Melanie Chong, Doctoral Student
Melanie is a doctoral student in the Special Education High Incidence Program. Her research is focused on the use of assistive and instructional technologies to support students with and at risk for reading disabilities, particularly at the middle school level.
Before pursuing her doctorate, Melanie worked in public school classrooms for four years, primarily in middle school special education. After receiving her MA degrees and teaching credentials in special and general education at San Jose State University, she transitioned to a career in research. In her role as a Research Associate at SRI Education she worked on large-scale RCTs, qualitative projects, and state-level TA initiatives.
Melanie’s work is always informed by her classroom experiences first. She hopes to center teachers' and students’ needs within high-quality research to characterize and develop effective and practical technology-based reading tools to help bridge reading achievement gaps, particularly for students in the upper grades.
