Research Projects
SEARCH Research Lab
Current, Funded Research Projects
Early Learning System Initiative (ELSI)
To develop and implement a center to serve the early childhood education workforce in Oregon.The new center will provide support and training from an anti-bias, culturally responsive lens to better equip educators who care for children from marginalized populations and for children who have experienced trauma. I lead the Coaching Core, which is working with partners to develop two primary initiatives to support coaching activities within Oregon early care and education systems: Mentor Coaching Framework and Oregon Coaching Competencies.
My role
Co-Principal Investigator, Coaching Core Faculty Lead
Collaborators
Megan McClelland (Co-PI), Shauna Tominey (Co-PI), Megan Pratt (Co-PI), Oregon State University & Shannon Lipscomb (Co-I), Oregon State University Cascades
Status
Active
Funder
Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division
Publications and press releases:
ECE Inclusion – Coaching Collaborative/Cross Sector Teams
To advance embedded professional development across the early learning system to ensure early care and education workforce have the supports needed to fully include children with disabilities and implement evidence-based practices. This work is centered on the National Inclusion Indicators and the Pyramid Model and is in partnership with Oregon Department of Education.
My role
Co-Principal Investigator (lead)
Collaborators
Megan McClelland (Co-PI), Sam Logan (Co-I), and Will Massey (Co-I), Oregon State University; Meredith Villines, Oregon Department of Education
Status
Active
Funder
Oregon Department of Education
Evaluating Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in Oregon: Impact of the 2014 Act on Children, Families, and the Quality of Home-based Care in Oregon (Phase II/Implementation Grant)
This project aims to leverage administrative data to identify the impacts of the Reauthorization of the CCDBG on Oregon children, families, and early educators. Additionally, we are investigating the effectiveness of two professional development programs. The first, for license exempt providers, uses newly developed resources by our team to support these educators. The second, tests the efficacy of a focused child care network model, developed by our team, for home-based early educators. This work represents a state-research partnership with the Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division.
My role
Co-Principal Investigator
Collaborators
Megan Pratt (PI) & Bobbie Weber, Oregon State University; Sidney Traen & Jennifer Mendoza, Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division
Status
Active
Funder
Administration of Children & Families, Office of Research, Planning, & Evaluation
Red Light, Purple Light! Evaluating a self-regulation intervention for children in early learning settings
This project will test the initial efficacy of Red Light, Purple Light (RLPL), a self-regulation intervention that was developed as part of an IES grant. The RLPL intervention is designed to promote children's school readiness and is implemented by early childhood educators in early learning settings.
My role
Co-Investigator (lead for Implementation Support)
Collaborators
Megan McClelland (PI; Oregon State University). Co-PIs: J. Geldhof & S. Tominey (Oregon State University), S. Schmitt (Purdue University), Co-Is: T. Li (Oregon State University) & A. Mashburn (Portland State University)
Status
Active
Funder
Institute of Education Sciences
Completed Projects
Partnership for Prekindergarten improvement
In partnership with the Oregon Department of Education Early Learning Division, this state-research partnership aims to identify ways in which Oregon's state-funded preschool programming (Oregon PreK and Preschool Promise) may best use job-embedded professional learning to support continuous quality improvement. We work closely with our state partners to gather and use information to continuously improve preschool programming.
My role
Co-Principal Investigator
Collaborators
Dr. Katherine Pears, Oregon Social Learning Center & Dr. Beth Green, Portland Sate University (Co-PIs)
Status
Data Analysis/Project closed
Funder
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Cultivate Learning
Selected publications
- Survey on the effects of COVID-19 on Oregon’s early care & education workforce and programs
- Essential Fellowship: Full Executive Summary
- Ambitious Instruction Executive Summary
- Teacher-child interactions in Oregon’s Preschool Programming: CLASS™ Observations (2019-2020)
Home-based Child Care Providers: An exploration of motivation and Identity
This project quantitatively and qualitatively explores value-based motivation, persistence, and professional identity among Oregon’s Registered family child care providers in relation to their decisions to engage in childcare systems and resource procurement (e.g., in response to COVID; subsidy participation; continuous quality improvement).
My role
Faculty Mentor. Adrienne Henry, my former graduate student, was awarded this grant for her dissertation and is the project lead.
Status
Data Analysis/Project closed
Funding
President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCOSW), Oregon State University
Using Online Learning and Coaching to Increase the Competency of Early Childhood Teachers to Impact School Readiness for Children Exposed to Trauma
The long-term goal of the proposed project is to create and disseminate an innovative and effective online professional development program (course and coaching) that helps teachers working in different types of ECE programs to improve social, behavioral, and academic indicators of school readiness for young children who have experienced trauma. Learn more about our professional program, Roots of Resilience, Teachers Awakening Children's Healing.
My role
Co-investigator (CO-I)
Collaborators
Dr. Shannon Lipscomb (PI; Oregon State University-Cascades). Co-Is: Drs. Berry & Fisher (UofO),
Status
Data Analysis
Funding
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education Award Number: R305A150107
Selected Publications
Exploring the Associations Between Classroom Quality & Toddler Teacher's Health and Well-being
The project explores potential relations between toddler teachers’ overall health and well-being and classroom quality. This project is especially interested in exploring connections between three occupational health risks for center-based toddler teachers: infectious disease, musculoskeletal strain, and psychosocial stress, and the early childhood classroom environment. This type of information can help inform early childhood quality improvement initiatives like Oregon’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), to support the health and well-being of child care workers, thereby positively impacting the children and families they serve.
My role
Faculty Mentor. Adrienne Henry, my graduate student, was awarded this grant for her thesis and is the project lead.
Status
Closed
Funding
Professional Training Opportunities Program (PTOP) in Occupational Health and Safety, University of Washington
Publications
Evaluating Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in Oregon: Impact of the 2014 Act on Children, Families, and the Quality of Home-based Care in Oregon (Phase I/PLanning Grant)
This project aimed to increase Oregon's capacity to support home-based child care providers and the families and children they serve. We aim to increase the capacity of our administrative data to identify how implementation of the 2014 Act impacts families and providers and to create professional development supports for home-based providers.
My role
Co-Principal Investigator (on Oregon State University subcontract)
Collaborators
Dr. Bobbie Weber (PI on OSU subcontract) & Deanna Grobe, Oregon State University; Dr. Shannon Lipscomb, Oregon State University-Cascades; Tom George (PI) & Dawn Woods, Oregon State Department of Education, Early Learning Division
Status
Closed
Funder
Administration of Children & Families, Office of Research, Planning, & Evaluation. View summary.
Evaluation of the Live & Learn Parenting Series
The purpose of this project is to discover if participation in a Live and Learn parenting series is associated with parent and child behaviors. Specifically, we are interested if the participation in the parenting education series is linked to increases responsive parent-child interactions, and young children's social and emotional skills.
My role
Principal Investigator
Status
Closed
Collaborator(s)
Dr. Shauna Tominey, Oregon State University
Funding
Oregon Community Foundation
Red Light, Purple Light! Developing a Self-Regulation Intervention for Children at Risk for School Difficulty
The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate the promise of a self-regulation intervention designed for use with children from low-income backgrounds with the goal of promoting the development of school readiness skills. Math and literacy content will be embedded into self-regulation based classroom, whole group activities to explore the added benefit of academic content on the development of self-regulation skills. Teachers will be supported with online, video-coaching during implementation.
My role
Co-investigator (Co-I)
Collaborators
Megan McClelland (PI; Oregon State University). Co-Is: S. Tominey (Oregon State University), S. Schmitt & D. Purpura (Purdue University), & K. Thompson (Oregon State University)
Status
Completed
Funding
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, R305A150196
Selected Publications
Understanding Children's Unique Experiences and Interactions in the Early Childhood Classroom: A Focus on Children's Biology, Behavior, & Emotion
The project explores potential relationships between child characteristics, teacher-child and peer interactions, and children’s stress responses. Since a child’s experience is heavily influenced by interactions within his/her environment, the purpose of this project is to identify aspects of the classroom and child that prevent stress in preschool children, and support close teacher-child and peer relationships. This type of information can help to inform best practices for children as well as assist in creating professional development for early care and education professionals to best support children, teachers, and families.
My role
Principal Investigator
Status
Data analysis
Funding
Oregon State University General Research Fund, OSU Social & Behavioral Health Sciences (start-up funds)
Publications
Daily Experiences for Very Young Children in Early Care and Education
This project aims to understand how very young children (15-36 months) engage in classroom activities, interact with peers and teachers, and regulate emotion and behavior in the classroom.
My role
Principal Investigator
Collaborator
Dr. Sam Logan, Oregon State University
Status
Data Analysis
Funding
OSU Social & Behavioral Health Sciences (start-up funds)
Parent-Child Interactions and Parent Stress after a Parenting Education Series
The purpose of this project is to discover if participation in a parenting series is associated with mother and child behaviors. Specifically, we are interested if the participation in the parenting education series is linked to 1) reductions in mother's stress, measured via salivary cortisol, 2) increases responsive mother-child interactions, and 3) decreases children’s behavioral challenges. To measure stress, responsive interactions, and children’s behavior, we employ four methods: behavioral observations of mother-child play, mothers’ saliva samples, surveys, and child direct assessments.
My role
Principal Investigator
Status
Data Analysis
Collaborator(s)
Dr. John Geldhof, Oregon State University
Funding
Ford Family Foundation
Preschool children’s adaptations of the stress response system following a teacher-child relationship focused intervention
As part of a larger project (Preschool Relationships Enhancement Project) investigating the effect of Banking Time on teacher-child relationships and child behavior, we conducted a substudy to examine children's change in cortisol after participating in Banking Time. Results indicate that children with disruptive behaviors showed a decline in cortisol across the day at child care after participating in the intervention compared to children in the control group.
Journal abstract
News stories about these findings
Funding for this study's subsample
American Psychological Association (APA) Early Career Research Award from the Educational Psychology Division.
PI
Dr. Bridget Hatfield; faculty mentor: Dr. Amanda Williford
Funding for PREP
U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER). PI: Dr. Amanda Williford, University of Virginia
