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IDEA Faculty and Staff |
Dr. Kame'enui is Professor of Special Education at the University of Oregon. Before coming to Oregon in 1988, he taught at the University of Montana and Purdue University. His areas of expertise include early literacy research, schoolwide reading improvement, the design of high quality educational tools, and design of instruction.
Kame'enui is the Director of the Institute for the Development of Educational Achievement (IDEA) in the College of Education at UO. He and his research group have obtained more than 48 million dollars of research and training grant awards in the last 13 years.
Dr. Kame'enui is the Co-Director of Project CIRCUITS: Center to Improve Reading Competence Using Intensive Treatment Schoolwide, a federally funded reading research center designed to examine systems for the prevention of reading problems in K-3. For 10 years, he also co-directed the National Center To Improve the Tools for Educators (NCITE), which through cooperative work with education agencies, publishers, educators, and other stakeholders, advanced the quality and effectiveness of technology, media, and materials for individuals with disabilities creating a marketplace demand for the selection and appropriate use of research-based technology, media, and materials.
Dr. Kame'enui has been a nationwide leader in the area of high quality professional development based on the implementation of a schoolwide reading model. Across the nation, he has for ten years presented and produced institutes on beginning reading instruction to teachers and administrators in Oregon, Hawaii, California, Alabama, and Minnesota. Currently, he directs the Oregon Reading First Center, which will provide Reading First schools with high quality professional development on a schoolwide beginning reading model for teachers, administrators, and Oregon Department of Education staff. In addition, he is Director of the Western Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center (WRRFTAC), which is one of the three national centers charged with providing technical assistance support to the Reading First Initiative.
Kame'enui was one of 17 researchers selected to serve on the National Research Council's (National Academy of Sciences) Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1996-1998). He also chaired the Assessment Group of the Reading First Initiative, U. S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (2001-2002). He is a member of several advisory boards including WETA's "The Reading Project," WGBH's "Reading Between the Lions," and the Research Advisory Team for the American Initiative on Reading and Writing, which is sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education. In March, 2002, Kame'enui was invited by the First Lady to speak at the White House on beginning reading.
Dr. Kame'enui is the author, co-author, or co-editor of 12 college textbooks, more than 90 research and issue articles, and 30 book chapters and serves on the editorial boards of 12 prominent journals in education and special education including the Reading Research Quarterly and Society for the Scientific Study of Reading.