Latest News

ECEI to give presentation at OVPRP symposium

The ECEI will be giving an update on its neighborhood inequities research at an upcoming OVPRP symposium.

Board Member Iheoma Iruka will be giving a keynote presentation.

“Understanding Inequity, Advancing Equity," a two-day virtual symposium, is 3:30-6:00pm, Dec. 7th and 8th. This event is free and open to the public.

Advance registration required: https://oklahoma.zoom.us/…/regist…/WN_wSdEj06HSp-u9lhagUTiHA.

The event is cosponsored by the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships, teh OU College of Arts and Sciences, the OU Arts & Humanities Forum and the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa.

Picture is of the word Racism with a circle and a line crossed through it

ECEI Launches Initiative to Become Anti-Racist Workplace

Last month, when the ECEI joined the chorus of voices calling for change and declaring that “Black Lives Matter,” we pledged to begin working toward rooting out systemic racism, bias, and injustice.

As part of that effort, our full staff recently wrapped up a series of three study-and-share sessions on becoming an anti-racist workplace. The sessions provided our team with foundational knowledge regarding the ways that anti-Black racism shows up in our own thinking as well as in our society.

The interactive sessions concluded with each team member making an individual commitment to take action in the next month to continue their journey towards being anti-racist.

To view the full article, click here.

Teacher And Pupils Using Wooden Shapes In Montessori School

ECEI Pledges to Stand with Partners Against Racism

Racism, inequities, and injustice are plagues that have afflicted our society for hundreds of years.

They are present today, when unarmed men and women of color are killed by police, just as they were present 99 years ago during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

They are present when teenagers in black communities are wrestled to the ground and handcuffed for jaywalking.

To read the full article, click here.

New Publication

The ECEI is pleased to announce a new publication co-authored by Dr. Shinyoung Jeon, Senior Research and Policy Associate. “Economic Pressure, Parental Positivity, Positive Parenting and Child Social Competence” was published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies in March.

Drs. Shinyoung Jeon (Senior Research and Policy Associate at the Early Childhood Education Institute) and Tricia Neppl (Associate Professor at Iowa State University) found that maternal and paternal positivity, defined as a positive perspective on life and the future, and positive parenting, including listener responsiveness, communication, and positive mood were significantly associated with changes in child social competence from ages 2 to 5. However, economic pressure was negatively associated with maternal and paternal positivity and father positive parenting. This study suggests that parental positivity and positive parenting could be mechanisms through which financial hardship may affect children’s development.

To view the full article, click here

Sherri Castle and Diane Horm pose for a picture.

ECEI Receives NIH Grant with Georgetown to Extend Pre-K Study

OU-Tulsa’s Early Childhood Education Institute (ECEI), an applied research group focused on advancing the quality of early childhood education, has received a $2.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to extend work with researchers from Georgetown University.

With the study’s long-term focus (following children from age 3 through 4th grade), its depth (data collected from children, classrooms, teachers, parents, administrators, and health providers) as well its sources (multiple methods used across various early childhood settings) — this study is the among the most comprehensive contemporary longitudinal study of public pre-K and its associations with children's outcomes through elementary school.
This new award will allow researchers to follow the participants who are now in kindergarten for 5 years (until 2023). The longitudinal study will examine the processes in preschool through 4th grade classrooms that support children’s self-regulatory skills — skills that underlie children’s academic success and relate to their overall health. The study, titled SEED (School Experiences and Early Development), began following approximately 650 three-year-olds from Educare, CAP-Tulsa, and community childcare programs in fall 2016. Funds from NIH will allow expansion of the sample size, duration, and depth of the study.

To read more about this award, please click here

A woman performs an eduaction assessment on a student at a desk.

ECEI featured in Sooner Magazine

The Winter 2018 edition of the Sooner Magazine includes an article about how the Early Childhood Education Institute at OU-Tulsa has changed the field of Early Childhood. Read about the Institute's history, its growth through the years, and its continued influential reach.

To read the full article, click here