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 31 - 60 of 67
The purpose of this project is to understand the early development trajectories in both poor and non-poor young children growing up in rural areas characterized by high poverty. An interdisciplinary team of investigators has been following children from birth with measurement of child, family, and school functioning, observed mother and father sensitivity and language input in the home setting, observed quality of instruction in child care and elementary school, characteristics of the community, and biomarkers of child and maternal stress.
The purpose of this collaboration with Boston University is to develop and disseminate various products focused on the effects of racism during infancy through early childhood (birth to age 5) for racially marginalized children and families, specifically those that are Black, Latine, Indigenous, or Asian.
We are examining psychiatric and health outcomes in a 5-year follow-up of 200 well-characterized, very high-risk, maltreated and non-maltreated children. This is an ideal study in which to examine patterns of stability and change in the regulation of stress-sensitive genes over time.
This study will iteratively develop and test an adapted professional development model to be used with the Advancing Social-communication And Play intervention.
The K-12 Coherent Instructional Systems portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program seeks to support a cohort of provider-local education agency partnerships focused on implementing coherent instructional systems (CIS) built around high-quality middle-years mathematics curricula in contexts that serve Black, Latino, and/or English Learning-designated students, and students who are experiencing poverty.
As a Learning Partner for the Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC), the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at UNC-Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute seeks to support the cohort of Provider-Local Education Agency partnerships in their implementation and measurement efforts related to their scale-up of high-quality mathematics curricula.
This study utilizes three large-scale early childhood education datasets (NCEDL, SWEEP and LAExCELS) to explore how children’s engagement, measured by moment-to-moment time sampling, varies within classrooms and explores if variation in levels and quality of child engagement and activity type/setting is associated with children’s outcomes.
WA OSPI is seeking support for the capacity development of their state and regional Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) staff in best practices of implementation science to support implementation of evidence-based practices with their participating local education agencies (LEAs). To support development of internal implementation capacity, the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) will provide virtual training, coaching, and consultation supports.
The National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (NCPFCE) by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, in partnership with the Office of Child Care is one of four National Centers that develop evidence-based best practices for Early Head Start and Head Start programs across the country, as part of a comprehensive Office of Head Start Training and Technical Assistance System. The goal of this project is to support family well-being, effective family and community engagement, and children’s school readiness, including transitions to kindergarten.
The National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP) is conducting a systematic review of the current intervention literature targeting individuals on the autism spectrum. NCAEP is a continuation of the evidence review that was completed by the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder.
This project consists of planning and implementing an evaluation of The Educare Learning Network, a consortium of programs nationwide providing high quality learning environments for at-risk children from birth to 5 years. The evaluation will document the features of Educare and how implementation of the model contributes to program quality and links to child and family outcomes.
The mission of the National Implementation Research Network is to contribute to the best practices and science of implementation, organization change, and system reinvention to improve outcomes across the spectrum of human services.
Milton-Union Exempted Village Schools is seeking support for the use of implementation science practices and tools for their district and school improvement efforts in early literacy. To support development of implementation capacity, the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) will provide virtual and onsite training, coaching, and consultation supports for the district and school leadership and implementation teams.
The overall goal of this project is to improve services, program management, and child outcomes for preschool children in the Exceptional Children Program in all Local Education Agencies across North Carolina through the development of a statewide system of professional development and support. Activities provide support for local coordinators and staff who serve preschool exceptional children through training, technical assistance, follow up, networking, and opportunities for collaboration.
The NCIC-TP project is a collaborative effort to help counties in NC successfully and sustainably implement the Triple P system of interventions. The project began in 2014 with a two year implementation evaluation of Triple P. Data from that evaluation, along with emerging evidence from implementation science and best practice, is the foundation of the information, learning, and implementation support resources offered by NCIC-TP to NC counties interested in or currently scaling-up Triple P.
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.
The Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PATTN) EITA is seeking support for the capacity development of their systemic support staff in best practices of implementation science to support implementation of evidence-based practices with their participating early childhood providers. To support development of internal implementation capacity, the National Implementation Research Network proposes providing virtual training, coaching, and consultation supports.
The JOIN for ME program is a pediatric weight management intervention that can be delivered in community settings, with potential for national dissemination. We will package the JOIN for ME program to increase acceptability and feasibility for delivery in low-income communities and test implementation in two novel settings: the housing authority and the patient-centered medical home. The revised JOIN for ME package will be tested in a rigorous implementation study.
The Frank Porter Graham Program on Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Families is a suite of programs related to self-compassion in families and schools. Our mission is to bring specialized self-compassion training to teens, pre-teens, children, parents, educators, and all adults who traverse the lives of youth, with the ultimate goal of creating a community embued with greater compassion for ourselves and others.
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).
The purpose of this project is to provide DCDEE with expertise in research and analysis related to short- and long-term policy questions focused on young children’s education and development.
The RI-Asthma Integrated Response (RI-AIR) Asthma Care Implementation Program (ACIP) is a comprehensive system of identification, screening, and intervention for pediatric asthma. We aim to demonstrate that RI-AIR ACIP is a replicable, evidence-based, and cost-saving model that improves asthma outcomes for children at most risk, and can be disseminated to other urban communities to address asthma disparities.
The purpose of this multi-organization partnership is to leverage existing collaborations, expertise, and work to bolster all three partnering organizations’ activities to mitigate the impacts of this double pandemic – COVID-19 and racism – on Black families with children, birth to age 5.
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 develop and enhance the knowledge on the practices and supports necessary to improve access and participation within STEM learning opportunities for young children with disabilities.
Given the importance of basic memory skills for success in school, it is essential that we understand the development of a range of component skills that (1) affect the acquisition of knowledge and strategy use, (2) emerge in the context of the classroom, (3) are transformed over time into the study skills that are needed for progress in school, and (4) are related to measures of academic achievement.
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.
This collaborative project with Michigan’s MTSS Technical Assistance Center (MiMTSS) aims to develop blended learning (pairing data captured from eLearning and/or other activities with onsite training) to support Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS) within Michigan Public School Systems.
The ECTA Center will assist the CDC's EHDI team with (1) identifying some best practices/models with Part C programs at the state and national levels to better address issues of documenting that infants with hearing loss are receiving ED services, (2) measuring progress, (3) assessing outcomes, and (4) meeting national benchmarks.
