Two UNLV education professors have received a competitive grant for nearly $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to develop assessment tools that will help parents and teachers evaluate educational computer software aimed at children with disabilities.

The College of Education's Kyle Higgins and Randall Boone received a federal development grant through the Steppingstones of Technology Innovation for Students with Disabilities competition.

"The reality is that a lot of educational software for sale has never gone through any formative evaluation, meaning that it has never actually been tested with the kids it's aimed at," said Higgins, a special education professor. "Just about the only guide parents and teachers have for making a purchasing decision is what the publisher has said on the box."

Boone, a curriculum and instruction professor, added, "We hope our research will provide the field with a renewed interest in the quality of educational software and, at the same time, influence commercial developers to work more closely with educators to provide the best educational materials possible for students."

The two-year $399,889 grant will enable Higgins and Boone to develop and validate the software evaluation tools. The evaluation tools will cover software that is commonly used in special education and general education settings, including assistive devices that enable children with various disabilities to access technology.

After they develop the evaluation tools, Higgins and Boone will be eligible to apply for Phase II funding to test the effectiveness of the tools and Phase III funding for large-scale dissemination of the tool.

The highly competitive Steppingstones grants are administered by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education.