african american male teacher with eight young students from diverse backgrounds standing outside school

Factors such as socioeconomic status, geographic location, and disability, can lead to significant gaps in learning outcomes. To address this, research around disparities in education and learning must occur. A primary mission of FPG is to generate knowledge to establish programs that produce positive outcomes for children and their families, and use that knowledge to prepare caregivers and teachers to provide the best possible learning environments for promoting development and success. As such, FPG is dedicated to investigating and addressing disparities in education and learning and establishing programs to positively impact academic achievement. The research, evaluation, and interventions developed within FPG serve learners and teachers throughout our state, across the country, and around the world.

Featured Project

Spoken language is predictive of many positive life outcomes, such as employment, social interaction, play skills and more. But, researchers still don’t know why some children talk and others don’t, especially as it relates to historically marginalized and minoritized populations.

The EMERGE study seeks to change that. Researchers at FPG will co-lead a unique project to assess behavioral and neurological markers of language development in low-income children within their family settings, gathering valuable information that could lead to earlier, more targeted interventions for a population that has been largely underrepresented in autism research.
 

Featured FPG News Story

Research has demonstrated that early learning experiences are critical for children’s long-term success, as their brains develop most rapidly in the first three years of life. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that practices aimed at improving children’s early literacy skills provide equitable experiences for racially and linguistically diverse young children and their families.

Book Babies, an early-literacy home visiting program, was developed to strengthen literacy promoting practices of families’ and children’s early literacy skills. To determine the efficacy of this program and whether its impacts vary by families’ language status, a team of scholars from FPG and HighScope evaluated the program.

Current Projects

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Convening Security
The Equity Research Action Coalition conducts research in the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at housed at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. The Coalition will convene researchers, policy makers, and practitioners for a one-day summit on June 18, 2026. We have used the Childhood Opportunity Index and databases connected to early learning options statewide to identify counties where children have the greatest needs. Centering children rather than geographic regions means this summit will bring together individuals with widely varying views.
EMERGE: Early Markers of Expressive and Receptive Language Growth in Ethnically Diverse Autistic Toddlers
Spoken language is predictive of many positive life outcomes, such as employment, social interaction, play skills and more. But, researchers still don’t know why some children talk and others don’t, especially as it relates to historically marginalized and minoritized populations. A new study, EMERGE: Early Markers of Expressive and Receptive Language Growth in Ethnically Diverse Autistic Toddlers, seeks to change that.
Equity Research Action Coalition
Inclusive PreK STEM Playgroups: Empowering our Youngest Learners and their Caregivers for Confidence and Competence in STEM Learning
This project is grounded in a science education partnership between Kidzu Children’s Museum and FPG’s STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center (STEMIE). The project will include sharing resources and spaces to develop and implement playgroups for pre-K children with a variety of abilities and their caregivers with specific STEM related goals and activities through the sequence of playgroups.
Starting Them off on the Right Path: Utilizing Home Visiting to Address Race-based Trauma and Support Children's Racial Identity Formation
The purpose of this project is to gather perspectives from current Parents As Teachers families and parent educators. This is a developmental evaluation to understand how Parents as Teachers (PAT) could address race-based trauma and stressors and support the positive racial identity formation for young children.
Unlocking the Potential of EL Education's Math Approach to Create Equitable, Capable, and Courageous Math Communications for All
The National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute is partnering with EL Education to submit a proposal to the Research Partnership for Professional Learning. This project aims to implement EL Education's math professional learning to support teachers in transforming how math is taught and experienced by students, particularly students identifying as Black, Latino/a, and/or experiencing poverty.