About

Bryan Cook is a faculty member at the UVA School of Education and Human Development, serving as a Professor. His work focuses on facilitating and examining the use of open science and crowdsourcing in education research, as well as researching research (meta-research) in education. He is involved in identifying evidence-based practices in special education and has contributed to studies on teaching science facts to elementary students with high-incidence disabilities. His recent accomplishments include working with research partners across the country as Principal Investigator on a crowdsourced replication study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and receiving a $2.5 million leadership grant from the U.S. Department of Education in partnership with Temple University to train doctoral students in evidence-based practices for students with disabilities. Additionally, he co-authored an article in Educational Researcher examining questionable research practices among education researchers, which was featured in an online Forbes article.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Public relations
• Pedagogy
• Social Science
• Psychotherapist
• Engineering
• Law
• World Wide Web
• Management science
• Engineering ethics
• Epistemology
• Developmental psychology
• Mathematics education
• Psychiatry
• Social psychology
• Applied psychology

Selected publications

• IEPs in the Age of AI: Examining IEP Goals Written with and Without ChatGPT

  Journal of Special Education Technology · 2025-02-28 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are a core element of special education in the United States. Within IEPs, IEP goals drive the implementation of IEPs and guide measurement of progress for students with disabilities. Yet research indicates that many IEP goals lack sufficient detail, indicating overall low-quality goals. Additionally, special education teachers can feel unsupported in their jobs and struggle with managing their workloads. This convergent mixed methods study explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in special education to address these issues. Specifically, we explored how experienced teachers perceive AI’s role in their practice and compared the quality of AI-generated IEP goals to those written by special education teachers. Quantitative findings show no statistically significant difference ( p = .67) in quality ratings of IEP goals written only by teachers versus AI-generated goals. Qualitative findings depict overall positive perceptions on using AI to facilitate workload. Implications and opportunities for future research and the field centering on continued exploration and training of using generative AI to assist special education teachers are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Science Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: A National Survey of Elementary Special Education Teachers

  2025-09-20

  articleOpen access

  Elementary students with learning disabilities (LD) often have limited opportunities to learn science, yet little is known about how special educators engage in science instruction. This study draws on a nationally representative survey of elementary special education teachers to describe their roles, preparedness, time allocation, and perceived barriers. Most reported minimal discipline-specific preparation and felt less prepared to teach science than other subjects. Many teachers indicated that students with LD missed science due to pull-out instruction. Common barriers to students receiving science instruction included remediation priorities and accountability pressures in tested subjects. These findings provide a national snapshot of science instruction for elementary students with LD and point to the need for greater preparation and policy support to ensure access to high-quality science learning for students with LD.

  PublisherDOI

• Commentary on Publishing Systematic Reviews as Registered Reports

  Behavioral Disorders · 2025-12-11

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Registered Reports are a novel approach to publishing research that involves two rounds of peer review, one before and one after the study is conducted, that is starting to be used for systematic reviews, as in this special series. In the commentary, we briefly provide an overview of Registered Reports, including potential benefits (e.g., increased transparency, increased credibility due to constraining researcher flexibility, increased study quality and rigor due to prospective feedback from reviewers) and challenges (e.g., over-specifying exploratory elements of the review in the stage-1 manuscript, delayed or lack of completion after in-principle acceptance of the proposed study) for systematic reviews. We conclude with recommendations for addressing these challenges and for future research to inform the use of Registered Reports for systematic reviews.

  PublisherDOI

• Screening-Based Approach for the Identification of Small Molecule Modulators of SIRT1

  Cytotherapy · 2025-04-30

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education: A Brief Evolution and Noteworthy Practices

  Teaching Exceptional Children · 2025-10-15 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction to the Special Series: Examining the Special Education Research Base

  Remedial and Special Education · 2025-10-09 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This introduction to the special series, Examining the Special Education Research Base, situates the work within broader concerns about questionable research practices and the reproducibility crisis in science. We review lessons from other fields, summarize existing meta-research in special education, and provide an overview of three reviews examining publication bias, selective outcome reporting, and the scarcity of null findings. Shared themes suggest that although the special education field appears to have fewer problems than some disciplines, potential threats to the validity of the special education research base were identified. We conclude by highlighting the implications of the three reviews for research and practice, and calling for the greater adoption of open-science practices to strengthen the evidence base in special education.

  PublisherDOI

• Reading Interventions with School-Aged Learners with Autism: A Systematic Literature Review and Quality Assessment

  2025-10-31

  article

  This review synthesizes 85 studies on reading interventions for autistic students, highlighting key instructional strategies across five reading areas.

  PublisherDOI

• Null Effects in the Special Education Research Base

  Remedial and Special Education · 2025-08-31 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Full and clear reporting of null effects is important for a robust and valid research base. The purpose of this Registered Report is to review the presence and reporting of null findings in the special education research base. Preregistered hypotheses predicted (a) few studies with all or primary null findings and (b) spin in reporting and discussing null findings. We searched all 2020 publications—41 special education journals—and identified 121 group-design intervention studies, coding the number of significant and non-significant p -values reported. We identified two (1.7%) articles reporting all null findings and no articles reporting null primary findings; both all-null studies were coded as containing one instance of spin. Exploratory analyses indicated hypotheses or predictions were stated in only 38.8% of studies and both instances of spin were low level. We discuss implications of findings and approaches for disseminating studies with null findings.

  PublisherDOI

• Open-Science Practices in Two Communication Sciences and Disorders Journals: A Systematic Review

  2025-05-31

  reviewOpen access

  Open-science practices promote research transparency and efficiency, yet their use in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) is understudied. We reviewed the prevalence of open data, open materials, and preregistration in two CSD journals (2019-2024), assessing whether the adoption of open-science badges in one journal in 2022 increased their use. Among 462 empirical articles reviewed, 19.5% shared materials, 3.0% shared data, and 1.1% were preregistered. There was no evidence of increased open-science engagement after open-science badge implementation. Implications of relatively low levels of open-science practices and recommendations for increasing engagement in open-science practices among CSD researchers are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• National Survey of 4th and 5th Grade Science Education Teachers: Insights Into Instruction and Inclusion of Students With Disabilities

  Science Education · 2025-04-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Elementary science education, particularly in the 4th and 5th grades, is essential for setting the foundation for lifelong science learning, fostering critical thinking, and preparing students for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This stage is especially critical for students with disabilities, as achievement gaps between them and their peers emerge during elementary school. Despite this importance, little is known about how science is taught in elementary classrooms during these critical years, particularly for students with disabilities. To address this gap, we surveyed teachers from a nationally representative sample of U.S. schools to examine elementary science education, including instructional practices, allocation of time, and the inclusion and support of students with disabilities. Our findings reveal that limited instructional time is allocated to science, with significant variability across classrooms. The amount of time dedicated to science instruction was significantly influenced by external factors, such as whether science was a tested subject. Students with disabilities often face additional barriers, including being pulled out of science instruction for special education services, resulting in missed opportunities to engage in science. These findings highlight the need to address opportunity gaps in science instruction to ensure all students have meaningful access to quality science education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Timothy J. Landrum

  University of Louisville

  107 shared

• Melody Tankersley

  University of Wisconsin–Stout

  99 shared

• Grant Edmund Allen

  University of Wisconsin–Stout

  64 shared

• Mark Matthew Buckman

  University of Kansas

  64 shared

• Allison L. Bruhn

  University of Iowa

  64 shared

• Jill H. Allor

  Southern Methodist University

  64 shared

• Lysandra Cook

  University of Virginia

  44 shared

• William J. Therrien

  University of North Texas

  41 shared

Education

• PhD

  University of California at Santa Barbara