Current Research Projects

The Effect of Subsidized Child Care and Public School Pre-K on the School Readiness and Long-Term Academic Outcomes of Diverse, Low-Income, Urban Preschoolers: The Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP)

This exciting large-scale, university-community partnership, program evaluation, and applied research project involves maintenance and development of the master database for all child-level, classroom-level, child care center-level, and family-level data involved in the Assessment-Intervention Program, sponsored by the Miami-Dade School Readiness Coalition with support from The Children's Trust. In this project, for 5 years (2012-2007), about 58,000 4-year old low-income children (approximately 60% Latino,30% African American, and 10% white/other) attending state-subsidized child care facilities (center-based, family daycares, informal care, and public school pre-k programs) were individually assessed (in English and Spanish) on their cognitive, language, and motor skills at the beginning (PRE) and end (POST) of the school year. Also, parents and teachers rate children's socio-emotional skills and behavior problems at PRE and POST. The children are still being followed longitudinally as they progress through high school in Miami-Dade County Public Schools with a wide variety of school records outcome data available through 12th grade.

Middle and High School Arts Electives Among Low-Income, Ethnically Diverse Students in Miami: Who Takes Them, for How Long, and What are the Academic Outcomes?

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), this exciting project is examining 1) child, family, and school predictors of low-income minority youth selecting arts elective courses in middle school, and 2) whether youth who take arts courses do better in school than those who do not, controlling for the selection factors identified in #1. Using data from the Miami School Readiness Project, about 32,000 children (60% Latino, 33% Black, 7% White/Other, 85% in poverty) are reaching 6th, 7th, or 8th grade and 20-25% of them are enrolling in some kind of arts elective course (i.e., band, orchestra, choir, drama, dance, art). Predictor variables include child gender, ethnicity, ELL and disability status, initial school readiness, 5th grade GPA and test scores; family size, marital status, maternal education, free lunch and immigrant status; and school size, quality, resources, and ethnic distribution. We will see if arts classes are linked with better outcomes for at-risk youth (GPA, test scores, attendance, retention, suspension, and drop out).

Race, Gender, and Income Differences in Primary Exceptionality Status Over Time

This undergraduate honors thesis uses data from the MSRP to examine changes in primary exceptionality status over time from kindergarten through 12th grade, whilst also examining any differences in initial placement and changes in primary exceptionality pertaining to race, gender and income. There has been conflicting research on whether race or income has a greater correlation to exceptionality placement, as well as contradictory research suggesting both over and under-representation for minoritized individuals with primary exceptionalities. This project will help clarify the degree to which race or income impacts exceptionality placement by measuring both race and depth of poverty. There has been little research examining the changes in and / or between primary exceptionality status over time in grade school, and even less research examining said changes whilst including race, gender, and income as potential contributing factors.

Two-Way (Spanish-English) Immersion Bilingual Education Classrooms: Language of Instruction, Student Engagement, Motivation, Student-Teacher Relationships, and Academic and Language Outcomes for Students

This exciting 3-year project just funded by the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), is examining how the language of instruction used in two-way immersion programs (i.e., 50% Spanish 50% English, 90% English 10% Spanish) in North Carolina K-3rd grade classrooms matters for student learning, engagement and motivation in classrooms and their eventual English and Spanish language outcomes. Also examined is whether DLL student initial language competence in Spanish and English moderate all of the above. This research is in collaboration with Drs. Doré LaForett and Ximena Franco at the FPG center at University of North Carolina. See more info related to this project here.