Supporting Latina Family Child Care Provider Voices Through Inquiry: A Mixed Methods Project to Learn How They Navigate the Credit-Bearing Child Development Associate Credential (CDA)
Principal Investigator: Cristina Medellin
Agenda Area: Professionalization with Equity
Funder: Foundation for Child Development
The Child Development Associate (CDA) is a national early childhood credential created in 1971, and historically administered by Bank Street, before early childhood education degree programs were widely available. As degree programs developed, the CDA–which was not for college credit–became a detour that complicated many early childhood educators’ path to college degrees. This study focuses on how Latina home based child care professionals experience newly developed, culturally and linguistically-responsive support systems designed to facilitate a smooth journey from credit-bearing CDA to college degrees.
Racial and Gender Equity for Young Children with Disabilities in New York City: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Disparities in New York City Preschool Program Ecologies
Principal Investigator: Sarika Gupta
Co-investigators: Natasha Strassfeld (University of Texas, Austin) and Gregory Cheatham (University of Kansas)
Agenda Area: Systemization for Equity; Equity-Centered Family & Community Engagement
Funder: New York City Early Childhood Research Network/Foundation for Child Development
This mixed-methods project examines the role of New York City’s program ecologies in supporting early childhood professionals’ 1) equitable referrals to preschool special education, 2) their use of high-quality inclusive practices, and 3) their understanding of families’ experiences with preschool special education systems.
Where Does Science Live in Your Community? A Photovoice Project
Co-Principal Investigators: Cristina Medellin and Mark Nagasawa
Agenda Area: Equity-Centered Family & Community Engagement
Funder: New York Hall of Science/Simons Foundation
Photovoice is a participatory research approach using photographs and stories to illustrate neighborhood residents’ perspectives on their lives. This project is a partnership with the New York Hall of Science and community members in Corona, Queens with the goal of increasing cultural responsiveness in science and museum education.
Multiple Case Study of New York State’s Implementation of the Pyramid Model
Principal Investigator: Mark Nagasawa
Agenda Area: Systemization for Equity
Funder: Institute for Research on Poverty/US Department of Health & Human Services
The Pyramid Model is a nationally recognized, evidence–based preschool approach that is being implemented across New York. This study follows up on the Listening to Teachers study, which asked how New York’s early childhood educators were faring during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the question that emerged about what was being done systemically in New York to support early childhood teachers–so they can support children.
Promoting Teacher-Child Relationships in Early Care and Education Classrooms
Co-Principal Investigators: Cristina Medellin, Sarika Gupta, and Mark Nagasawa (Principal Investigator: Shelia Smith, Bank Street’s National Center for Children in Poverty)
Agenda Area: Professionalization with Equity
Funder: New York City Early Childhood Research Network/Heising-Simons Foundation
This project is a partnership with early childhood teachers at East Harlem Block Nursery and Bank Street Head Start who will be collaboratively co-designing and evaluating a reflection tool focused on improving relationships with children through an equity lens.
Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Systems for Justice and Equity
Co-Principal Investigator: Mark Nagasawa (Principal Investigator: Mathias Urban, Dublin City University)
Agenda Area: Systemization for Equity
Funder: Spencer Foundation
A partnership between researchers from Argentina, Indonesia, Ireland, South Africa, and the United States working to develop a transnational, comparative research agenda examining policy initiatives focused on increasing equity in ECE systems, conceptualized as the interplay between local, regional, national, and global policies.
Early Childhood Care & Education Quality with Equity at the Center
Principal Investigator: Mark Nagasawa
Agenda Area: Systemization for Equity
Funder: Spencer Foundation
Initially conceived of as a research conference, this project has expanded to become an ongoing network of teachers, scholars, policy makers, and philanthropists working towards centering equity in efforts to increase ECE program quality.
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PAST WORK
Racial and Gender Equity for Young Children with Disabilities in New York City: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Disparities in New York City Preschool Program Ecologies
Principal Investigator: Sarika Gupta
Co-investigators: Natasha Strassfeld (University of Texas, Austin) and Gregory Cheatham (University of Kansas)
May 2021–May 2023
This mixed-methods project examines the role of New York City’s program ecologies in supporting early childhood professionals’ 1) equitable referrals to preschool special education, 2) their use of high-quality inclusive practices, and 3) their understanding of families’ experiences with preschool special education systems.
Improving Dual Language Teaching for Spanish Speakers: Evaluating a Professional Learning System That Elevates Latina Teacher Voices
Principal Investigator: Alexandra Figueras-Daniel
April 2021–April 2023
This project employs a mixed-methods design with the dual purposes of using data collection to both understand Latina teachers of dual language learners’ teaching practices as well as prompt their reflection on specific pedagogical practices in three specific ways: 1) engaging teachers in conversations about the existing system of Professional Learning focused on supports for Dual Language Learners (DLLs); 2) training a sample of teachers and coaches to use the Self Evaluation of Supports for Emergent Bilingual Acquisition (SESEBA) system and to examine its ability to guide teachers and coaches in their practice with DLLs; and 3) examining change among various teacher groups relative to DLL supports with use of a domain-specific, standardized classroom observation tool, the Classroom Assessment of Supports for Emergent Bilingual Acquisition (CASEBA).
Listening to Teachers: Towards a More Equitable ECE System in NYC
Co-Principal Investigators: Mark Nagasawa & Alexandra Figueras-Daniel
April 2021–April 2022
This is a multiphase, mixed-methods follow-up study on a survey of New York’s early care and education (ECE) workforce conducted in May 2020. Its broad purposes are to 1) understand how New York City’s ECE professionals are faring more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic and 2) draw lessons from their experiences—statistically and phenomenologically—to inform decisions about what a more equitable post-pandemic ECE system can and should look like.
Emotionally Responsive Practices & COVID-19: A Phenomenological Evaluation
Principal Investigator: Mark Nagasawa
May 2021–May 2022
This interview-based evaluation study in collaboration with Bank Street’s Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice (ERP) asks about the role of developmentally guided, emotionally attuned professional learning in helping teachers adapt to the shifting demands presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.