Projects
Research is at the heart of all we do at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. As one of the nation's foremost multidisciplinary centers devoted to the study of children from infancy to adolescence, our scientists are committed to conducting research and evaluation studies that improve children's lives, support families, and inform public policy.
Learn more about our projects—current and completed—by clicking on the links below. And to stay up to date on news and events related to our work via social media, visit our Project Digital Directory.
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This project leverages and builds upon an existing longitudinal cohort to propose hypotheses that investigate the ways in which early life stress alters well-specified developmental processes to adversely affect neurodevelopment in childhood and increase risk for obesity and other health outcomes. It extends our prior data collection both retrospectively and prospectively in order to amplify and enhance our focus on adverse exposures and health and behavior outcomes.
The Early Literacy Module Project in Singapore aims to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a professional development module that includes early language and literacy resources for Early Childhood Educators (ECE) and Learning Support Educators (LSEd) within the Singapore context. Developmentally appropriate early language and literacy resources will also be developed for ECEs, LSEds, families, and caregivers to use with children with developmental needs or from disadvantaged families.
The goal of this series of studies is to develop recommendations that could be used to inform the next revisions of the ECERS-3, a global early care and education quality measure for children aged 3-5 that examines quality from the child's perspective.
The goal of this project is to conduct follow-up studies of Educare graduates as they enter kindergarten and progress through the early elementary years. A team at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute will coordinate and support the Educare local evaluators as they launch new follow-up studies or expand existing follow-up study efforts in 8-12 U.S. cities where there is an Educare school. This 3-year project will gather data on at least 3 years of Educare graduates and, in some sites, data from their parents as well.
This qualitative study will examine data utilization processes in Educare schools. The multi-method evaluation will include key informant interviews and focus groups, as well as review of data-sharing documents and agreements.
The purpose of this project was to launch a randomized clinical trial in six Educare schools.
The purpose of this project is to conduct a pilot study examining the impact of Family Engagement Specialists' beliefs and attitudes (e.g., bias) on their engagement with families.
This project will examine cross-cultural patterns in feedback sensitivity, emotion regulation, and learning among adolescents. Findings may have practical applications to the classroom and could inform interventions for bolstering students' academic performance.
The purpose of this project is to examine the relationship between implicit bias, teacher expectations, teacher–child interactions, and child outcomes. There are disparities in child discipline and development that can manifest early for poor and/or minority children and can have lasting consequences.
The purpose of this project is to determine in-school and out-of-school outcomes for high school students who participated in a cluster (CRCT) of the efficacy of a comprehensive treatment program developed by the Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (CSESA).
Through close collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families (RI DCYF), we will capitalize on established infrastructure to innovate and enhance a statewide short-term home visiting program.
This study examined how the economic downturn impacted parents' work characteristics in the rural South and how those conditions are related to economic strain, food insecurity, and public assistance program participation and what supports may buffer these experiences.
The Environment Rating Scales are designed to assess process quality in an early childhood or school age care group. Process quality consists of the various interactions that go on in a classroom between staff and children, staff, parents, and other adults, among the children themselves, and the interactions children have with the many materials and activities in the environment, as well as those features, such as space, schedule, and materials that support these interactions.
The Equity Research Action Coalition will co-construct with practitioners and policymakers actionable research to support the optimal development of Black children prenatally through childhood across the African diaspora using a cultural wealth framework. The coalition will focus on developing a science-based action framework to eradicate the impact of racism and poverty and all its consequences on the lives of Black children, families, and communities, and to ensure optimal health, well-being, school readiness and success, and overall excellence.
The goal of this project is to support the development of an interdisciplinary, multi-organizational research action coalition to identify anti-racist, culturally-sustaining, and asset-focused factors that ensure that Black children, their families, and communities thrive. Specific to this project is the development of a national repository/clearinghouse that provides up to date information on actionable research, practice, and policy evidence about what matters and works for Black children.
FPG will partner with the North Carolina DCDEE to conduct an evaluation of a pilot implementation of the NC Preschool Pyramid Model (Pyramid Model) in selected private center-based preschool programs where NC Pre-K classrooms are housed. The pilot implementation of the Pyramid Model is an extension of the existing implementation in many NC Pre-K classrooms currently located in public school settings.
The purpose of this evaluation project is to examine whether the provision of resources and supports to spur regional and community innovation projects to develop new business and financing models will ensure the ECE workforce is equitably compensated, well-trained, and valued, and ECE businesses are thriving, and subsequently leading to equitable, affordable, and accessible high-quality early learning experiences for young children and their families. This study will also examine facilitators and barriers to engaging in systems change in child care grounded in racial equity.
The purpose of this project is to conduct the year 1 evaluation of the ECIC Child Care Innovation Fund. Guided by a racial equity evaluation framework, the evaluation will determine how this fund influences policy changes to address racial disparities in wages and families' access to affordable, high-quality early care and education. This study will also examine facilitators and barriers to engaging in racial equity systems change.
The purpose of this project is to design and implement a developmental evaluation for an expected 10-year early childhood collective impact project, the Get Ready Guilford Initiative (GRGI). Activities will include gathering information on the organizations, relationships, practices, roles, and competencies involved in the systems work.
This project employed a multi-disciplinary team to evaluate NC's Smart Start initiative and to help local Smart Start partnerships evaluate their own programs.
This project will provide an evaluation of Shape NC Phase II for the North Carolina Partnership for Children. Shape NC assists communities and child care programs across North Carolina to promote healthy eating and physical activity among the state’s youngest children. We will evaluate the initiative through analysis of secondary data from Go NAP SACC and NC-NPASS as well as through original data collection through interviews, focus groups, and web-based surveys.
FPG’s evaluation of Smart Start's Organizational Capacity Building Initiatives examined three initiatives -- Leaders' Collaborative and Leading for Equity, Organizational Consultation, and Interactive Website.
This project will evaluate the North Carolina Child Care Health Consultant (CCHC) project.
This project explored the impacts of participation in Special Olympics Young Athletes program on the development of young children and their families.
This contract supports the evaluation of enhancements being made to the early childhood program at Northampton Community College (NCC). NCC has created the Supporting Change and Reform in Inclusive Personnel Preparation project to increase the number of highly qualified paraprofessionals in Pennsylvania who apply evidence-based and competency-based practices in classrooms that serve culturally and linguistically diverse children of varying abilities aged birth through five years.
This project is a collaboration between FPG and Urban Institute to evaluate Head Start’s Designation Renewal System (DRS) and examine its role in improving quality in Head Start and Early Head Start. We will examine the sensitivity of the DRS in differentiating lower performing programs from higher performing programs and determine whether the DRS might affect program quality through re-competition.
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the policies, processes, and implementation of the Mississippi Child Care Quality Stars program. This project involves collection of focus group data from parents and providers, as well as review of policies and criteria for Mississippi’s quality rating improvement system. The research questions guiding this project will help Mississippi increase the number of child care programs that provide quality care and early learning experiences for children and families.
This project is designed to provide a statewide evaluation of the NC Pre-K Program. The primary research questions addressed include who is served by the NC Pre-K Program, what are the characteristics and quality of services provided, and what are the outcomes for children attending the program. Data are gathered from multiple sources including classroom observations, teacher surveys, child assessments, and monthly program reports.
Building on the success of the first QRIS National Learning Network–Learning Table, we will use a similar process to support states in addressing cultural, linguistic, and ability diversity within the context of QRIS. Needs assessment data from the QRIS National Learning Network survey will inform the selection of states and the content of the series. The project methodology will utilize transactional approaches and incorporate an emphasis on both knowledge acquisition and knowledge application.
