Doug Fuchs

Professor and Nicholas Hobbs Chair in Special Education and Human Development

Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1978

Research Area

Instruction of students at risk for school failure because of disability or poverty; peer-mediated learning; classroom assessment; school improvement and school reform; urban education; special education policy.

Short Biography

Douglas Fuchs received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in educational psychology with an emphasis in special education and school psychology. During his career he has taught first graders with serious emotional problems in a special school in Baltimore; taught in a fourth-grade classroom in Pennsylvania; and was staff psychologist for the Minneapolis public schools' special education preschool program. He currently holds the Nicholas Hobbs Endowed Chair in Special Education and Human Development at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, where he is also co-director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Reading Clinic. Dr. Fuchs has been principal investigator of 35 federally-sponsored research grants, most of which have come from the U.S. Department of Education. This research has focused on the development of pre-referral interventions, peer-assisted learning strategies in reading and math, curriculum-based measurement procedures, and methods of reintegrating students with high-incidence disabilities into mainstream settings.

He is the author or co-author of more than 200 articles in peer-review journals, and has won best paper awards for several of these publications, including the American Educational Research Association's Palmer O. Johnson Award, the American Psychological Association's Fellows' Award (Division 16), the Samuel A. Kirk Award (Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children), and Best Paper of the Year Award (National Association of School Psychologists). He was recently identified by Thompson ISI as one of 250 most highly cited researchers in the social sciences. In 2001, he was named Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor by Vanderbilt University. With Lynn Fuchs in 2003 and 2005, respectively, he was given the Career Research Award by the Council for Exceptional Children and the Distinguished Researcher Award by the Special Education Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association. From 1987 to 2002, he was co-editor of The Journal of Special Education.

Learn More about Doug Fuchs:

Courses Taught | Selected Publications
Awards | CV | Media Mentions

Selected Publications

Books

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L.S., & Vaughn, S. (in press). Responsiveness to instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Book Chapters

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L.S., & Shamir, A. (in preparation). "Research on peer-mediated reading instruction." In R. Allington & A. McGill-Franzen (Eds.), Handbook of reading disabilities. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fuchs, D., Stecker, P., Fuchs, L.S. (in press). "Why special education must be RTI's intensive tier in a standards-driven, No-Child-Left-Behind world." In D. Fuchs, L.S. Fuchs, & S. Vaughn (Eds.), Responsiveness to Instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Fuchs, L.S., & Fuchs, D. (in press). "Responsiveness-to-intervention within a multi-tier prevention system: The role of assessment." In D. Fuchs, L.S. Fuchs, & S. Vaughn (Eds.), Responsiveness to intervention. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L.S., & Vaughn, S. (in press). "An introduction to RTI." In D. Fuchs, L.S. Fuchs, & S. Vaughn (Eds.), Responsiveness to Instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Fuchs, L.S., & Fuchs, D. (in press). "The role of assessment within a multi-tiered approach to reading instruction." In Haager, D., Vaughn, S, & Klingner, J. (Eds.), Validated practices for three tiers of intervention. Baltimore: Brookes.

Fuchs, L.S., & Fuchs, D. (in press). "Best practices in progress monitoring reading and mathematics at the elementary grades." In Grimes, J., & Thomas, A. (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology (Vol. 5). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L.S. (in press). "Peer-mediated approaches to early literacy development." In T. Citro (Ed.), For parents of children with learning disabilities: Best instructional practices. Boston: Learning Disabilities Association of Massachusetts.

Bahr, M.W., Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L.S. (in press). "Mainstream assistance teams: A consultation-based approach to prereferral intervention." In S. Graham (Ed.), Consultation and collaboration. Brookline, MA: Brookline Press.

Morgan, P.L., Young, C.L., & Fuchs, D. (in press). "Using Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies to reverse Matthew Effects in reading." In M. Riley (Ed.), The experts speak: Parenting children with learning disabilities. Boston: Learning Disabilities Association of Massachusetts.

Fuchs, L.S., & Fuchs, D. (in press). "Can diagnostic assessment enhance general educators' instructional differentiation and student learning?" In B. Foorman (Ed.), Preventing and remediating reading difficulties: Bringing science to scale. Timonium, MD: York.

Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L.S. (2007). "Increasing strategic reading comprehension with Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies." In D.S. McNamara (Ed.), Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies (pp. 175-197). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dion, E., Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L.S. (2007). "Peer-mediated programs to strengthen classroom instruction: Cooperative learning, reciprocal teaching, classwide peer tutoring, and peer-assisted learning strategies."  In L. Florian (Ed.), Handbook of special education (pp. 450-459). London: Sage.

Fuchs, L.S., & Fuchs, D. (2007). "Instruction on mathematical problem solving." In D. Berch & M. Mazzacco (Eds.), Why is math so hard for some children? The Nature and origins of mathematical learning difficulties and disabilities (pp. 397-414). Baltimore: Brookes.

Fuchs, D. (2006). "Cognitive profiling of children with genetic disorders and the search for a scientific basis of differentiated education." In P. Alexander & P. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 187-206). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Morgan, P.L., Young, C., & Fuchs, D. (2005). "Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies: An effective intervention for young readers." In G. Sideridis & T.A. Citro (Eds.), Research to practice: Effective interventions in learning disabilities. Boston: Learning Disabilities Worldwide.

Fuchs, L.S., Fuchs, D., & Hamlett, C.L. (2005). "Using technology to facilitate and enhance curriculum-based measurement." In K. Higgins, R. Boone, & D. Edyburn (Eds.), The handbook of special education technology research and practice (pp. 663-681). Whitefish Bay, WI: Knowledge by Design.

Complete listing of publications available in CV.

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