Current Projects
Every Child Ready to Read
Working with the Public Library Association and the Association for Library Services for Children, the Ready to Read Research Team is evaluating the Every Child Ready to Read initiative--an innovative program designed to provide public libraries with vital tools to help prepare parents for their critical role as their child's first teacher. The results of the evaluation, involving both quantitative and qualitative evidence, will become available August, 2009.
Ready to Learn: Creating the World of Words (WOW) curriculum for improving preschool children's vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. A five-year study.
UM-Ready to Learn Project
The Ready to Learn research program focuses on developing and assessing scientifically-based literacy curricula for use in early childhood (pre-K and K) classrooms, online education for teachers and care providers, and resources for parents and families. In collaboration with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting system, funded through the U.S. Department of Education, collectively, our goal is to create a 360 degree surround of information representing the highest quality of scientifically-based research and practice in reading for children, teachers, and parents.
Go to the Ready to Learn Project Homepage.
For an overview of Professor Neuman's research, please visit:
Project Great Start
Professional Development Initiative
The Project Great Start Professional Development Initiative is a research-based professional development program designed to improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood educators.
Targeted to priority school urban centers, this initiative aims to:
- Build caregivers' knowledge and skills
- Help caregivers implement research-based practices through coaching and mentoring
- Help children who are at risk and need additional social and emotional supports
- Improve children's school readiness skills.
Click here to go to the
Project Great Start Professional Development Initiative site.
Teacher Quality in Michigan
Our teacher quality project is designed to improve induction and mentoring programs in Michigan. Working alongside faculty at Michigan State University, and the Michigan State Department of Education, we are committed to supporting the implementation of new entry level standards for all Michigan teachers in efforts to provide systematic accountability, and to ensure excellent educators are in Michigan's K-12 classrooms. The goals is this project are to:
- Design substantive professional development related to the state's Strategic Initiatives and Michigan Entry Level Standards through creation of instructional web-based modules
- Design and field test tools for mentors to use when working with novice teachers
- Elevate educational leadership by involving administrators and educational agencies in the design of mentor training
It is essential to foster institutional commitment and support so that school districts, educational organizations and institutions of higher education together make teacher learning a priority and share responsibility for teacher quality and increased student achievement. Check our website at: http://assist.educ.msu.edu/ASSIST
Changing the Odds
Based on the enormous corpus of research on preventing damaging outcomes for our most vulnerable young children, this project seeks to examine case studies of highly effective programs that are changing the odds for children, when the cognitive gaps are beginning to form—in these earliest years in four critical areas of reform prior to school entrance—parenting, early care and education, after-care education, and community programs. By developing principles for interventions based on scientific evidence, the project holds great promise for administrators of programs, practitioners, and for future policy-making.