School Readiness
Faculty Affiliate Research Projects

School Readiness (SR) involves a complex, multifaceted set of issues that necessitates the interplay of a variety of disciplines. Success across academic domains, as well as social, behavioral, and emotional competencies that support readiness to learn, are key issues of interest. Basic research addressing the developmental pathways that lead to readiness, as well as interventions to promote aspects of readiness are key to pursuing this initiative. This initiative focuses on the design and evaluation of school- and community-based preventive interventions designed to foster school readiness and child success. A major intervention study directed by Karen Bierman has recently been funded by NICHD that will help launch our efforts with this initiative.

School Readiness Faculty:

Lead Faculty:
Karen Bierman, Distinguished Professor, Psychology

David Baker, Professor of Educational Theory and Policy
Clancy Blair, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Harriett Darling, Instructor, Human Development and Family Studies York campus
James DiPerna, Associate Professor of School Psychology
Celene Domitrovich, Assistant Director, Prevention Research Center
Scott Gest, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Sukhdeep Gill, Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies York campus
Mark Greenberg, Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Carol Hammer, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Cynthia Huang-Pollack, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Damon Jones, Research Associate, Methodology Center
Lynn Liben, Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Paul Morgan, Assistant Professor of Special Education
Keith Nelson, Professor of Psychology
Robert Nix, Research Associate, Prevention Research Center
Margaret Small, Research Associate, Prevention Research Center
Rayne Sperling, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology
Robert Stevens, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology 
Janet Welsh, Research Associate, Prevention Research Center

 

Here is a sampling of some of the research that Child Study Center faculty who are affiliated with the School Readiness Initiative are currently conducting:

Fast Track
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group: Karen L. Bierman, Pennsylvania State University; John Coie, Duke University; Kenneth A. Dodge, Duke University; E. Michael Foster, Pennsylvania State University; Mark T. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University; John E. Lochman, University of Alabama; Robert J. McMahon, University of Washington; Ellen E. Pinderhughes, Tufts University

Additional PSU Collaborators: Robert Nix, Prevention Research Center, Damon Jones, Methodology Center, Marianne Hillemeier, Health Policy and Administration, Rhonda Belue, Biobehavioral Health

Fast Track is a multi-cohort, multi-site, and multi-component randomly-assigned intervention program designed to prevent the development of serious conduct problems among children showing high levels of aggressive and oppositional behavior in kindergarten. Implemented in Durham, NC, Nashville, TN, Seattle, WA, and rural central Pennsylvania, Fast Track provides individual academic tutoring; school-wide, small-group, and dyadic social-emotional skills training; positive behavior management instruction for parent groups; and home visits for individual families. Fast Track adopted a tailored approach to treatment whereby all children and families received the same amount of services during the first year, but children and families received varying amounts of services during subsequent years, depending on individually-assessed need. The project office for the Pennsylvania site is housed at the Child Study Center.

Head Start REDI Project
Karen L. Bierman and Celene Domitrovich, Co-PI's
Investigative team: Clancy Blair, Harriet Darling, Scott Gest, Suhkdeep Gill, Mark Greenberg, Keith Nelson, Robert Nix, Janet Welsh

Housed at the Child Study Center, Head Start REDI (REsearch-based, Developmentally Informed) is a randomized intervention and control group study that tests the value of a modified preschool curriculum designed to enhance children's school readiness. This program, which is being implemented in three Pennsylvania county Head Start systems (Blair, Huntingdon, York), features several innovations including: scripted dialogic reading exercises to increase levels of conversation, vocabulary acquisition, and interest in books; phonemic awareness activities to promote knowledge of and facility with sounds and words; small-group lessons focused on helping children identify emotions, regulate behavior, solve problems with others, and form friendships; and specific teaching strategies to create more positive learning climates and boost children's attachment to school. Special efforts have been made to integrate each empirically-validated component of the curriculum across the school day and week in a way that is easy and convenient for teachers and their assistants to implement. The study includes an assessment of factors influencing the sustainability of the program within the participating Head Start programs, and an assessment of follow-up effects on kindergarten and first-grade school adjustment.

FOCUS (Forming Outreach Community University Systems for Engagement Model)
Karen L. Bierman and Wayne Smutz, Co-PI's
Investigative team: Jim DiPerna, Carol Hammer, Paul Morgan, Robert Nix, Meg Small, Janet Welsh

FOCUS is a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek , Michigan , to build upon Penn State 's capacity to respond to societal needs and contribute solutions at local, state and national levels. The goal is to engage researchers in the collaborative process of working with communities. Specifically, this project is implementing new outreach engagement models to help communities with school readiness issues. University-community coalitions have been established in three Pennsylvania school districts that vary in terms of demographic characteristics and challenges to school readiness -- Harrisburg , Lancaster , and Mifflin County .  Working with these teams, the Penn State faculty are implementing and evaluating a trial parent-outreach program designed to support parental efforts to promote emergent literacy skills in their children. A randomized trial, along with needs assessment surveys are being undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of the approach, and provide a foundation for on-going collaborations with the schools and communities, focused on reaching out to parents to enhance their positive involvement with the school and support for child learning.