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.
Displaying 61 - 90 of 269
The purpose of this contract is to support the development of a manual that outlines the processes and procedures for measuring early childhood outcomes for young children with disabilities served by the DE preschool Section 619 program.
The purpose of this project is to further develop and evaluate a computerized assessment of executive functioning for use with preschool-aged children. A combination of Item Response Theory and Structural Equation Models will be used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the computerized battery, as well as to evaluate the construct and criterion validity of the battery.
FPG Investigators conducted work in four areas: definition of the features of an early child development program offer and evidence-based practices associated with the features; development of an implementation strategy; development of a measurement frame; and designing an information capture and documentation process.
The purpose of the Dialogic Reading Implementation Project was to create, implement, and field test a web-based module on the topic of dialogic reading. Project staff organized Doing What Works resources along with other project-developed resources into a module using the CONNECT project’s 5-Step Learning Cycle.
The purpose of this project is to establish the psychometric properties of the District Capacity Assessment (DCA). Specifically, the internal structure and test-retest reliability of the DCA will be developed and a professional paper will be published summarizing the results.
Diversity Learning Table 2 will provide a sequence of professional development on evidence-based approaches to supporting young learners who are culturally, linguistically, and socio-economically diverse to 6-8 states. This will include a face-to-face orientation, a series of four interactive webinars, and individualized technical assistance.
This project is a follow-up with participants in two randomized trials of early childhood educational intervention for children born into poverty.
This project involved a multi-site randomized study of two forms of professional development for early childhood teachers: a course to teach effective teaching strategies and an individualized, web-based consultation process.
FPG statisticians will collaborate with Mathmatica Policy Research on a contract with ACF to design a study to provide secondary data analysis of Head Start and other ACF datasets.
The Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA Center) funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) built upon the foundation of several OSEP-funded TA centers to improve service systems and assist states in scaling up and sustaining effective services and research-based interventions for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities and their families.
An innovative new Early Learning Network has been developed in North Carolina to provide on-site technical assistance to support itinerant teachers and consultants as they work to support the inclusion of young children with disabilities across North Carolina. This project is designed to support the Network’s professional development program with a focus on use of the Inclusive Classroom Profile.
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.
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 is an IES-funded evaluation of the Incredible Years Dinosaur Classroom Prevention Program (IY Dina) and Teacher Classroom Management (IYT) Program on pre-k students' social-emotional functioning, executive functioning, and early academic skills. The study will involve approximately 120 NC PreK classrooms in four counties in North Carolina. Approximately 1200 preschool children from 120 classrooms will enter the study in two cohorts during preschool and will be followed up in kindergarten.
This project will increase the effectiveness of K-2 classroom teachers in the instruction of reading (especially for struggling readers) through intensive professional development in summer institutes and biweekly coaching of teachers by highly skilled literacy consultants. Unique to this project is the use of highly cost effective webcam technology.
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.
Women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have a high risk for sexual violence and are often at increased risk of sexual and physical assault. This project will improve the forensic exam experience for sexual violence victims with IDD by developing, implementing, and evaluating an in-person and online training for communication adaptations to the sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) standard protocol for use with victims with IDD.
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 primary purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of two professional development strategies on improving the quality of Georgia's Pre-Kindergarten classrooms that are located in the school districts identified in Georgia's K-12 Race to the Top initiative.
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 involved continuing work with Mathematica Policy Research to support their study, Evaluation of Special Education Practices. Tasks included writing a brief on the survey findings and reviewing proposals in response to the RFP for a study that implements programs to address the needs of preschoolers with special needs.
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.
