Mississippi leads the nation in child obesity, chronic diseases, poverty, and food insecurity. Stemming the long-term consequences of high obesity rates will require a cultural attitude and behavioral shift towards healthy eating. This study explored the perceptions, beliefs, practices, and self-efficacy towards healthy eating among limited…

Home visitation programs are designed to provide comprehensive services that promote parent's abilities to create stable, nurturing care environments for their children. In order for program goals to be met, parents must participate actively and be engaged with the programs' mission. However, promoting engagement and participation are complex…

Purpose: In the previous analysis of key informant perspectives on minority research leaders' career development factors, we identified individual and sociocultural, institutional, and federal research agency (i.e., National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research; National Institutes of Health; Agency for…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Standards Briefs explain the rules the WWC uses to evaluate the quality of studies for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. An aspect of a study is considered a confounding factor if it is not possible to tell whether the difference in outcomes is due to the intervention, the confounding factor, or both.…

Urie Bronfenbrenner is almost certainly best known for his theoretical writings about the ecology of human development. His interest in theory was not, however, separate from his practical concerns, particularly those related to early education and care of children and the families and teachers who interact with them. From the role that he played…

Research Findings: Engineering play is a new framework for understanding constructive block building as a design process. The current study examined associations between engineering play with wooden unit blocks and mathematics and spatial skills of children with and without disabilities. Participants included 110 preschoolers (44% female; 25%…

Annually, the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) prepares the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Head Start Saturation Study to analyze access to Washington's ECEAP and Head Start programs serving 3- and 4-year-olds. This study estimates the number of eligible children living within each…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a public food supplement assistance program offered by the U.S. federal government. Undergraduate students who apply for the program must work at least 20 hours per week while concurrently enrolled in six academic units or more. However, students who work more find less time to commit to…

Teacher-focused accountability started to ramp up in the United States in 2007-2010 as the focus of accountability shifted from schools to individual teachers. Since that time, there has been a remarkable amount of change to the way that teachers are evaluated, and music teachers have been placed squarely under the microscope of accountability. In…

The international mobility of academics is one of the key mechanisms through which university internationalization occurs; yet, fewer studies have investigated the impact that it has on academics' teaching, research, and service. This study investigates the relationship between short-term international mobility and changes in academics' research…

This report provides a project snapshot of the Study of Coaching Practices in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) from 2016-2021. The primary goal in the SCOPE project was to learn more about the ways coaching is implemented to improve instructional practice in early care and education (ECE). SCOPE focused on coaching in center-based…

Coaching is a common approach to professional development and support for quality in early care and education (ECE) settings, and is an especially important part of professional development because it can be tailored to meet teachers' and family child care (FCC) providers' needs and can positively affect instructional practices, the quality of the…

"Kids' Share 2016: Federal Expenditures on Children through 2015," a 10th annual report, looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Federal spending on children has remained fairly flat over the past four years, in real dollars. Broader budgetary forces will restrict spending on children over the next 10…

This report presents a summary of the findings of fiscal year (FY) 2015 monitoring reviews, fulfilling the reporting requirements found in Sections 641A(f) and 650(c)(2) of the Head Start Act. It highlights the enhancements made to the FY 2015 monitoring review system, summarizes grantee review outcomes, and describes the types of findings most…

High quality instruction is essential to producing developmental gains for young children and can mitigate risk factors such as family poverty and low parental education. Even in programs with highly qualified teachers, teacher-child interactions often do not provide the level of instructional support that children need to be well-prepared for…