Dake Zhang, Ph. D., joined Rutgers GSE after pursuing her doctorate in Special Education from Purdue University and working as an assistant professor at Clemson University. Coupled with a diverse background in special education, educational psychology, and math education, and with her expertise and research interest in mathematics learning disabilities, she has developed and validated accommodation techniques and intervention strategies for students with math learning difficulties. Specifically, her work focuses on:

(a) how to provide effective accommodations for the special needs of students with math learning difficulties during informal formative assessment in mathematics instructional activities;

(b) the development and validation of accommodations for students with math learning disabiltiies in high-stake standardized assessment;

(c) using technology to improve universisal design for assesing studens with varying abilities.

(d) changing mathematics teachers’ beliefs in students' abilities to learn mathematics, and improve the teachers' sklls to apply our techniques to assess and interpret the true abilities of mathematical reasoning in students with math learning difficulties.