Batya Elbaum, who earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Utah, joined the University of Miami faculty in 1997. Her early research focused on academic and social outcomes for students with learning disabilities and involved both primary studies and meta-analyses in the areas of reading interventions, self-concept interventions, and testing accommodations. With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2004 and the establishment of a new federal accountability system for special education, Elbaum turned her focus to assisting states, including Florida, to address the new federal reporting requirements. As a consultant to the National Center for Special Education Accountability Monitoring, Elbaum played a key role in developing and validating a set of measurement scales to address two of the new accountability indicators, one related to family outcomes of birth-to-three services provided through early intervention and the other related to schools’ facilitation of parent involvement. Elbaum has also been a member of the Florida statewide leadership team responsible for developing and implementing Florida’s system to measure the developmental progress of children participating in early intervention and preschool special education programs.

Elbaum has been Principal Investigator on numerous research studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) as well as the Florida Department of Education (FDOE). She has been Co-Director of an OSEP-funded doctoral training grant and Director of three OSEP-funded Personnel Preparation grants in the area of early childhood special education. Through her ongoing discretionary projects funded by the FDOE, Elbaum has been responsible for analyzing Florida’s statewide assessment data on children birth through five as well as the state’s annual parent survey data.

Elbaum received the 2003 Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Division of Research of the Council for Exceptional Children. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Exceptional Children, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Journal of Special Education, and Learning Disabilities Research & Practice. She has been Associate Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning since 2008 and is responsible for overseeing the Department’s graduate programs.