# The Role of Self-Regulation and Classroom Self-Regulatory Supports in Early Education

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $98,885

## Abstract

Project Summary
The overarching goals of the study are to identify mechanisms that explain positive short-term effects of public
pre-kindergarten (pre-k) on low-income children’s education and health outcomes, and to examine pathways
for sustaining positive short-term effects into early schooling (1st – 4th grade) to guide actionable decisions to
improve education and health for vulnerable young children. We focus on children’s self-regulatory skills (e.g.,
attention; impulse control; memory; planning) and the public pre-k classroom features that support their
development as prime candidates for mechanisms linking pre-k with education and health outcomes because
(a) self-regulatory skills have been empirically documented to underlie education and health outcomes in
childhood and beyond; (b) economic adversity compromises the development of brain regions underlying
emerging self-regulatory skills; and (c) self-regulatory skills are malleable during early childhood and thus
sensitive to variation in pre-k and early elementary environments. The 7-year longitudinal study takes place in
the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) district, which hosts a nationally recognized pre-k program that serves a largely
low-income and highly diverse population of children. We are following a single cohort of low-income children
who entered preschool at age 3 in 2016, through 4th grade; the children (N»1,200) are currently in 2nd grade. In
each project year, we assess the children’s self-regulatory, education, and health outcomes, observe their
classrooms, and interview their teachers and parents. Through February 2020, we had obtained data on pace
with our proposed timeline and Specific Aims, at very high response rates (e.g. 100% of sampled children’s
first grade teachers completed surveys; 92% of sample children were assessed in the fall of first grade). The
proposed administrative supplement is vital to addressing the key aims of our longitudinal study, following the
TPS district’s shift to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two issues are paramount. First, our
focal children cannot be assessed in person as planned, yet a significant pause in outcome assessments
would seriously compromise our ability to assess grade-by-grade growth in outcomes, which is central to
understanding sustained pre-k impacts. Second, school closures and the move to home-based distance
learning has dramatically altered children’s educational environments and experiences, with unknown – and
likely quite variable – repercussions for their learning and development. To understand the impact these
unanticipated events have on our study, and to minimize harmful consequences for our original data collection
timeline and aims, we must: (1) survey children’s parents and teachers about their educational experiences in
this remote learning environment to support interpretation of differential consequences of the COVID-19
response for children’s education and health growth patterns, and (2) shift...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10293898
- **Project number:** 3R01HD092324-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Anna D. Johnson
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $98,885
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10293898

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10293898, The Role of Self-Regulation and Classroom Self-Regulatory Supports in Early Education (3R01HD092324-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10293898. Licensed CC0.

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