algebra Assessment and Instruction: Meeting Standards project, which already has influenced the thinking of curriculum leaders and researchers across the country. Over the course of the project, Foegen has combined interests in assessment and technology to develop methods for collecting and gauging individual progress data using computer software. Her work may be used to predict success on standardized tests and modify instruction to achieve appropriate standards, a particularly critical advancement since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act.

With five publications in the highly respected Journal of Special Education, frequent participation in the Council for Exceptional Children and Pacific Coast Research conferences, and collaboration with the Iowa Department of Education, Foegen has made a major impact on her field and displays the promise to leave an even larger academic footprint in the future.