FROM RESEARCH TO POLICY AND PRACTICE
The Northwestern Family Engagement Study
Funded by the McCormick Foundation
Strengthening the Definition and Measurement of Family Partnership in Illinois’ Quality Ratings and Improvement System for Early Childhood Education
The goal of this project is to help build and strengthen Illinois’ Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and become a national model for how to define and measure family engagement. Over the past decade, policymakers have dramatically expanded investment in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) as a way to assess and improve the quality of early childhood education settings. QRIS push beyond basic individual state license requirements by using a set of quality indicators, typically based on community definitions, to rate the quality of programs.
Learn more about the Family Engagement Study
Contexts Inside and Outside of School Walls as Predictors of Differential Effectiveness in Preschool Professional Development
The “Contexts Inside and Outside of School Walls as Predictors of Differential Effectiveness in Preschool Professional Development” study is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Dana McCoy (Assistant Professor) and her research team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This study is funded by the Institute for Education Sciences.
Learn more about the School Contexts Study
Building A Comprehensive Model of Classroom Quality
The goal of this project is to explore how individual children’s engagement varies within classrooms and the degree to which variation in child engagement is associated with children’s outcomes. Specifically, the research team aims to (i) evaluate the degree to which the average engagement of children in academic content and experiences with teachers varies within children and within classrooms, (ii) examine relations to children’s outcomes and how this varies by activity setting, and (iii) determine if these associations vary based on children’s demographics. Achieving these aims will help promote the understanding on the extent to which children’s individual engagement, above and beyond average engagement, may serve as a malleable target for early childhood education interventions.
Learn more about the Classroom Quality Model here
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION INTERVENTIONS
Northwestern University Two-Generation Research Initiative
The DEEP lab is also collaborating on several mixed-methods studies run by the Two-generation Research Initiative at Northwestern. Two-generation programs programs link intensive, high-quality education, job training, and career-building programs for low-income parents with early childhood education services for their young children. For more details on the studies, see here.