Kristen Beach

Bio

Dr. Kristen D. Beach is an Associate Professor of Special Education in the department of Special Education and Child Development at UNC Charlotte. Her research centers on the design and evaluation of reading and language interventions for struggling adolescent readers and students with reading disability. Her research also focuses on the prevention and early identification of children with reading disability. She is currently engaged in multiple research projects in local school districts, including an evaluation of a summer reading clinic for elementary aged struggling readers and a multi-state research project aimed at designing and evaluating academic vocabulary instruction for middle school students with reading disability. Dr. Beach teaches pre-service and graduate certificate courses in adolescent reading development, diagnostic assessment, and writing development. She provides professional development and consulting services to local school districts on issues related to reading development, curriculum selection and evaluation, assessment, and teacher preparation.

Education

Ph.D. in Special Education, University of California at Riverside CA, 2012
M.A. in Special Education, Loyola Marymount University CA, 2008
B.A. in Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles CA, 2006

Area(s) of Interest and Research

Design and evaluation of multi-component reading interventions
Evaluation of language and reading instruction for English Learners
Evaluation of large-scale reading program implementation in special education
Early identification of learning disabilities in children