News

Francesca Lopez head shot in blue button down shirt, long dark brown hair and brown-framed glasses in front of green tree.

Connecting researchers to policymakers to optimize educational equity

December 10, 2021

A partnership between Francesca Lopez, Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and professor of education in the Penn State College of Education, and Penn State’s Research-to-Policy Collaboration was recently awarded a $250,000 Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant to connect researchers with hundreds of…
Student in wheel chair with other students.

Research finds flawed federal monitoring of students of color with disabilities

November 30, 2021

Current federal legislation and regulation that monitors for significant disproportionality in special education may be contributing to children of color with disabilities failing to receive treatments and services to which they are legally entitled, according to a Penn State College of Education…
Screen shot of CEDR video showcasing the Biobehavioral Health Building

Penn State educational and health disparities research featured

October 27, 2021

This video highlighting work being done at SSRI's Center for Educational Disparities Research and Child Maltreatment Solutions Network features several SSRI cofunded faculty and is currently being broadcast at the annual conference of the American Public Health Association. Research taking place at…
Paul Morgan headshot in red polo shirt.

Morgan’s research cited

September 22, 2021

CEDR Director and PRI Associate Paul Morgan and his research team’s work discovering children's oral vocabularies by 24 months of age can predict their academic achievement and classroom behavior was cited recently by the editorial Board of the LA Times in their call for universal child care and…
Gamers play video games at E3, the annual video games expo experience the latest in gaming software and hardware in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Morgan quoted in article about China's screen time ban

September 1, 2021

(Reuters) - Raleigh Smith Duttweiler was folding laundry in her Ohio home, her three children playing the video game Minecraft upstairs, when she heard an NPR story about new rules in China that forbid teenagers and children under age 18 from playing video games for more than three hours a week.
“…
Three women sitting around a table and talking with smiles

Helping special education teachers under stress

August 19, 2021

Special education teachers are at heightened risk for stress and burnout, which negatively impacts their effectiveness and well-being. With a new five-year, $4 million grant from the Institute of Educational Sciences, Penn State and Georgia State University (GSU) researchers are teaming up with…
African-American women with short brown hair and navy blue dress.

Black women with ADHD start healing, with a diagnosis at last

July 19, 2021

CEDR Director and PRI associate Paul Morgan and his research team's IES-supported research was recently cited in a Washington Post story discussing the intersections of race, gender, and disability, found here.
Paul Morgan headshot in red polo shirt.

Morgan named AERA Fellow

July 13, 2021

CEDR Director and PRI Affiliate Paul Morgan, the Harry & Marion Eberly Faculty Fellow and professor of education (education theory and policy) in the Penn State College of Education, is one of 19 exemplary scholars chosen by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) as 2021 AERA…
Blue and orang illustration with children playing.

Privilege plays a huge role in getting an ADHD diagnosis

June 28, 2021

By  Jess Joho for Mashable
For more than two decades now, the prevailing cultural narratives around ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) centered on suspicions of overdiagnosis and overtr]]eatment. A significant rise in ADHD diagnoses in the '90s sparked concerns that continue to this…
Erika Weathers headshot in gray jacket and white shirt

Penn State early career scholars selected for postdoctoral fellowships

June 25, 2021

SSRI cofunded faculty member Ericka Weathers, assistant professor of education (educational theory and policy), and Matthew Gardner Kelly, assistant professor of education (educational leadership) in Penn State’s College of Education have been selected as 2021 National Academy of Education (NAEd)/…
Columbine school shooting crosses

After School Shootings, Well-Off Families Flee and Enrollment Drops. Low-Income Kids are Left to Confront the Aftermath

June 21, 2021

For more than a decade after the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Denver, Frank DeAngelis held a simple promise: He’d stay on as principal until every student class enrolled in the district during the attack reached the graduation stage.
Despite the community upheaval and…
Young children and teacher gathered around an iPad.

Identifying children at risk of later being frequent online-technologies users

January 25, 2021

Children are not only starting to use online electronic devices and online technologies at a younger age, but they are also using them in more situations at home and at school. However, frequent use of online technologies may harm children’s development by displacing other activities that are…
EIC Podcast Episode 7 graphic

EIC Podcast on examining the delivery of special education services during COVID-19

December 13, 2020

The Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative Podcast is offering a new series called The Pandemic Perspective, where we examine how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and various aspects of our society, institutions, and other systems have collided, changed, and even collapsed in the last nine months.
For the…
Preschool girl playinig in sandbox with colored rings.

Preschool program linked with better social and emotional skills years later

December 11, 2020

A preschool enrichment program developed at Penn State helps boost social and emotional skills that still have positive effects years later during middle and high school, according to a new study.
The researchers found that students attending Head Start preschools that implemented the Research-…
President Barron in studio with screen.

Next on WPSU’s ‘Digging Deeper:’ COVID-19 and the rise of the online classroom

November 20, 2020

The ways the coronavirus pandemic has changed the traditional brick-and-mortar learning experience and led to a new online classroom for K-12 and higher education students will be discussed during the next episode of WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” on Sunday, Nov. 22.
Paul Morgan, professor of education…
Paul Morgan headshot in red polo shirt.

Morgan contributes to new LDA of America policy statement

September 14, 2020

Penn State researchers have given policy makers the evidence-based research needed to keep policies on disability identification in educational settings up to date.
Paul Morgan, professor of education, and the rest of his team at the Center for Educational Disparities Research (CEDR) at Penn State…
Paul Morgan headshot in red polo shirt.

Professor discusses implications of COVID-19 for education

September 10, 2020

At the start of the new school year, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused parents, teachers and school administrators to grapple with education options. Paul Morgan, a professor in the Penn State College of Education and director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research in the Social Science…
What the Words Say graphic

Morgan and team's research featured in report, podcast

August 6, 2020

A new APM Reports and podcast focuses on how false assumptions about what it takes to be a skilled reader has created deep inequalities among U.S. children, putting many on a difficult path in life. Multiple studies conducted by CEDR Director and PRI affiliate Paul Morgan and his research team are…
Students reading in library

Understanding the needs of students with or at risk for disabilities

July 13, 2020

Penn State researchers are examining how students with or at risk for disabilities can be better helped as they attend U.S. schools through two new projects totaling almost $1.2 million being funded by the National Center for Special Education Research, U.S. Department of Education's Institute of…
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Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on special education services

May 26, 2020

Penn State researchers provide informed commentary on the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on special education service delivery in Pennsylavania. Early reports suggest that students may re-enter school in the fall of 2020 almost a full year behind academically. However, Penn State researchers…
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Researchers study impact of health care reform on child development

May 18, 2020

Education has long been associated with enhanced health and well-being in large part by allowing greater access to resources such as quality health care. With the aid of a new grant, an education professor at Penn State has started a project to study the flip side of that coin — how can health…
Students studying in class.

Achievement gaps may explain racial overrepresentation in special education

March 19, 2020

U.S. school districts may be flagged as over-identifying students of color as having disabilities when other factors, such as achievement gaps, may explain these disparities, according to new Penn State research published in Exceptional Children.
Federal legislation and regulations require U.S.…
Young Asian boy studying.

Underlying factors affect children's early reading and math achievement

March 16, 2020

Underlying individual and environmental factors may better explain inter-relations between children’s early reading and mathematics achievement, according to new research that fails to support prior work suggesting that increasing children’s math skills might help increase their reading skills.…
Paul Morgan headshot in red polo shirt.

Morgan cited in CDC report

March 11, 2020

Paul Morgan, Paul Morgan, Harry and Marion Eberly Fellow, professor of education and demography, and director of the Center for Educational Disparities, was cited in a CDC report on prevalence rates for ADHD and learning disabilities in the U.S. The story was picked up by the New York Times, ABC…
Black, white and Asian students taking notes during class.

Categorical inequalities between Black and white students are common in US schools—but they don’t have to be

February 24, 2020

By Kenneth Shores, Ha Eun Kim, and Mela Still for Brookings
The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) reports large, persistent gaps between Black and white students on educational outcomes such as school suspensions, uptake of AP classes, assignment to special education and gifted and talented…