The School of Education warmly welcomes Stephen Crutchfield, a new professor in our Special Education Program. Crutchfield earned his doctorate from the University of Kansas with an emphasis in autism spectrum disorders. Prior to coming to Cal Poly, Crutchfield was an Institution of Education Sciences postdoctoral research fellow at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in Kansas City, Kan. Crutchfield‘s research examines the effects of emerging technologies on the social and adapted skills of young children with autism. Specifically, he is investigating methods for providing contextualized prompts to young children with autism through location tracking technology delivered via smartphones.
Crutchfield has quickly become an important member of the Special Education Program at Cal Poly. He has collaborated and co-taught several courses in the M.A. Education Specialist Mild Moderate Credential Program, redesigned courses, and joined several ongoing initiatives through funded projects across the School of Education, for example, the Bechtel Project-Based Learning Initiative and the Teacher Quality Preparation Project. Recently, Crutchfield organized a new technology committee and is leading the effort to integrate a platform that would support school-wide video supervision.
Crutchfield has reached out to colleagues across the university to develop interdisciplinary grant proposals. He has also delivered professional development to local schools and connected with many district leaders, principals and teachers. We are thrilled Stephen has joined our team and look forward to working together to improve the lives of individual with disabilities.
