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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The primary outcome of this investment is to support a cadre of New York State districts (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers) with operationalizing their district implementation plans related to their selected math high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) with each of the plans focused on addressing the common challenges and barriers identified across districts. The project’s long-term outcome is to create capacity within each respective district to sustain high-quality math instruction and desired outcomes for K-12 students, instructional staff, and the community by working together to determine solutions to their normalized barriers.
The National Implementation Research Center (NIRN) will partner with Rivet Education to design and conduct an empirical evaluation of the Scoring & Evidence Guide (SEG)’s reliability and validity. The free and public-facing SEG is an evidence-based framework and rubric that serves as the basis for Rivet's reviews of providers. It evaluates the extent to which providers have expertise in content and specific high-quality instructional materials implementation (HQIM), as defined as "green" on EdReports, the extent to which they design professional learning that meets overarching and type-specific indicators of quality, and the extent to which they collect data about the effectiveness of their services and use those data to improve their services.
The purpose of this project is to establish the psychometric feature and instrument useability of a practitioner-administered observer impression scale assessment of preschool children’s peer-related social competence. The ratings for this scale are based on three 5-minute observations of preschool children engaging in social interaction with their peers. The information may be used for general assessment for all children, screening for children who may need support in establishing positive peer social competence, and progress monitoring. At the end of this project, a fully developed, psychometrically verified, and practical assessment of preschool children’s peer social competence, suitable for scaling up for program use, will be available to early childhood programs and practitioners.
OJJDP Juvenile Justice System Enhancements is a three-year broad systems improvement project. It is designed to advance state level juvenile justice systems toward the adoption and delivery of evidence-supported practices stemming from a full system review, recommended modifications, capacity building where needed (or desired), and enhanced performance of chosen reforms.
Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 is looking to improve implementation efforts through monitoring district plans. To support the development of implementation capacity, the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) proposes providing a blended model of training, coaching, and consultation support.
This project brings together six Educare Early Learning Network schools and collaborating local evaluation partners (LEPs), UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, and the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas in partnership to demonstrate the efficacy of implementing PC TALK, an early language intervention, to support the language learning of infants and young children with and at risk for disabilities. Designed to build the capacity of early educators and parents to promote communication opportunities and the development of infants and young children, the Promoting Communication Strategies will be embedded into randomly selected Educare classrooms across participating schools.
North Carolina has an ongoing commitment to families having a mixed delivery early care and learning system including equitable access to Family Child Care Home providers. North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) started a pilot study in August of 2023 with Preschool Development Grant funds to determine if program quality would increase if Family Child Care Home providers were paid a higher reimbursement rate that was closer to the cost of care. Building on the work of the previous pilot, FPG will continue to evaluate the impact of increased reimbursement rates on quality and provider compensation and benefits.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate two group-based treatments: (1) the Program for Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), which targets social skills, and (2) Unstuck and On Target (UOT), which targets executive function skills. The interventions are two 45-minute sessions per week across 16 weeks and will be implemented by school-based staff in middle schools in North Carolina and Southern California (San Diego area).
Persistent, and quite pervasive, racial disparities have been found between Black, autistic children and their white, autistic peers. These disparities range from notable inequities in the timeliness of diagnosis to receipt of substandard services to their under-representation in research studies. While key disparities have been documented, there is a need for increased attention on potential underlying drivers of these disparities that are rooted in the Black experience. We know from existing research on Black health and wellness that racism is linked to some poorer physical and mental health outcomes. This project will examine the impact of racism and resulting racial trauma on the mental health outcomes of Black parents of autistic children (ages 3 -9) as well as the downstream consequences that parental racial trauma has on child behavior and development.
This project will support the use of implementation science methods and practices within the technical assistance services provided by the Comprehensive Center Region 6. In years 1 through 5, the NIRN team will continue to support the capacity-building efforts of the TA providers and the state education agencies being served by the comprehensive center, as well as the implementation of cross-state initiatives.
This project will support the University of Kansas in their research of the RAISE intervention to accelerate post-pandemic learning gains for students with or at risk for disabilities. The project involves implementing an evidence-based intervention on use of data to match instruction to student’s need, collecting data from participating schools, analyzing data, preparing reports and dashboards for monitoring and disseminating results.
This project will continue a previously established formal research-policy and practice collaboration between the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (FPG). FPG will develop structures to initiate working toward the project goals and to develop plans for expanding this work to educate/co-create learning between academia and policy practice in service of career advancement/efficacy.
The goal of this project is to expand the focus and reach of the RISER Network to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other related organizations and institutions to mentor pre- and post-doctoral fellows. Fellows interested in the research-to-practice-to-policy for Black children, families, and communities will receive multi-tiered, equity-centered, culturally grounded methodological and experiential experiences to guide their future careers.
This project will train school staff who support students using pull-out reading instruction and intervention (e.g., “educators” such as reading specialists, paraeducators, instructional facilitators, tutors) to use Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI, formerly called Targeted Reading Intervention) with two adaptations: 1) a digital version of the traditionally “paper and pencil” intervention (“TRI app”) in a 2) high dosage model whereby educators provide daily reading support to multiple K-3 students not yet reading on grade level.
The main objective of this project is to provide a more nuanced understanding of associations between school characteristics, classroom processes, and students’ language, academic, executive function, and social skills between prekindergarten and grade 1 (PK-1).
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.
Effective implementation capacity is essential to improving education. The SISEP Center supports education systems in creating implementation capacity for evidence‐based practices benefiting students with disabilities. Project funding is by the Office of Special Education Programs.
This project's purpose is to expand the knowledge on the practices and supports necessary to improve access and participation within STEM learning opportunities for young children with disabilities and intersecting identities.
Early childhood educators (ECE) work with young children with disabilities as well as children from diverse backgrounds to support learning and development. It is critical for ECEs to be adequately prepared to serve children who are linguistically, culturally, and ability-diverse. The purpose of this project is to work with early childhood community college programs in North Carolina to enhance and redesign courses to better prepare ECEs to work with children with disabilities and children from diverse backgrounds.
The proposed study will employ several methodologies including single-case design and qualitative methods to explore processes and drivers necessary to support early intervention (EI) providers in using online modules with embedded coaching supports to: (a) increase their own knowledge and use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and (b) support EI providers to coach caregivers to use EBPs. The study will examine factors that lead to effective EI services empowering caregivers of toddlers with autism to embed EBPs into their everyday routines and activities. We will collaborate with EI providers and caregivers of toddlers with autism to examine the extent to which online EBP modules with ongoing implementation support:
•are perceived as useful and relevant to EI providers
•effectively support EI providers and caregivers to embed EBPs with fidelity
We also intend to:
•determine if and how provider and caregiver use of EPBs impacts child coordinated joint engagement
•explore provider and caregiver perceptions related to EBPs and implementing them
By examining perceptions and outcomes related to implementing EBPs, the study may enhance the quality of EI professional practice and improve outcomes for children with autism and their caregivers.
The California Abundant Birth Project (CA-ABP) is a guaranteed income program for pregnant people at greatest risk of birth inequities in five California counties (San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Riverside, and Los Angeles), funded by the State of California, municipal governments, and philanthropic funding. The California Abundant Birth Project will provide unconditional, monthly income supplements during pregnancy and postpartum to randomly selected participants, with the goal of curbing financial stress and promoting healthy pregnancy outcomes. The goal of this project is to evaluate the impact of this guaranteed income program on birthing outcomes, maternal and child health, and children’s early outcomes.
The current study will be the first to examine the influence of early toxic stress, including the distal effects of living in poverty as well as the proximal factors of negative parenting and household chaos, on the development of gut microbiome diversity and maturity across 15, 24, 26, and 54 months.
The Impact Center at FPG’s Rural Church Summer Literacy Initiative Support Team supports the ongoing development and implementation of The Duke Endowment’s Rural Church – Summer Literacy Program in North Carolina.
The Impact Center at FPG’s Triple P Support Team is currently supporting the scale-up and expansion of the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program®—System of Interventions in North Carolina.
The Impact Center at FPG's Implementation Capacity for Triple P (ICTP) projects are currently supporting the scale-up and expansion of Triple P System of Interventions in North and South Carolina.
The mental health of children in the United States is a national emergency, with notable and accelerating rates of anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Recent research suggests exposure to natural environments (green spaces) reduces risk for these disorders, alleviating stress, restoring emotional and physiologic resources, providing opportunities to build regulatory skills through risky play and physical activity, and reducing harm from environmental stressors, such as heat.
Drawing from 18 years of observational, survey, and medical record data gathered from The Family Life Project, a population-based study of 1,292 children born in low-income, rural communities, the project will derive new, remotely-sensed, geospatial measures of types of greenspaces around children’s residences, and integrate these measures with extensive child, family, and home data from 2 months to 16-18 years of age to address critical questions about the types and timing of green space exposures that offset risk for anxiety, depression, and ADHD.
The purpose of this project, in partnership with Mathematica-MPR, is to understand the landscape of program structures and supports for mental and behavioral health in Early Head Start/Head Start for children, families, and staff. To accomplish this, efforts will include engagement with experts; conceptual model development; study design and measurement development; data collection and analysis; dissemination of findings; and archiving data.
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.
