Dr. Marti Beech is a full-time Research Associate at the Center for Performance Technology as project manager for several contracts with the Department of Education. She worked with the new state Curriculum Frameworks and their integration into the Course Descriptions for Grades 6-12 and Adult Education. She is developing a series of handbooks, entitled Assisting Florida Teachers, aimed at improving the quality of classroom asssessment, particularly in language arts and mathematics. An additional project involves the development of standards for a Special Diploma and course descriptions for the Exceptional Student Program in Florida.
With the Florida Schoolyear 2000 Initiative she was the design team leader for the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment and Information Management Subsystems. She worked on the development of Tycho--Teacher Assessment Manager for the pen-based computer, a prototype Middle Level Learning Support System, and a working version of the First Level Learning Support System which included software applications for both teachers and learners. Under her leadership, a beta test for use of Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (Internet version) and a proof of concept test of CoLearning, an electronic tool for collaborative learning were conducted.
Dr. Beech formerly served as an exceptional education specialist with the Florida Department of Education where she provided the leadership for the revision of student performance standards for exceptional students, learning strategies intervention program, curriculum frameworks, and the development of an expert system for the educational placement of students with specific learning disabilities. Before coming to Tallahassee, she held a faculty position in Educational Psychology at the University of Miami where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in special education, developed for teachers of handicapped preschool children, and conducted research in exceptional education. She has been a classroom teacher at the elementary and junior high school level.
Dr. Beech is the author of numerous publications in the field of exceptional student education. She has been very active in conducting inservice workshops, has made numerous presentations at state, national and international meetings, and has received recognition for her outstanding contributions to the field of learning disabilities. Current consulting work includes developing an assessment for clinical experience for the School of Nursing at FSU and co-authoring an manual on Developing Quality IEPs.
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