Georgia's Pre-K Longitudinal Study followed a statewide sample of 1,169 children who attended Georgia's Pre-K Program in 2013-14 through their 4th grade year in 2018-19. The study was conducted by researchers at the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following summary…

Georgia has one of the few state-funded universal pre-kindergarten programs in the United States, with the aim of providing pre-k services to all 4-year-olds whose families want their children to participate in the program, regardless of family income level. In the 2011-2012 school year, Georgia's Pre-K Program served a total of over 94,000…

Georgia has one of the few state-funded universal pre-kindergarten programs in the United States, with the aim of providing pre-k services to all 4-year-olds whose families want their children to participate in the program, regardless of family income level. In the 2011-2012 school year, Georgia's Pre-K Program served a total of over 94,000…

Four foundations for young children's development appear to underlie children's competence and predict success in school from pre-kindergarten through third grade--self-regulation, representation, memory, and attachment. If teachers united what they know about child development with quality educational practices, what would school be like for…

In the United States, Black children start school behind their White peers on standardized reading and mathematics tests, and racial disparities in achievement increase during each subsequent year of primary and secondary education. To formulate an appropriate policy response to this enduring problem, a careful and comprehensive understanding of…

Researchers at the FPG (Frank Porter Graham) Child Development Institute recently completed a study on a new approach to teaching pre-kindergartners called Recognition & Response (R&R). Designed specifically for use in pre-k, R&R is based on Response to Intervention (RTI), an approach that is gaining widespread acceptance in schools…

Inclusive settings are challenging age-old stereotypes about how children with and without disabilities interact. Peek inside a preschool inclusive classroom and one will often find typically developing children altering their games so that children with disabilities can play along. At circle time, children who need help sitting up are supported…

With no single definition of how publicly-funded programs for preschool children with disabilities should define or measure success, states are struggling to develop accountability systems that demonstrate results and understand how to best serve children and families. This report summarizes a new paper, "Issues in Designing State…

By law each state is required to ensure that all substantiated cases of maltreated infants and toddlers are referred to Part C early intervention services. In reality, many children may not be receiving the child development services they need. Researchers have known for some time that children who have been abused are at greater risk for…

Just as exposing children to books helps develop their interest in reading; talking to children helps develop their language abilities. Research shows that from a very young age, children are influenced by the manner in which their mothers verbally interact with them. An FPG study published in the May/June 2008 issue of "The Journal of…

Young children follow a fairly consistent pattern in their acquisition of language. This pattern is important because language develops rapidly and has been shown to affect later school readiness. A study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, examines for the first time how the quality of childcare affects the development…

In the spring of 2006, the University of North Carolina's (UNC) Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity hosted a competitive process to support original research by UNC faculty members in the form of policy briefs. Each brief was authored by a UNC faculty member and was reviewed by an academic and a practitioner in the field that the brief…

A recent paper written by a research team at the FPG Child Development Institute, "Recognition and Response: An Early Intervening System for Young Children at Risk for Learning Disabilities," discusses a new systematic approach that can help early educators and parents ensure early school success for all children, including those at risk…

Education policy makers identify access to quality pre-Kindergarten programs as a critical step in early childhood development. While most agree on access, definitions of quality vary widely. A new study by the National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL) finds that families define quality in broader terms than educators,…

More children than ever are in care centers, and child care experiences of infants and toddlers are believed to have a powerful and lasting impact on children's well-being. A team of researchers from the FPG Child Development Institute created a study to examine the effects that transitions have on children's behavior and observable stress when…