Grant Awards

Rebecca Dore, Senior Research Program Director, The Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy (CCEC)

By kindergarten entry, children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds lag behind their peers from higher SES homes in early literacy and other school readiness skills and these gaps persist through high school. The goal of this study is to determine whether an intervention to support caregivers in engaging with their children while co-using educational media can improve children’s early literacy skills, compared to an aligned shared book reading intervention and to no intervention. Given that early literacy skills predict children’s later academic learning, this home intervention, which aims to shape the communication patterns surrounding a common, family-friendly activity, has the potential to positively influence the trajectory of low-income children’s academic success.

Sarah Lang, Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Science

The Virtual Laboratory School is designed to be a dynamic professional development system that is reflective of the latest research that should inform the care and education of children and youth and is responsive to emerging needs in military child care settings. The objective of this project is to continue the work of the VLS in providing innovative and cost-effective virtual professional development (PD) for child development, school age, and youth program staff and family child care providers by offering a system grounded upon the effectiveness of reflective practice, tailored coaching to support staff members’ use of optimal practices, and evidence-based strategies to support adult learners.

Shayne Piasta, Professor of Literacies, Literatures, and Language ArtsShayne Piasta

In this study, the researchers will examine the effect of a teacher professional development program in literacy called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). LETRS is a fully developed, commercially available, and widely used professional development program to support literacy (language, reading, writing) outcomes.  Despite its wide use, causal evidence of its impact on teacher knowledge and practice and student literacy outcomes is limited. The researchers aim to examine the effects of LETRS on teacher knowledge, teacher instructional practice, and student literacy outcomes.  They will implement LETRS under real-world conditions within authentic educational contexts and with the intended end users.