Principal Investigator: Aisha White
Department: Office of Child Development
Project Title: P.R.I.D.E #ArtsLearningAtHome
Agency Name: Allegheny County
Award Dates: 8/1/20 – 9/30/20
Amount: $10,000
The P.R.I.D.E. (Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education) has received support for artists, educators, technical assistance, and communication management to facilitate online, fun and culturally immersive activities to expose young children and families to Africana culture. These art activities will be available to the public via the P.R.I.D.E. website and through live Facebook engagements through the artists’ program pages.
Principal Investigator: Colleen Young
Department: Office of Child Development
Project Title: Real Help, Real Time for COVID 19
Agency Name: Hillman Foundation
Award Dates: 8/1/20 – 7/31/21
Amount: $50,000
Real Help Real Time (RHRT) is an emergency relief fund administered through Allegheny County Family Centers to prevent or resolve immediate financial crises swiftly and appropriately. As their basic needs are met, families are also connected to longer term supports, so that financial assistance is coupled with additional supportive services, access to ongoing benefits and assistance, and opportunities for family development. These funds are allocated to support specific needs created by the pandemic.
Principal Investigator: Tracy Larson
Department: Office of Child Development
Project Title: Healthy CHILD/Various Sites
Agency Name: Pittsburgh Public Schools
Award Dates: 8/1/20 – 8/31/21
Amount: $292,817
The HealthyCHILD team will apply the “lessons learned” from the Mellon-funded and evidence-based HealthyInfants model of tiered supports and the 5 innovations focusing on caregiver-child interactions (both child care provider and parent); this “morphing” of the HealthyInfants model elements into the PPS HS Program will enhance the quality of care provided via a prevention-to-intervention model of graduated supports which promotes the use of developmentally-appropriate practices centering on positive caregiver-infant/toddler attachment relationships.
Principal Investigator: Tracy Larson
Department: Office of Child Development
Project Title: Healthy CHILD/PPS Beechwood
Agency Name: Pittsburgh Public Schools
Award Dates: 7/1/20 – 6/30/21
Amount: $34,000
The HealthyCHILD program service model is based on a framework of three dimensions or approaches of early childhood practices supported by both Head Start Standards and Early Childhood Best Practices (National Association for Education of Young Children-NAEYC and Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children). The three primary and overarching dimensions include:
1. Recognition and response to intervention for involving graduated prevention to individualized interventions for children and teachers and parents;
2. Positive behavior approach with a strong emphasis on prevention and family support;
3. The Teaching Pyramid, a model for supporting social competence and prevention of challenging behavior in young children (CSEFEL); and
4. Mentoring model to nurture responsive caregiving interactions
Principal Investigator: Tracy Larson
Department: Office of Child Development
Project Title: Healthy CHILD/PPS Early Head Start CCP Expansion
Agency Name: Pittsburgh Public Schools
Award Dates: 3/1/20 – 2/28/21
Amount: $28,387
The HealthyCHILD team will apply the “lessons learned” from the Mellon-funded and evidence-based HealthyInfants model of tiered supports and the 5 innovations focusing on caregiver-child interactions (both child care provider and parent); this “morphing” of the HealthyInfants model elements into the EHS-Child Care Partnership will enhance the quality of care provided via a prevention-to-intervention model of graduated supports which promotes the use of developmentally-appropriate practices centering on positive caregiver-infant/toddler attachment relationships.
HealthyCHILD will serve 7 additional children through this funding.
Principal Investigator: Kari Kokka (Co-PI), Rochelle Gutiérrez, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (PI), Marrielle Myers, Kennesaw State University (Co-PI)
Department: Teaching, Learning and Leading
Project Title: Political Conocimiento in Teaching Mathematics: Preparing Teachers to Advocate for Students
Agency Name: Spencer Foundation
Award Dates: 3/1/20 – 2/28/21
Amount: $149,818 (Pitt subaward) $500,000 (Overall)
In school climates of high stakes testing, anti-Black and anti-immigration sentiments, racially-biased tracking practices, and corporate investment in schools, teaching is more political than ever. Yet, without understanding this political aspect, mathematics teachers are unlikely to identify their role as advocates for equity and may simply reproduce the teaching they experienced and its accompanying inequities. In fact, we risk losing teachers unprepared to navigate politics. Rather than assuming they will develop political knowledge on-the-job, pre-service teachers need to be offered opportunities to critique initiatives, leverage resources, and practice making ethical decisions to significantly change classrooms, schools, and society. Developing and producing this requires further theorizing mathematics teacher education around political knowledge and sharing research methods/tools that seriously address teachers’ need for professional support to negotiate the politics they face.
To address this timely issue, the Political Conocimiento in Teaching Mathematics Project, situated across three universities, seeks to understand and address: (1) the nature of politics that mathematics teachers are facing in different contexts; (2) how intentionally-designed activities prepare teachers to understand how politics affect their teaching and students; and (3) how such activities prepare teachers to be antiracist teachers who take risks in addressing politics they face now and in the future.
Principal Investigator: Elon Dancy
Department: Education Foundations, Organization, and Policy
Project Title: Heinz Fellows
Agency Name: Heinz Endowments
Award Dates: 7/1/20 – 6/30/21
Amount: $850,000
The Heinz Fellows Program provides a year-long residency in the Center for Urban Education for individuals who are interested in advancing equity in education. Fellows will work in urban schools in collaboration with teachers, staff and school leaders to support students in academic, social, and emotional growth while building knowledge and skills necessary to work in urban contexts.