FPG 2023 Impact Report by uncfpg

At the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG), we are committed to sharing the information we generate with the public and to supporting professionals’ understanding and use of evidence-based practices. Like other top-tier research organizations, our work is published in the most respected journals in our field. What sets us apart is our effort to ensure that parents, educators, and other professionals who support children and families benefit from our work in a timely manner. In fact, over the years, people from more than 180 countries have relied on our publications and resources to support their work. In the last fiscal year, FPG investigators, staff, and faculty fellows have produced more than 60 new publications including books and book chapters, journal articles, online learning publications, reports and policy briefs, technical assistance guides, and many other resources. FPG’s dedication to both research and outreach is embodied in our motto: Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives. For a full listing of our publications, see: https://fpg.unc.edu/publications

Letter from the Interim Director

Dear colleagues, donors, and friends, In February, my relationship with FPG transitioned from leading its Executive Board to leading the Institute itself. Over the last nine months, I have enjoyed taking a deep dive into the Institute’s research and evaluation, technical assistance, and implementation science portfolios and getting to know the people driving the work within them. It is an honor, and a pleasure, to be part of the FPG community, and I am excited to share with you a small sampling of the many ways everyone at our Institute is working to ensure that all children and families thrive. As you read this year’s impact report, you will get a glimpse of the crucial work being done here by our talented and dedicated scientists, specialists, and scholars across a broad range of disciplines, including autism and developmental disabilities, child health and development, early care and education, and more. You will see how this breadth of work is also expansive in its impact on children and families throughout our state, our nation, and around the world. Regarding our work within our state, you’ll learn about 10 current projects, including a new evaluation study looking at the MECK Pre-K Program, and a summit aimed at preventing child trauma. On a national level, you’ll learn about a

new project focusing on young children’s socialemotional learning and how one of our faculty fellows is addressing the dual pandemic facing Black Americans. And on a global level, you’ll learn about a strategic partnership between FPG, UNC, and the National Institute of Education-Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an FPG faculty fellow’s work addressing teenage domestic violence and bullying. As I shared earlier, this report provides examples of just some of the work being done at FPG. In fact, this past fiscal year, our investigators received new funding for more than 30 projects and produced more than 60 new publications in service to our mission to transform children’s lives through innovation in research, practice, and policy. I encourage you to visit our website— fpg.unc.edu—to learn even more about our publications, our projects, and our people. Best regards,

Brian Boyd, PhD Interim Director, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education

New projects propel our mission As one of the nation’s foremost multidisciplinary centers devoted to the study of children from infancy to adolescence, our researchers, implementation scientists, and technical assistance specialists are committed to conducting work that improves children’s lives, supports families, and informs public policy. This past fiscal year, our investigators received new funding for more than 30 projects in service to this mission. •

AFIRM for Paraeducators: Paraeducators’ Use of Evidence-Based Practices to Increase Goal Attainment for Students with Autism Principal Investigator: Ann Sam | Funder: U.S. Department of Education

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Evaluation of a Pilot of the Pyramid Model in NC Pre-K Classrooms in Private CenterBased Programs Principal Investigator: Sandra Soliday Hong | Funder: NCDHHS Division of Child Development and Early Education

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Calhoun ISD Capacity Development Principal Investigator: Caryn Ward | Funder: Calhoun Intermediate School District

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Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR) Principal Investigator: Katy McCullough | Funder: WestEd

Inclusive STEM: Professional Development Series for Head Start Teachers in Maryland Principal Investigator: Chih-Ing Lim | Funder: University of Maryland Baltimore County

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IPA: Technical Support to CDC EHDI Team on Part C Programs Principal Investigator: Christina Kasprzak | Funder: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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ITTI Care Instructional Design/with Duke Center for Child & Family Studies Principal Investigator: Wendy Morgan | Funder: Duke University

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Kindergarten Readiness for Bilingual/Bicultural Students Principal Investigator: Heather Aiken | Funder: Morgan Creek Foundation

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Meck Pre-K Program Evaluation Principal Investigator: Ximena Franco-Jenkins | Funder: HighScope Educational Research Foundation

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Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice NCTSN Cat II Principal Investigator: Robin Jenkins | Funder: University of Connecticut Health Center Comprehensive Center Region 7 Principal Investigator: Caryn Ward | Funder: RMC Research Corporation Dataset Preparation Support for Unpacking a Complex Story of Head Start Teacher Turnover: Factors, Mechanisms, and Outcomes Principal Investigator: Noreen Yazejian | Funder: University of Oklahoma

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Early Childhood TA Center Principal Investigator: Christina Kasprzak | Funder: U.S. Department of Education

Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

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National Center on Parent, Family and Community Engagement Principal Investigator: Iheoma Iruka | Funder: Start Early

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NC Data Governance (NC DaGov) Project Principal Investigator: Sherri Williams | Funder: NCDHHS Division of Child Development and Early Education

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Starting Them off on the Right Path: Utilizing Home Visiting to Address Race-based Trauma and Support Children’s Racial Identity Formation Principal Investigator: Iheoma Iruka | Funder: Parents as Teachers National Center, Inc.

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State Implementation and Scaling-Up of Evidence-Based Practices Center (SISEP IV) Principal Investigator: Caryn Ward | Funder: U.S. Department of Education

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STEMIE 2.0 Principal Investigator: Megan Vinh | Funder: U.S. Department of Education

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Strengthening Education Through Equitable and Inclusive Evidence-based Teaching Practices: A systematic literature review Principal Investigator: Ximena Franco-Jenkins | Funder: The Center for Learner Equity

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NC Pre-K Data Management and Administrative Report Principal Investigator: Ronald Seifer | Funder: NCDHHS Division of Child Development and Early Education

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NC-Implementation Capacity for Triple P Project Principal Investigator: Will Aldridge | Funder: NCDHHS Division of Social Services

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Supporting Innovative MTSS Principal Investigator: Wendy Morgan | Funder: Macomb Intermediate School District

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Observer Rating Scale of Preschool Children’s Peer Social Competence Principal Investigator: Samuel Odom | Funder: U.S. Department of Education

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Research to Accelerate Pandemic Recovery in Special Education Collaboration with Kansas University Principal Investigator: Caryn Ward | Funder: University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc.

Using Implementation Science in Supporting NC’s Division of Child and Family Wellbeing Principal Investigator: Robin Jenkins | Funder: NCDHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services

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Virginia’s Evidence-Based Practices Initiative: Transformation Zone Principal Investigator: Caryn Ward | Funder: Virginia Commonwealth University

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WCSS Participatory Research Project Principal Investigator: Allison De Marco | Funder: Wake County Smart Start

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Western North Carolina Start with Equity ECE Principal Investigator: Iheoma Iruka | Funder: Dogwood Health Trust

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Young Children and the Civil Rights Community Principal Investigator: Iheoma Iruka | Funder: Heising-Simons Foundation

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Research-Policy and Practice Collaboration Principal Investigator: Sandra Soliday Hong | Funder: NCDHHS Division of Child Development and Early Education Scaling Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI) to Serve Students Impacted by COVID-19: High-Dosage Digital Implementation of an Effective Reading Intervention Principal Investigator: Heather Aiken | Funder: University of Florida

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

New evaluation study looks at MECK Pre-K Program Advanced Research Scientist Ximena FrancoJenkins, PhD, has helped launch an evaluation study of the MECK Pre-K Program, a longitudinal project expected to span 10 years. Franco-Jenkins, early childhood portfolio lead at the National Implementation Research Network at FPG, serves as co-principal investigator, alongside HighScope Educational Research Foundation, to conduct this independent and unbiased evaluation. The MECK Pre-K Program—which provides high-quality, free pre-K education for eligible 4-year-old children in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County—is administered by Smart Start of Mecklenburg County and funded by Mecklenburg County. The evaluation team will track a representative sample of three cohorts of 30 pre-K program sites per year, following the students through fifth grade. Franco-Jenkins’s says that MECK Pre-K program administrators are interested in learning how the children from their program fare as they progress through elementary school. The evaluation will focus on three key areas: program characteristics; program implementation and quality; and student outcomes. Researchers will use a range of evaluation tools to examine language, literacy, math, social skills, and executive functioning. A critical element of the study is ensuring that native Spanish speakers are evaluated in both English and Spanish. “It is really important that on this project—and on any projects that I lead—we pay attention to our diverse populations and use tools to assess in the child’s home language,” says Franco-Jenkins. The study will explore child outcomes as well as program quality. Teachers will be asked their

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opinions about their programs, as well as the type and quality of professional development and support they receive. Franco-Jenkins and her colleagues will assess the program, observe classrooms, and study teachers’ instructional practices. A unique aspect of this project is that the team will also use the Classroom Coach assessment. This tool, developed by HighScope, will enable pre-K administrators to track adherence to best practices and create strategies for improvement for years to come. This will enable continuous improvement for the teachers and the program. Franco-Jenkins is pleased to partner with HighScope on this project, particularly since the project is in FPG’s home state of North Carolina. She notes that the collaboration with the team at MECK Pre-K has been fruitful as have preliminary conversations with the CharlotteMecklenburg Schools. The evaluation team sees potential in developing that relationship to build the connection between early education and elementary school, align the two systems, and facilitate school success. “Working with this district, which values and supports continuous improvements, is great because this data will be used to improve the experiences of all the children they serve,” says Franco-Jenkins.

AFIRM modules will benefit toddlers and their caregivers Several colleagues within FPG—researchers from the Autism Focused Intervention Resources & Modules (AFIRM) project, led by Senior Research Scientist Ann Sam, PhD, and technical assistance specialists from the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center—recently partnered to produce the AFIRM for Toddlers Modules, a new series of six resources designed for early interventionists working with caregivers of toddlers that include: Behavior Supports for Toddlers addresses when toddler behaviors interfere with their engagement with caregivers and combines evidence from two practices: antecedent-based interventions and functional behavior assessment to coach caregivers to address interfering behaviors in toddlers within their natural environments. Naturalistic Intervention for Toddlers in the Childcare Setting, which centers around the evidence-based practice of naturalistic intervention, which consists of a collection of techniques and strategies that are embedded in typical activities and/or routines in which the toddler participates to naturally promote, support, and encourage target skills/behaviors. Parent-Implemented Intervention in the Home Setting, which involves coaching parents or family members in how to deliver an intervention to their toddler within daily routines that promotes the toddler’s target skills/behaviors. In early intervention, parent-implemented intervention (PII) is often combined with naturalistic intervention strategies, which is how it is presented in this module. PII is effective with toddlers because the interventions are implemented

within the toddler’s natural environment and routines by a trusted parent or family member so that target skills/behaviors are more easily generalized. Prompting for Toddlers focuses prompting procedures, which refers to verbal, gestural, and/or physical assistance given to learners to help them in acquiring or engaging in a targeted behavior or skill. Adults generally give prompts before or as a toddler attempts to use a skill. Reinforcement for Toddlers, which focuses on reinforcement, which is when caregivers promote the toddler’s target skills/ behaviors by providing an arranged consequence that occurs immediately after the toddler displays the target skill/behavior. It usually focuses on increasing the target skill/behavior. In such cases, the consequences should be natural and developmentally appropriate for toddlers such as a favorite object or preferred food. Visual Supports for Toddlers, which is a set of evidence-based practices that use images, pictures or objects that cue the toddler to engage in a desired skill or behavior. They provide the toddler with meaningful information about an activity, routine, behavioral expectation, or skill. Visual supports are effective with toddlers because they can be used to promote everyday routines and activities within the toddler’s natural environment.

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Considering practitioners’ perceptions related to STEM and inclusion in early childhood Research continues to demonstrate the critical importance of early science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning for all young children. Since STEM is fairly new in the early childhood field, there are limited recommended practices for STEM learning, particularly for children with disabilities. FPG researchers—Jessica Amsbary, PhD, Hsiu-Wen Yang, PhD, Chih-Ing Lim, PhD, Ann Sam, PhD, and Megan Vinh, PhD—within the STEMIE Center examined the perceptions and beliefs of early childhood practitioners and directors related to STEM and inclusion in early childhood settings. Their findings were reported in the article, “Practitioner and Director Perceptions, Beliefs, and Practices Related to STEM and Inclusion in Early Childhood,” published online in Early Childhood Education Journal in March 2023. “As a technical assistance and knowledge development center, we really wanted to gain an understanding both of perspectives held by practitioners and what is actually happening related to STEM and inclusion,” says Amsbary. “We knew these findings could impact the direction and focus of the center activities.”

Yang agrees, noting, “Professionals’ practices in supporting young children’s access and engagement in STEM learning opportunities are closely tied to their attitudes and beliefs toward inclusion. The findings of the project assist in shaping the direction of the project activities, ensuring that they are aligned with the project’s goals and objectives.” The researchers developed a survey instrument, which was available in both English and Spanish, that featured questions for both practitioners and directors, covering five general areas: demographics, including roles, settings, race/ ethnicity, and general curriculum and approaches used; the importance and developmental appropriateness of STEM and inclusion; inclusive practices used; STEM practices used; and challenges faced accessing and using inclusive and STEM practices. A total of 160 practitioners and 120 directors completed and submitted the survey. Most respondents reported that STEM and inclusion are important and that they used practices related to STEM and

“I think the take-home message from the survey findings is we really need to emphasize the importance of early STEM learning for ALL young children. STEM is very relevant and beneficial in early childhood, even for infants and toddlers, and it’s important that everyone knows that.” – Jessica Amsbary

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inclusion, but noted challenges including lack of time, funding, and training. While most of those who took the survey were supportive of and knowledgeable about STEM learning opportunities, there was a discrepancy regarding technology and engineering for infants and toddlers, with and without disabilities. The researchers were encouraged that practitioners and directors did not differentiate the importance of STEM for children with and without disabilities, which suggests these early childhood educators are using an inclusive lens.

Overall, the findings indicate the need to strengthen efforts to ensure that infants and toddlers are engaging in high-quality inclusive STEM practices. The investigators suggest that future research address professional development models and implementation practices so that STEM learning opportunities are embedded into daily routines and activities in early childhood education centers and in homes. To provide young children with the best future, it is critically important to ensure that early childhood professionals are knowledgeable about and proficient in STEM and inclusive practices, particularly for our youngest learners. “I think the take-home message from the survey findings is we really need to emphasize the importance of early STEM learning for ALL young children,” says Amsbary. “STEM is very relevant and beneficial in early childhood, even for infants and toddlers, and it’s important that everyone knows that.”

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Making an impact across North Carolina FPG is engaged in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties through a variety of projects related to research and evaluation, technical assistance, and implementation science. Our work in the state focuses on improving child and family well-being, particularly for the most vulnerable North Carolinians. Keep reading to find out about several FPG projects that impact children and families throughout North Carolina. Child Find ACCESS aims to improve services and results for infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities by addressing ongoing challenges experienced by states in identifying infants and toddlers needing early intervention services, which has resulted in persistent racial inequities and disparities in identification rates. Research is being conducted in three North Carolina counties— Cumberland, Hoke, and Iredell—selected due to longstanding equity issues, to produce a model that states can use independently, or with technical assistance, to help them expand equity in their Child Find systems. Supporting Change and Reform in Preservice Teaching in North Carolina (SCRIPT-NC) works with early childhood community college programs in North Carolina to enhance and redesign courses to better prepare early childhood educators to serve children with disabilities and children from diverse backgrounds. In its latest iteration, SCRIPT-NC is expanding its transformative initiatives across the community college landscape in North Carolina, with a particularly attentive focus on minority serving institutions. The Targeted Reading Instruction (TRI) project has designed a series of six parent workshops to build foundational literacy skills for children aged 6 months to 5 years. These workshops are being presented by community workers from Durham’s El Centro Hispano.

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FPG is partnering with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) to evaluate a pilot implementation of the NC Preschool 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. Another collaboration between the NCDHHS DCDEE and FPG is the NC Data Governance Project. Through this project, FPG technical assistance specialists are helping to establish written policies and procedures that guide the way all DCDEE staff share information across the Division and with external key partners. The Impact Center at FPG’s Implementation Capacity for Triple P (ICTP) projects are a collaborative effort to help communities in North Carolina and South Carolina successfully and sustainably implement the evidence-based Triple P - Positive Parenting Program system of interventions. The project began in 2014 with a two-year implementation evaluation of Triple P in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties. Today, the project provides direct implementation support to 10 Triple P regions in North Carolina and three Triple P counties in South Carolina.

The Dogwood Health Trust (DHT) Education Strategic Priorities want to ensure that every child in Western North Carolina has access to early education with nurturing, well-prepared caregivers to prepare them for school and life success. Through the Western NC Carolina Start with Equity ECE project, the Equity Research Action Coalition at FPG will provide thought and data leadership to support DHT’s strategic priorities. The Overcoming Structural Racism in Housing Stability research project is investigating the relationships among housing stability, health and wellbeing, and climate change vulnerability. Findings will be shared with Orange and Durham County communities— both with people who experience homelessness and housing instability and with organizations and agencies working to serve those populations. Project EXPRESS is a five-year study evaluating two treatment programs working with adolescents on the autism spectrum. The two interventions—Program for Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), which addresses social skills, and Unstuck and On Target (UOT), which targets executive function skills—are being implemented by middle school staff in schools in North Carolina and the San Diego area of California. The social skills intervention, which focuses on peer relationships, is critical during middle school when adolescents’ peer relationships shift to being more outside the purview of adults. Similarly, the executive functioning study is timely during middle school as students get less support from teachers, switch classes during the school day, and need to do more planning on their own.

And in April 2023, FPG sponsored a statewide summit, “Leveraging North Carolina’s Assets to Prevent Child Trauma.” The overarching goal of the event was to identify common threads across constituent groups in North Carolina, each working to address child trauma, and determine how, together, we can co-create a statewide effort in community and policy spaces to tackle its sources and reduce its incidence. To learn about more of our current projects— work impacting NC and beyond, visit: https://fpg.unc.edu/projects.

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Focusing on young children’s social-emotional learning With funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, a team of FPG researchers has launched a measurement study focused on the social-emotional learning of young children. The project is designed to establish the psychometric qualities of the Teacher Impression Scale (TIS), a practitioneradministered assessment of preschool children’s peer-related social competence. Led by FPG Senior Research Scientist Sam Odom, PhD,

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the project team includes Senior Research Scientist Ann Sam, PhD, and Advanced Research Scientist Ximena Franco-Jenkins, PhD, and Faculty Fellows Stephanie Reszka, PhD, and Brianne Tomaszewski, PhD. The TIS is a 16-item observer rating scale whose ratings are based on three, five-minute observations of preschool children engaging in social interaction with their peers. Teachers or other practitioners

will observe a child for a five-minute sample during a free-play time in their classroom and complete the scale immediately after the observation. The assessment is designed to collect, in a teacher friendly way, information about preschool children’s peer-related social competence.

strengths that many children possess in peer social competence, identify children in their classes who may need more support for being socially engaged with their peers, and monitor progress when additional support is provided to those children.

Peer-related social competence is fundamental for children’s later development. Particularly for children who have had limited interaction with peers and adults due to COVID, this observer rating scale will give teachers a way of systematically assessing the capabilities and competence of children as they engage their peers in social interactions and play. Teachers will be able to use this in classrooms to document the

While Odom and colleagues developed a similar teacher impression scale 30 years ago, which had been used in Europe by child development scientists, the FPG team is restandardizing it for use in the U.S. Furthermore, the researchers are using a racial equity lens to ensure that the tool is a culturally appropriate assessment that reflects the social competence of children from different races, ethnicities, and cultural groups.

“This tool will be able to verify the strong skill set some children have and also identify the children who need more support with social emotional learning.” – Sam Odom

The FPG team is examining students’ language differences and how that plays out in terms of peer social competence, so some focus groups will be tailored for Spanish speaking family members. In addition, the researchers will be proactive about adapting the measure for Spanish speaking teachers who will use the tool in their observations. “This tool will be able to verify the strong skill set some children have and also identify the children who need more support with social emotional learning,” says Odom. “We hope that the TIS will be developed into an instrument that’s easy for teachers to use in their classroom and produces useful information that teachers can use in planning their programs.” Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Faculty Fellow Dorothy Espelage addresses bullying The research and translation of empirical findings of FPG Faculty Fellow Dorothy Espelage, PhD—a leading expert on addressing teenage domestic violence, bullying, and student well-being—have resulted in a plethora of interventions, policies, and laws protecting young people and making schools safer. Espelage, and UNC, recently hosted the 2023 World Anti-Bullying Forum, a biennial convening for international scholars, practitioners, and policymakers focused on understanding and ending bullying among young people. Over the nearly 30 years that Espelage has studied bullying, her work has evolved along with the culture. Cyberbullying has become part of her research as have investigations on how bullying affects students with disabilities, gender and sexual minorities, immigrant populations, minoritized race and ethnic groups, and other marginalized individuals. Espelage notes that bullying is harmful, not just to those who are targeted but to perpetrators and bystanders as well. With one out of five North Carolina students in seventh through 12th grade and one out of two LGBTQ+ students in the state attempting suicide in the last year, anti-bullying efforts can literally be life or death. Espelage stresses the importance of doing upstream prevention to create a positive school climate so that when students engage with one another—in person or on social media—they are more likely to be pro-social. She and her colleagues have moved the needle on bullying through social-emotional learning programs in which young people learn how to

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manage conflicts without aggression or bullying, understand how others think, and understand diversity. Recognizing the importance of implementation science, Espelage and her team spend time analyzing implementation data. Her current projects include alpha testing Bully Down, a nine-week social-emotional learning text messaging program for middle school kids, whose content was developed with students. Espelage is also working on a pro bono project across the State of North Carolina, in conjunction with the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute, leading a suicide prevention trial in 11 schools in North Carolina based on her work in a prior large-scale evaluation of the suicide prevention program in 20 schools in Colorado. Her interdisciplinary and diverse research interests and strong respect for the work of the Institute inspired Espelage to become an FPG faculty fellow. She values FPG’s multidisciplinary focus as well as its expertise in prevention science and implementation science. She says that the webinar series, speaker series, and conversations with FPG colleagues have sparked grant proposal ideas and helped her create connections in the community, after arriving at UNC in 2019. “People in social work, public health, education, and other disciplines talk to one another at FPG and don’t just stick to their own discipline, which I really appreciate,” she says.

Advancing racial equity in autism research Two themes are increasing in current autism research: how to be more inclusive of autistic voices and self-advocates and how to deal with longstanding racial and ethnic disparities. FPG’s Interim Director, Brian Boyd, PhD, is deeply committed to addressing these issues. During his presentation, which was part of the B.F. Skinner Lecture Series and titled “Advancing Racial Equity in Applied Behavior Analysis: Autism as a Case Example,” at the annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), Boyd shared his insights and research. Boyd noted that, with regard to autism, Black parents are more likely to have their early concerns about their child dismissed by pediatricians while Latino/a/e/x children may have trouble receiving a timely diagnosis because of cultural or language barriers they may face. Boyd’s preliminary research has found that Black families with autistic children encounter racial discrimination, which is associated with a lower quality of life. He now seeks to understand how racism and ableism impact marginalized communities. More than 60 researchers and education providers attended the ABAI session as Boyd talked about the autistic advisory board he formed to provide advice and input on a research project he led about young children with autism. Boyd is

an advocate for the value of having stakeholders represented in research, believing that to be an important component of inclusion. His discussion of racial equity work centered on the importance of partnering with community-based stakeholders to advance that conversation. He believes that in order to both recognize inequities and achieve equity, researchers need to understand the strengths and assets of racially minoritized families. His talk addressed how to move applied behavior analysis research forward while also utilizing a broader lens interrogating how all autism research can address these issues. Boyd believes that incorporating autistic perspectives and voices will help advance science, research, and understanding of autism. He acknowledges that this can be difficult because not all autistic people agree since they are not a monolithic group. “We have to think about which voices are represented and whether we are hearing from autistic people of color or autistic people who may not have much language ability,” says Boyd. “Making sure that a broad group of autistic people are represented as we’re doing this work is critical.”

“Making sure that a broad group of autistic people are represented as we’re doing this work is critical.” – Brian Boyd

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Making an impact throughout the nation and around the world Research is at the heart of all we do at FPG. Through rigorous study design, data collection, and analysis, we seek to improve children’s lives, support families, and inform public policy. Our implementation scientists and technical assistance specialists work in, and with, schools and communities to use best practices to build capacity and create systems and services that ensure optimal outcomes for the most vulnerable young children and their families. And our policy efforts focus on translating and communicating the results of FPG’s research, evaluation, implementation, and technical assistance work into effective federal, state, and local policies for broad population benefits. Earlier in this report, you saw how we impact children, families, educators, and others throughout

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North Carolina. Read on to see some of the ways we are making an impact beyond our state— throughout the nation and around the world. In June 2023, FPG researchers issued their final report of the Georgia Pre-K Evaluation. Results from the longitudinal study—one of the only examinations of the long-term benefits to children who attend a government-funded universal pre-K program available to all the state’s residents—show that Georgia’s Pre-K Program prepares students to enter kindergarten with the key strength of building foundational literacy skills for reading. Through the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention fiscal year 2021 Juvenile Justice Reform Initiative, the Impact Center at FPG is working,

through 2024, with the states of Arkansas and Nebraska to advance state level juvenile justice systems toward the adoption and delivery of evidence-supported practices stemming from a comprehensive system review. Through the Virginia’s Evidence-based Practice Initiative: Transformation Zone project, the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at FPG is working to support capacity development in best practices of implementation science by providing a blended model of training, coaching, and consultations to a variety of agencies within the state of Virginia, including the Office of Children Services, Department of Social Services, and the Department of Education, among others. To foster development of internal implementation capacity, NIRN is providing virtual training, coaching, and consultations to the Calhoun Intermediate School District in Michigan, which is seeking support for the capacity development of their staff and network partners in best practices of implementation science to support implementation of evidence-based practices with their participating local education agencies. Researchers at FPG are supporting the Educare Learning Network as part of the Institute’s mission to transform children’s lives through innovation in research, practice, and policy. The Network serves children from birth to 5 years who live in marginalized communities and have had fewer opportunities for supportive educational experiences. As the Network’s National Evaluation Partner, FPG focuses on three areas: leadership and coordination within the network; protocol development, data collection, and data management; and dissemination of results from the Educare National Evaluation inside and outside the network.

The aRPy Ambassador Initiative is the result of collaboration between the ECTA Center at FPG, the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC) and the Region B Parent Technical Assistance Center at Parent to Parent of Georgia (on behalf of the Parent Center Network). aRPy Ambassadors are early childhood professionals from across the U.S. that are trained to reach out and cultivate relationships with partners committed to improving systems, services, and outcomes for young children with or at risk for disabilities and their families; they collaborate with local, regional, and state entities to promote the awareness and use of the DEC Recommended Practices. The Autism Focused Intervention Resources & Modules (AFIRM) project at FPG provides a collection of free online resources designed to aid school staff, service providers and caregivers in learning about autism and how to support autistic children, from birth to 22 years of age, and their families. To date, more than 300,000 users (and counting!) around the world rely on the modules, timely toolkits, lesson plans, family support packages, and more shared by AFIRM. In fact, the modules and AFIRM’s timely toolkits have been translated into 11 different languages. A UNC Global Partnership Award awarded to FPG’s Chih-Ing Lim, PhD, set out to spur—and succeeded in establishing—a strategic partnership between UNC, FPG, and the National Institute of Education-Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Centered around a shared commitment to ensure young children with disabilities can participate fully in early childhood settings, this collaboration provided an opportunity to enhance and develop knowledge and provide technical assistance in building the capacity of leaders in early childhood inclusion. Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

SISEP receives fourth round of OSEP funding Thanks to a new five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), a group of researchers at FPG is expanding its work to support implementation of instructional and leadership practices that lead to improved outcomes for students with disabilities. The OSEP funding of $1.2M per year was awarded to the State Implementation and Scaling-up of Evidence-based Practices (SISEP) Center—a project within the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at FPG. This is the fourth round of funding awarded by OSEP to SISEP for its role as a national technical assistance center. The funding will enable the ongoing evolution of SISEP services and resources so that the center can continue to support states and their communities in attaining socially significant outcomes for students with disabilities and their families. Implementation science—which provides strategies, methods, and tools to support the uptake, adoption, and use of evidence-based practices and programs so that intended outcomes can be actualized—is at the heart of the work done by SISEP. By using implementation science, the FPG team ensures that the educators and staff with whom they work have what is needed to support their confidence and competency in using highquality instructional practices. The plan is to create communities of learners and practitioners in implementation science and research in partnership with institutes of higher education with OSEP-funded doctoral leadership

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programs, state departments of education that house an OSEP-funded state leadership program, and other OSEP-funded technical assistance centers. As part of SISEP’s commitment to increasing the use of implementation practices by the education workforce as a whole—and specifically to increase the number and diversity of implementation science practitioners in the field—the team is offering a micro-credentialing program. The program will offer a blended learning strategy consisting of asynchronous online learning, social networking opportunities, and the provision of consultation and coaching support. Participants will be able to progress through a series of levels from general awareness of implementation research and practice to full application of the competencies as an implementation support provider. “We now need to attend to developing and expanding the workforce to be able to meet this demand and do so with high quality,” says FPG’s Caryn Ward, PhD, who directs NIRN and co-leads the SISEP center. “The development of a microcredentialing program will help grow the workforce to meet this need and continue the capacity development of our state and local education agencies. This will enable them to use best practices in implementation to support the uptake of evidence-based programs so that, ultimately, we are improving the academic and socioemotional well-being of our students with disabilities.”

STEMIE 2.0 a go with new funding FPG’s STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education (STEMIE) Center has received $7.25 million of new funding, from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), to continue its groundbreaking work to advance inclusive STEM education for young children with disabilities. The new award will allow the Center to further its mission of ensuring equitable access to high-quality STEM experiences for young children with disabilities, from birth to age 5. “We are delighted to share this momentous news with our partners and supporters including early childhood practitioners, faculty and professional development providers, families, and STEM professionals with disabilities who have been instrumental in making the next iteration of STEMIE possible,” said Megan Vinh, PhD, principal investigator and co-director of the STEMIE Center. “In STEMIE 1.0, we learned so much from our knowledge development work about young children with disabilities particularly those with intersecting identities and how our system actively creates barriers to engaging in STEM learning because of systemic ableism and racism. We hope to expand our work in STEMIE 2.0 to ensure we are actively producing strategies aimed at eliminating these barriers.” In the next phase, STEMIE 2.0, the Center will continue to collaborate closely with early childhood practitioners and families. Together, they will work to integrate inclusive and identity affirming STEM

learning experiences seamlessly into everyday routines and activities, creating an enriching environment for young learners. Additionally, the Center aims to form partnerships with faculty from minority-serving institutions and professional development providers. These collaborations will focus on cultivating early childhood practitioners who are confident and proficient in delivering inclusive, playful, and identity-affirming early STEM teaching and learning experiences. The STEMIE Center is dedicated to expanding its work and knowledge on learning trajectories, inclusive and identity-affirming STEM teaching, and learning for young children with disabilities. “We are humbled by the opportunity to continue our efforts in confronting barriers and building inclusive STEM education for each and every child,” said Chih-Ing Lim, PhD, co-director of the STEMIE Center. “This work is vital as we strive to foster a community where children with disabilities and intersecting identities are no longer denied access to STEM learning opportunities.”

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

New Award for FPG’s Early Childhood TA Center FPG will continue to provide high quality technical assistance (TA) to improve services and results for children with disabilities and their families through a new award for the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center. The five-year $27 million dollar investment, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, builds on ECTA’s current work of supporting programs that serve young children with disabilities, birth to 5 years, and their families. The purpose of the new award is to increase the capacity of state early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) coordinators and programs to improve and sustain equitable and effective systems that support young children with disabilities and their families. This will help improve young children with disabilities and their families’ access and participation in effective programs and services resulting in positive and equitable outcomes for children and families. “We are excited to continue FPG’s long history of providing effective TA to state EI and ECSE programs, and to take on some new challenges to meet the needs of the field,” said Christina Kasprzak, MA, principal investigator on the project. “There is a growing number of children under the age of 6 years old in the U.S. who need equitable and inclusive early intervention and preschool special education services,” said Kasprzak. “While our knowledge of brain science and research has vastly increased in the last few decades, states continue to grapple with implementing equitable state and local systems that support the best possible services for these children and their families. This new funding will allow us to build the capacity of state leaders, support improvement of state and local 18 Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

infrastructure, address barriers to equity and inclusion, and support local implementation of evidence-based practices with fidelity.” Kasprzak, who is also the director of the ECTA Center, has formed a national team of researchers and TA providers to implement this project. Nine nationally renowned entities will be subgranting with FPG including: Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University; Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children; National Association of State Directors of Special Education; Pacific Institute for Research on Evaluation; Parent to Parent of Georgia; SRI International; University of Denver; University of South Florida; and Walsh Taylor. “Our team of national partners has unmatched expertise and experience related to building equitable and effective state and local capacity to implement quality programs for infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities and their families,” said FPG’s Megan Vinh, PhD, co-principal investigator. “We have a team that understands EI and ECSE systems and evidencebased practices, appreciates the current context and barriers that state and local leaders face, has established relationships with state partners, and is skilled in providing effective TA.” The team referenced by Vinh, which will collaborate with Vinh and Kasprzak to lead the work of the Center, includes FPG’s Schatzi McCarthy, MA, MAPA, Katy McCullough, MA, Thomas McGhee, MSW, Catasha Williams, MEd, and Sherri Britt-Williams, MPH, as well as University of South Florida’s Lise Fox, SRI International’s Kathleen Hebbeler, PhD, and University of Denver’s Alissa Rausch, EdD.

Some of ECTA’s key knowledge development activities during this first year of new funding include: •

• •

competencies for leading equitable and inclusive early childhood systems and an accompanying self-assessment tool, led by Sherri Britt Williams, MPH, intended for leaders of state EI/ ECSE systems; an equity audit, led by Catasha Williams, MEd, intended for leaders of state EI/ECSE systems; and a national synthesis of innovative practices in recruitment and retention of EI/ECSE personnel, led by Jani Kozlowski, MA, and Charlene Robles, MS, MBA.

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

FPG Faculty Fellow Iheoma Iruka addresses the dual pandemic facing Black Americans—racism and COVID-19 Black children’s lives matter. That simple statement belies the history of the United States, which has denied the value and importance of the lives of racially minoritized children and families. Faculty Fellow and Founding Director of FPG’s Equity Research Action Coalition Iheoma Iruka, PhD, is committed to changing the narrative about Black children and families through research, awareness, and policy.

properly recover from the devastating impact of this global pandemic. Specific recommendations include: •

• In the report Black Parents and Their Babies: The Dual Pandemic of Racism and COVID-19, 2019–2022, Iruka and colleagues found that while Black families and their babies have survived the last few years of the pandemic, they continue to experience the negative impact of racism, discrimination, economic strain, and other inequities, compounded by the global event. As such, the report recommends that national, state, and local leaders and policies continue to attend to the unique needs of Black families and babies to

20 Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

•

Protect Black babies and their families from racism, discrimination, and material hardship. Promote economic security, along with mobility and access to high-quality and affirming health care and early learning environments, for Black families and their babies to ensure their well-being. Preserve Black children’s cultural identity and positive sense of self, a necessary developmental outcome, despite the continued racial stress and trauma present in their daily lives due to ongoing discrimination and biases.

“While there has been some improvement in the lives of Black babies and their families, they are still vulnerable to unaddressed issues of discrimination and systemic racism. There is urgency to tackle entrenched issues so that we can ensure that Black children and families reach success and are able to thrive.” – Iheoma Iruka

The researchers will be launching a data dashboard that shows where progress has been made on the above recommendations as well as where there is still work to be done. According to the report, while there has been improvement in some markers, the mental health and economic security of Black families and children continues to lag, due to unjust historical and structural inequities, ongoing discrimination, and psychological trauma. “While there has been some improvement in the lives of Black babies and their families, they are still vulnerable to unaddressed issues of discrimination and systemic racism,” says Iruka.

“There is urgency to tackle entrenched issues so that we can ensure that Black children and families reach success and are able to thrive.” The report cites the importance of early childhood providers, both formal and informal, in facilitating the economic security of Black families, so that parents are able to work outside of the home. And families are prioritizing their mental health, understanding that in order to ensure healthy babies, parents must first take care of themselves. Iruka notes that these positive trends are seeds of a movement to support and lift up Black children and families.

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Creating exceptional learning experiences through thoughtful strategy and intentional design FPG is not only a leader in research, policy, and practice but an innovator in creating technological solutions to disseminate implementation science. FPG‘s Julie Chin and Wendy Morgan, PhD, are at the forefront of this work. Morgan, a senior implementation specialist, works to create learning experiences that provide professional development and technical assistance. With the goal of creating the best strategy for each project, Morgan develops e-learning as well as blended learning strategies. Blended strategies have typically featured e-learning pre-work, which reports activity data that directs follow-up support that is tailored to the needs of each learner. Morgan describes the eLearning development process as iterative and collaborative. She works with each team to determine objectives and the learner experiences that will most reliably lead to the desired results, as well as how best to measure those learning experiences. Her instructional design team creates the prototype. And through review of this prototype and successive iterations, the client team shares input that is incorporated into the final version. Morgan’s work is customizable to each project and offers researchers the ability to gather learner activity data to understand the behaviors in which learners are engaging between their pre- and posttest scores. This enables investigators to better understand which activities are correlated with changes, making it easier to iteratively develop lessons to focus on the activities making the biggest difference.

Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

Morgan, whose extensive and diverse background includes graphic design, writing, and research, delights in bringing concepts and practices that work to people in the field. “I enjoy designing learner experiences and being part of implementation practices that help people sustainably scale up programs,” she says. “My work is very practical and helps ensure that innovations get to the people who need them.”

Julie Chin

Chin supports her FPG colleagues’ visual design Wendy Morgan needs, working as a design strategy and technology specialist. By carefully curating the look and feel of the learning environment and through an intentional visual design of space, layout, colors, and graphic elements, Chin creates patterns and connections to make content engaging and understandable for the context of learning. She works closely with Morgan and teams on storyboarding, prototyping, testing, and iterative design, to collaboratively improve the learning environment and ensure the visual design supports the learning objectives and aligns with the intended learning outcome.

Chin’s experience designing across multiple platforms informs her work with FPG investigators. After gaining an understanding of their project needs, audience, goals, and objectives, she can guide them to the most effective medium for disseminating their content, which might be a newsletter template, branded video frame, icons, or even more custom work, such as a brand identity package. For example, when working with learning modules, Chin might create personalized reports generated from the module’s data or help produce didactic videos. While the media and audiences vary, Chin always focuses on the same result: providing users with the best experience and facilitating their learning. She cites her work for The Impact Center at FPG’s Implementation Capacity for Triple P (ICTP) projects as an achievement of which she is proud. When Chin joined FPG in 2017, Morgan had just created module one for the ICTP’s simulation lab for implementation specialists working on the evidence-based Triple P-Positive Parenting Program system of interventions. Chin is currently completing module 10, the final module in the simulation known as Grand

County. In this fictional community, Triple P practitioners can experience the steps they would actually take on the ground but have the opportunity to practice in a safe environment with colleagues, before actual implementation. Currently, she is working with the STEMIE Center on creating bite-sized, micro lessons for inclusion to support early educators working in STEM. “I love how their team has deployed my designs beyond the website, using them to create social media, publications, and handouts,” Chin shares. “My next goal is to work with projects on providing customizable and adaptable design systems to maximize time and reach.“ Chin acknowledges the importance of being agile in her work, saying “What I have learned over the years, in terms of designing for emerging technologies, reach, and accessibility, is that it is always evolving. It’s an exciting time where fresh ideas and ways to increase participation, engagement—and even joy—are emerging and it’s so important to continue to learn and adapt to ensure that your content and designs remain functional, relevant, and accessible.“

“What I have learned over the years, in terms of designing for emerging technologies, reach, and accessibility, is that it is always evolving. It’s an exciting time where fresh ideas and ways to increase participation, engagement— and even joy—are emerging and it’s so important to continue to learn and adapt to ensure that your content and designs remain functional, relevant, and accessible.” – Julie Chin

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Preventing Child Trauma in North Carolina In April 2023, FPG sponsored a statewide summit, “Leveraging North Carolina’s Assets to Prevent Child Trauma.” Nearly 380 representatives from academia, community and state organizations, lived experience, philanthropy, government agencies, and governing bodies attended, joining in person or virtually. FPG Senior Research Scientist Diana “Denni” Fishbein, PhD, organized the two-day event. “I wanted to bring everybody together to co-create a statewide movement with constituent groups rallying around the same cause,” said Fishbein. The overarching goal of the summit was to identify common threads across constituent groups in our state, each working to address child trauma, and determine how, together, we can co-create a statewide effort in community and policy spaces to tackle its sources and reduce its incidence. Organizers and participants of the summit agree this can be achieved by: • • •

•

sharing knowledge and experience about child trauma, its causes, and its prevention; bolstering community efforts through a shared understanding of trauma science; creating new relationships between individuals and organizations and strengthening existing relationships; illuminating the current landscape of child trauma prevention across North Carolina communities to help assess strengths and gaps; and beginning a process of generating policy recommendations to prevent child trauma.

Child trauma has myriad effects and solutions. Not every important idea could be shared during the event or in its executive summary, but there were 24 Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

a few themes that arose repeatedly, including: Preventing child trauma and addressing child trauma to prevent long-term harm require: • • • •

•

supporting parents to reduce economic stress; addressing systemic root causes; transitioning to trauma-informed practices in many settings; interrupting the cycle by addressing trauma in children, adolescents, and young adults before they become parents; expanding access to mental health assessment and care for children and parents, including addiction prevention and treatment; and providing universal high-quality early childhood education.

And effective approaches for moving forward include: •

•

• • •

People with lived experience of child trauma must be part of developing trauma-related policies and programs. Strategic alignment and collective action are critical; no one person, organization, agency, or legislative body can do it alone. Prevention and early intervention are better than later intervention. Sustainable funding is needed to ramp up evidence-based prevention programs. Advocacy is an effective tool to institute trauma-informed policies at national, state, or local levels.

We explored some of these themes in greater detail, producing a series of articles on key topics raised during the summit. Visit https://go.unc. edu/PCT23 to access all the articles and to read the full executive summary for the summit.

BEE Project contributes to bilingual education In 2018, FPG Advanced Research Scientists Doré LaForett, PhD, and Ximena Franco-Jenkins, PhD, along with George Mason University’s Adam Winsler, PhD, launched the Bilingualism, Education, and Excellence (BEE) Project, which was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education. The project’s beginnings stemmed from a pilot study, conducted by LaForett and Franco-Jenkins, which itself came about from conversations with the principal of a local Spanish-English duallanguage elementary school who had questions about students’ classroom engagement and social interactions as they related to students’ home language and classroom language of instruction. Building on the classroom engagement component of the pilot study, LaForett and Franco-Jenkins partnered with Winsler to design a study to take a deeper look at classroom engagement—and other experiences of students in dual-language programs—which became the BEE Project.

found that students who have a third adult in the home can be misclassified if the survey isn’t capturing that person’s language—and, many English Learners have more than two adults living in the home. So, ultimately, this means those surveys are underestimating the amount of Spanish or English that is being used at home. For that reason, the research team felt it was critical to collect data on the third adult.

Four schools in three North Carolina school districts—with a total of 203 kindergarten through third grade students from 35 classrooms— participated in the BEE Project, which was conducted between 2018 and 2022.

In doing so, they found that more than 35 percent of dual-language education students in their sample had a third adult at home and home language classification changed for 12 percent of those with three adults at home. LaForett says for perspective, think about rates of medical misdiagnosis, “The rate in the U.S. for medical misdiagnosis is about 5 percent—so this misclassification rate is much higher than what we’re seeing in medical literature.” Just like how a medical diagnosis helps to give information on whether a person might benefit from some kind of service, support, or intervention, misclassifying students’ home language can lead to students not receiving the services and resources they need for success. And it can also lead to students receiving services they do not need, which can place an unnecessary strain on the teachers and/or school systems.

The BEE Project team is still analyzing the data collected and results for the study’s main research questions are forthcoming. While that work continues, they are sharing some valuable information from their data that education settings should consider regarding home language surveys. Such surveys are used to identify students who might be classified as English Learners. While there is no standard survey recommended for use, most ask about the language practices of two parents/adults in the home—but this can be problematic. LaForett, Franco-Jenkins, and Winsler

In addition to recommending that home language surveys include another adult, Franco-Jenkins points to another important element to consider regarding measurement—looking at home language and language proficiency as separate constructs. “In dual-language settings, all students are learning regardless of their home language, so we cannot make assumptions about proficiency based on home language,” says Franco-Jenkins. “You could have third graders who are fully bilingual, but their home language environment is primarily Spanish-speaking.” Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Inclusion Institute adds higher ed track For more than two decades, FPG’s International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute has offered educational opportunities for those involved in the care and education of young children with disabilities in inclusive settings. During the threeday May 2023 event, organizers collaborated with FPG’s Supporting Change and Reform in Pre-Service Teaching in North Carolina (SCRIPTNC)—which works with faculty at North Carolina community colleges to better prepare early childhood educators to meet the diverse needs of children—to offer a new higher education track for faculty at two-year and four-year colleges. Throughout the conference, sessions aimed at higher education faculty were included in each time slot, focusing on innovative methods, models, and materials for increasing the emphasis on inclusion in courses and in other professional development efforts. These sessions provided both content and effective instructional strategies for early childhood faculty members as well as technical assistance providers who offer ongoing professional development for early childhood educators. FPG Senior Technical Assistance Specialist Camille Catlett, MA, one of the organizers of these sessions, says a guiding principle they imparted is that, as evidence shows, when inclusion is done well, there are benefits for children with and without disabilities. “For early childhood faculty to prepare their students to support children with disabilities, that knowledge needs to be integrated consistently into both coursework and field experiences,” says Catlett. “By crafting this multi-session track, with hand-picked experts in the field, we provided professional development tailored to the needs of faculty members.” Catlett credits the leadership of FPG Senior Technical Assistance Specialist

26 Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

Chih-Ing Lim, PhD, principal investigator for SCRIPT-NC, and Tracey West, PhD, an education consultant at FPG who previously led SCRIPT-NC, for the success of the event. Participants’ feedback shows the impact the conference had on early childhood education programs at diverse post-secondary educational institutions. Christy Hopkins, an instructor in the early childhood department at Stanly Community College, was grateful for the track created to support higher education faculty and strongly recommends that others attend the Inclusion Institute in the future, noting that session handouts were a “treasure trove” of resources to take back and implement within her courses. “Each day was packed with resources, networking, and time for sharing ideas,” she says. “All of this great collaboration will result in stronger inclusive, supportive settings that value each child’s individual uniqueness and learning skills by providing high-quality educational coursework.”

FPG’s 2023 International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute welcomed its largest group of participants to date, with more than 500 in-person attendees and more than 200 virtual participants attending hybrid sessions online. The conference, which was once again held at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, featured 55 sessions and workshops, our largest ever offering, including 24 hybrid sessions. As we do each year, we gathered feedback about the event via an online survey. Here’s what some of our participants had to say about this year’s conference:

“VERY thought-provoking, raw and honest discussions of the reality of being a parent of a child with a disability in our special ed system in this country.”

“This has always been one of the best and most relevant early childhood conferences in NC, and it just keeps getting better!” – State Administrator

– Teacher/Practitioner

“One of the greatest things about the Inclusion Institute is networking, getting together with all of the wonderful people from across the world that are so passionate about inclusion, and making this world a better place for all of our children and families.” – Christy Hopkins, Faculty and Practical Coordinator at Stanly Community College (Albemarle, NC)

“This work can feel isolating … but when we come together, we are able to see the power and the abilities that we have to contribute to making this world more inclusive … or at least expanding our understanding of what inclusion is.” – Domonic Paz, Implementation Manager, Early Learning System Initiative, Oregon State University

Mentoring is critical at FPG Recognizing the value of mentorship as a critical component to the success of its scientists, FPG offers a mentoring program for early career researchers. Program director Ron Seifer, PhD, believes that research groups flourish by cultivating the next generation. He details three main goals of the program: facilitating early career investigators to become well-supported, independent investigators capable of applying for and receiving project funding; identifying mentoring teams for each of the participants; and supporting peer interaction among early career investigators. Participants have a primary mentor, as well as other leading experts at FPG to whom they can turn. At the beginning of the academic year, each mentee creates an individualized professional development plan that is reviewed

by their mentor. As mentees develop their goals, timelines, and strategies for reaching them, they can ask for guidance for their career development. Throughout the program, early career researchers work to expand their portfolio of research and/or implementation projects. Mentors provide advice on diverse topics, tailored to each mentee’s needs, such as determining a research direction, locating collaborators, finding funding, and deciding on next career steps. In addition to conferring individually with their mentors, all members of the early career cohort meet weekly. During this time, program leaders and invited guests cover topics such as applying for research grants, methodology, budgeting, research methods, and assessments. Program leaders also arrange for speakers on topics of interest to the participants and particularly emphasize to the cohort how they can establish collaborations with more experienced researchers. In addition, mentees have opportunities to share drafts of their grant applications in progress and receive feedback from Seifer and their peers during these meetings. Jessica Amsbary, PhD, who has been an FPG technical assistance specialist since 2021, has officially been in the mentoring program for two years. She appreciates getting to know FPG

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FPG hosts Building Bright Futures Early care and education provide a strong foundation for children’s academic success and overall well-being. This focus area has been central to the work of FPG since its founding more than 50 years ago. And that is why we were especially pleased to host a group of participants from Building Bright Futures—a pilot early childhood education pre-apprenticeship-toapprenticeship program within the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE)—for a morning of presentations and an open discussion. NCBCE’s Building Bright Futures (BBF) understands that early childhood educators are vital to North Carolina’s current and future workforce and is part of North Carolina’s efforts to build a career pipeline for North Carolinians looking to work in the early care and education field. During opening remarks welcoming BBF to FPG, Interim Director Brian Boyd, PhD, gave a brief overview of the Institute saying, “I

colleagues who are also early in their careers and expanding her network to colleagues beyond her team. She and her peers appreciate the opportunity to share resources, such as funding opportunities, and give one another constructive feedback on their writing, which improves their chances of getting funded. “Reading each other’s proposals not only gives us the opportunity to think about how others’ work could potentially lead to collaboration, it

am glad you will see first-hand the breadth of our work here and the impact we have on children and families, teachers and service providers, schools and programs, national, state, and local agencies, policymakers and program administrators.” Boyd hand-selected the event’s presenters to not only illustrate what FPG has to offer in terms of various career trajectories but also to show the impact the Institute has had, and continues to have, on training and educating future generations of early care and education professionals. “BBF attendees were thrilled to learn about what a fantastic resource FPG is and to get a better understanding of its breadth of work. They are excited to share what they learned with their own networks,” said Morgan Ford, Building Bright Futures’ program director. “And, just as importantly, they felt valued, heard, and respected as professionals. Being able to literally sit down at the table with your presenters was an incredible gift.”

also helps us learn what else is going on in the field of early childhood,” she says. Noreen Yazejian, PhD, interim associate director for research at FPG, who directed the program prior to Seifer’s tenure, now serves as a mentor. “I want mentoring to be a common experience for our younger researchers,” she says. “I see mentoring as a bidirectional relationship; I learn from these early career professionals—they help me grow, too.”

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Congratulations to our award winners

Barbara Davis Goldman Award

Headshots of Noreen and Donna B? Richard M. James J. Gallagher Clifford Fund Dissertation Award

Iris Kang

Chih-Ing Lim

Jennifer Stone

Chih-Ing Lim, inaugural recipient of FPG’s Richard M. Clifford Fund Throughout his long and storied career, Dick Clifford, PhD, senior scientist emeritus at FPG, made a profound difference in the field of early education. He continues to impact the field with the creation of the Richard M. Clifford Fund for International Collaboration on Early Learning Environments to support FPG’s work in assessing learning environments for young children throughout the world, with a special focus on international collaborations. FPG Senior Technical Assistance Specialist Chih-Ing Lim, PhD, is the inaugural recipient of this award. She received the honor along with Elena P. Soukakou, D.Phil., Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton, co-principal investigator on the funded project, “Examining Cultural Differences in the Use of the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP) Tool in Singapore.” Lim, who is co-director of FPG’s STEMIE Center, was born and raised in Singapore where she worked as 30 Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

a preschool officer on the national early childhood curriculum framework at the Ministry of Education and continues to consult on projects related to inclusive learning environments. Soukakou—who was a postdoctoral fellow at FPG between 2008 and 2010—developed the ICP tool to assess and support the quality of inclusive learning environments for all children. Since 2021, the researchers have been working with a pilot inclusive preschool project initiated by the government in Singapore, helping a group of coaches support the implementation of inclusive practices in the pilot centers. With the Clifford grant, they will collaborate on examining the cultural differences and potential adaptations in the use of the ICP tool in Singapore. The project will focus on using qualitative methods to understand the cultural and contextual differences and nuances in order to consider ways of adapting the tool for Singapore.

Iris Kang, 2023 recipient of FPG’s Barbara Davis Goldman Award Growing up in Chandler, Arizona, Iris Kang saw firsthand the impact that socioeconomic status and family support have on students’ ability to learn at school. Her understanding that much of a child’s future is determined by their early years piqued her interest in child development. During the last two years of her undergraduate career at UNC, where she majored in psychology, Kang volunteered as a research assistant in the UNC Brain and Early Experience (BEE) Lab, under the supervision of its Co-Director Cathi Propper, PhD. Propper, an FPG faculty fellow and associate professor in the School of Nursing at UNC, nominated Kang for the 2023 Barbara Davis Goldman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, which she won. The award recognizes an outstanding undergraduate student who has participated in research activities at FPG. Kang appreciated the opportunity to engage with the research process, gain skills she could not learn in the classroom, and learn from her mentors about new developments in the early childhood field. She says that her work in the lab has strengthened her ability to communicate with research participants. “Learning how to talk with

the people who are making the study possible has been really humbling,” she says. “Seeing the people who are sharing their lives with the research world is rewarding.” She is grateful for the Goldman Award, saying that the opportunity to work at FPG and with Propper were rewarding on their own without the extra bonus of being recognized. In her nomination statement, Propper lauded Kang, writing that she exemplifies everything students should strive to be, from her interest in and dedication to the topic of her thesis, to her graduate-level writing, to her commitment to the work on the study team over the past two years.

“Seeing the people who are sharing their lives with the research world is rewarding.” – Iris Kang

Learn more at fpg.unc.edu

Honors and accolades Sam Odom, PhD, was awarded the Kaufman-Hallahan-Pullen Distinguished Researcher Award, which is conferred by the Division for Research of the Council for Exceptional Children. FPG Interim Director Brian Boyd, PhD, and FPG Faculty Fellow, Kara Hume, PhD, were honored at a Celebration of Scholarly Excellence at the UNC School of Education. Brian Boyd was invested as William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in Education and Kara Hume as the Richard “Dick” Coop Faculty Scholar in Education. Will Aldridge, PhD, and Rebecca Roppolo, MPH, and Renée Boothroyd, PhD, along with three colleagues from other institutions, won Outstanding Practice-Focused Symposium for their symposium titled “Mechanisms of Change Within External Implementation Support: A Conceptual Model and Applied Case Examples” during the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration Conference. Allison De Marco, PhD, honored by the Carolina Center for Public Service with the “Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award,” which recognizes individuals and campus units for public service through engaged teaching, research, and partnership. Judy Owen is a 2023 recipient of the UNC Employee Forum Professional Excellence Award, which recognizes three deserving staff members. The James J. Gallagher Award is presented annually to two FPG employees in recognition of exemplary attitude and commitment to the FPG community. NIRN Implementation Associate Stephen McKinney, MA, and Human Resources Specialist Natalie Nelson, PHR, SHRM-CP, were recognized this past year for their outstanding service to the Institute. FPG Faculty Fellow Iheoma Iruka, PhD, and Postdoctoral Scholar Nicole Telfer, PhD, and colleagues’ paper, “Attending to the Adversity of Racism Against Young Black Children,” was selected as Paper of the Year by the Society for Research in Child Development Black Caucus. FPG Faculty Fellows Samantha Schilling, MD, Paul Lanier, MSW, PhD, and Kori Flower, MD, are part of a team that received a Creativity Hub Award from the Office of Research Development. FPG Faculty Fellow Karen Bluth, PhD, received the inaugural Mind & Life Award for Public Communication of Contemplative Research for her essay ““How Self-Compassion Can Improve Teen Mental Health” FPG Faculty Fellow Iheoma Iruka, PhD, received the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) Leadership for All Award in recognition for her leadership in advocating for inclusive communities for people with disabilities and their families.

Advancing knowledge to transform children’s lives

FPG areas of work Autism & Developmental Disabilities Child Health and Development Child Welfare Early Care and Education & Pre-K Education Early Intervention & Special Education Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion K–12 Education Prevention Science

We make an impact through our areas of work by using the information gleaned from our research to enhance policy and improve practice; we are committed to sharing the information we generate with the public and to supporting professionals’ understanding and use of evidence-based practices. Help us make an impact by supporting one of these funds: • • • • • • • •

The Barbara Davis Goldman Award Fund Equity Research Action Coalition FPG Child Development Institute Distinguished Speaker Series FPG Child Development Institute Inclusion Fund The James J. Gallagher Dissertation Award Fund The Joanne Erwich Roberts Memorial Fund The Marvin H. McKinney Scholars Program National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice

Learn more at: https://fpg.unc.edu/about-fpg/ support-us

Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute UNC-Chapel Hill Campus Box 8180 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8180

fpg.unc.edu

FPG is engaged in work that affects each of North Carolina’s 100 counties through a variety of research and evaluation, technical assistance, and implementation projects that focus on improving the well-being of children and families throughout North Carolina, particularly those who are most vulnerable. Be sure to look inside to see how we are making an impact across the Tar Heel State.