College of Education and Human Development

Department of Educational Psychology

Scott McConnell

  • Professor Emeritus

Scott McConnell

Areas of interest

  • Skills and competencies enabling preschool children to learn and participate in school and other settings
  • Ways in which home, school, and community settings contribute to (or impede) learning these skills and competencies
  • Design, evaluation, application of easy-to-use tools for describing children’s current language, literacy, and other important skills
  • Interventions that support development of these skills – particularly in “non specialized” settings
  • Design and improvement of programs – from classroom efforts to comprehensive community-wide efforts – that help children of all ages develop fully
Degrees

M.S. and Ph.D., Educational Psychology, University of Oregon
B.S., Psychology, Portland State University

Biography

Through research, Scott McConnell and his colleagues have developed Individual Growth and Development Indicators, tools that allow teachers to efficiently monitor young children’s language and early literacy development. While they continue research to improve and expand these tools, they are also working with a private company to disseminate commercial products based on this work.

Projects

IGDILab: Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) are brief, easy to use measures of early language and literacy designed for use with preschool children (ages three to five). In our lab, we research, develop, validate, and apply IGDIs to support data-based decision making by teachers, early childhood professionals, parents, and others to help improve early childhood outcomes.

Teaching

McConnell's teaching has focused on research on language and early literacy assessment and development, developing the professional skills needed for a career in research and higher education, and on research methods in special education and community-based settings. He has served as an affiliate of the Center for Early Education and Development and as the Fesler-Lambert Chair of Urban and Regional Affairs. McConnell is a past director of both CEED and the Institute on Community Integration.

Publications

McConnell, S. R., & Wackerle-Hollman, A. (2016). Can we measure the transition to reading? Relations among General Outcome Measures of language and early literacy development from preschool to early elementary grades. AERA Open, 2 (3) 2332858416653756; DOI: 10.1177/2332858416653756

McConnell, S. R., Wackerle-Hollman, A. K., Bradfield. T. A., & Rodriguez, M. C. (2015). Designing a measurement framework for Response to Intervention in early childhood programs. Journal of Early Intervention, 36, 263 – 280. (Published online 7 April 2015,) doi: 10.1177/1053815115578559.

Greenwood, C. R., Carta, J. J., Goldstein, H., Kaminski, R., McConnell, S. R., & Atwater, J. (2015). The Center on Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC): Developing evidence-based tools for a multi-tier approach to preschool language and early literacy instruction. Journal of Early Intervention, 36, 246 – 262. doi:10.1177/1053815115581209

Carta, J. J., Greenwood, C. R., Atwater, J., McConnell, S. R., Goldstein, H. & Kaminski, R. (2015). Identifying preschool children for higher tiers of language and early literacy instruction within a Response to Intervention framework. Journal of Early Intervention, 36, 281 – 291. doi:10.1177/1053815115579937 (Published online on April 7, 2015)

Wackerle-Hollman, A., Rodriguez, M., Bradfield, T., Rodriguez, M., & McConnell, S., (2015). Development of early measures of comprehension: Innovation in Individual Growth and Development Indicators. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 40 (2), 81 – 95. doi: 10.1177/1534508414551404 (Published online 26 September 2014).

Wackerle-Hollman, A., Schmitt, B., Bradfield, T., Rodriguez, M. & McConnell, S. (2015) Redefining Individual Growth and Development Indicators: Phonological Awareness.  Journal of Learning Disabilities 48, 5, 495 - 510. doi: 10.1177/0022219413510181 (Published online November 14, 2013)

Bradfield, T. A., Wackerle-Hollman, A., Albano, A., Rodriguez, M., & McConnell, S. R. (2014). Redefining Individual Growth and Development Indicators: Oral Language. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 39, 233-244. doi: 10.1177/1534508413496837

Greenwood, C., Carta, J., Atwater, J., Goldstein, H., Kaminski, R., & McConnell, S. (2013). Is a response to intervention (RTI) approach to preschool language and early literacy instruction needed? Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 33, 48-64.

Wackerle-Hollman, A., Schmitt, B., Bradfield, T., Rodriguez, M., & McConnell, S. (2013). Redefining individual growth and development indicators: Phonological awareness. Journal of Learning Disabilities. DOI: 10.1177/0022219413510181.

Hearst, M., Martin, L., Rafdal, B., Robinson, R., & McConnell, S. (2012). Early childhood development and obesity risk-factors in a multi-ethnic, low-income community: Feasibility of the "Five Hundred under Five" social determinants of health pilot study. Health Education Journal, 72, 203-215.

Presentations

McConnell, S. R., Larson, A., & Suskind, D. (2017, April). Synthesizing our knowledge about community- and population-level interventions to promote children’s language. Paper presented as part of a symposium, Systematic Reviews of Intervention Research to Inform Bridging the Word Gap Efforts, Society for Research on Child Development, Austin TX.

Buzhardt, J., Greenwood, C.R., McConnell, S. R., Wackerle-Hollman, A., & Walker, D. (2016, December). The IGDI Enterprise: Development and use of Individual Growth and Development Indicators to support early intervention and early learning of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Invited presentation, Institute of Education Sciences Project Directors’ Meeting, Washington DC

Kincaid, A. P. & McConnell, S. R. (2016, April). Language and early literacy growth in preschool-aged students. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the American Educaitonal Research Association, Washington DC.

Jacobs, H., Wang, Q., Wackerle-Hollman, A., Rodriguez, M, & McConnell, S. (2016, February). Computer adaptive testing adjustments in an early literacy assessment. Poster presented at Conference on Research Innovations in Early Childhood, San Diego CA.

McConnell, S. R., & Kincaid, A. (2016, February). Creating Meaningful Scale Scores for Individual Growth and Development Indicators of Early Literacy. Poster presented at Conference on Research Innovations in Early Childhood, San Diego CA.

Kincaid, A. P. & McConnell, S. R. (2016, April). Language and early literacy growth in preschool-aged students. Poster presented at the annual meetings of the American Educaitonal Research Association, Washington DC.

McConnell, S. R. (2016, February). The intersection of development and assessment. Paper presented as part of a symposium, Monitoring Progress and evaluating intervention effects in early childhood: Challenges and resolutions. Conference on Research Innovations in Early Childhood, San Diego CA.

McConnell, S. R. (2015, November). Discussant, Parent-Focused interventions symposium. Presented at LENA Research Conference, Denver CO.

McConnell, S. & Wackerle-Hollman, A. (2015, July). Supporting innovative assessment and data-based decision making with young children: Individual growth and development indicators - automated performance evaluation of early literacy and language. Paper presented within a symposium: Innovative measures of language and literacy at the 22nd Annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Kona, Hawaii.

McConnell, S. R. (2015, April). Growth and development in preschool as foundations for a modern measurement model. Paper presented as part of Measurement and Implementation Challenges in Early Childhood Assessment, National Council on Measurement in Education