Hello! I’m Carlin,

an education researcher and former special education teacher.

I am passionate about improving education opportunities for all children, especially students with special needs.

Teaching Experience

My passion for helping students with disabilities began when I taught special education at a Title 1 school in Dallas, Texas. My students had a range of abilities, including those with learning disabilities, dyslexia, traumatic brain injury, intellectual disability, and autism. In addition to having a disability, many of my students were also English language learners. I absolutely loved my job and became passionate about providing the best educational opportunities for my students. Unfortunately, I constantly ran into road blocks that made it difficult for me to help my students.

For instance, there were limited resources at my school; we did not have any programs that were designed specifically for students in special education, students who have very unique needs. I was often given old materials that general education teachers were no longer using because they were outdated or was forced to make my own materials (books, worksheets, etc.) from resources I found on the internet. While at least this was something, I had no idea how effective these self-made materials would actually be for my students.

Master’s Degree

In 2014, I went back to school at Southern Methodist University (SMU) to get a Master’s in Education with a focus on special education. Among other things, I wanted to learn about teaching methods that were supported by research to be effective for my students. The two years I spent working on my Master’s degree were amazing! I was constantly learning about teaching techniques and resources that were effective for my students. However, as I was gaining knowledge about teaching special education, I started to wonder how I could create positive change for students with disabilities and special education teachers on a larger scale.

PhD

I decided to continue my education, staying at SMU to work on a Ph.D. in educational research, so that I could focus on answering some of these questions that remained with me after I finished my Master’s degree. I began my Ph.D. in 2016, and over the course of my program, I engaged in incredible opportunities to participate in research, learned from experienced researchers in my field, presented my work at conferences, and worked with others who are passionate about issues in education. I defended my dissertation, Making the case for the systematic observation of language and reading: A reading comprehension measure inclusive of students with disabilities, in May of 2020. After passing my defense, I officially became Dr. Conner and accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia (UVA) in the Reading and Academic Development Research lab.

UVA

I began working at UVA on an IES postdoctoral fellowship created to support researchers focusing on autism and reading research. To kick off my post-doctoral research, I began work as a co-principal investigator on a virtual reading comprehension study for children with autism. The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility and efficacy of a listening comprehension intervention for children with autism delivered over a telecommunication platform. The study yielded promising results, and you can read more about it on my blog page!

In October of 2021, I transitioned to a new position at UVA as a Senior Research Scientist on a literacy screener revision in the Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning. As a research scientist on the literacy screener revision, I am able to focus on reading assessment development for all beginning readers, including students with disabilities and those who are English learners. This role has brought new responsibilities and opportunities for assessment research which are all incredibly exciting! Read more about my current work over on the blog page or catch me at a conference or read up on one of the research briefs put out by my team (found on the content page of this website).

The purpose of this website is to share my research, along with resources that are effective and practical for special education teachers, in hopes that I can help a wide network of teachers and their students. Find links to my work over on the content page and jump over to the blog for resources for teachers, families, and work related to conference presentations!

much love,

Carlin Conner, Ph.D.