Representative Grants

Grant #1921526 National Science Foundation, Division of Social and Economic Sciences, Program on Methodology, Measurement and Statistics

Advances in Skin Color Measurement: Reliability, Validity, and Feasibility of Portable Devices for Field Research in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences

• $373,197 primary award
• $16,000 Research Experiences for Undergraduates Supplement
• UIC PI Senior Research Scientist: Rachel Gordon
  • 9/1/19 to 8/31/23
• UIC substitute PI Bethany Bray
  • 7/1/21 to 8/31/23
• Co-PI: Amelia Branigan, University of Maryland
  • 9/1/19 to 8/31/23

This project advances the measurement of skin color in survey field research by determining whether a new generation of portable devices for color measurement are practically feasible and scientifically sound for large-scale field-based survey research. The project also seeks to better understand how physical measures of skin color compare to widely-used interviewer-coded skin color scales. 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

“Equity-Focused Policy Research Building Evidence on Nutrition Supports for Low-Income Families with Young Children” program to study Contributions of CACFP Program Rules and Sponsor Roles to Rural-Urban Inequities: A Participatory Approach using Primary and Secondary Data

• $250,000
• Project Directors: Brenda Koester and Elizabeth Powers, University of Illinois at Urbana
• Scholars: Rachel Gordon, Katherine Speirs
  • 3/20 to 3/23

A mixed-methods study of geographic inequities in access to food subsidies in family child care (the Child & Adult Care Food [CACFP] programs) using a participatory citizen-science approach to convening a community advisory board of CACFP sponsor leadership and employees and combining analyses of administrative data with semi-structured interviews.

Grant #R03HD098310 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Harmonizing Two NICHD-funded Datasets to Study Youths’ Behavioral Health

• $171,962
• PI: Rachel Gordon, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Co-PI: Ariel Aloe, University of Iowa
  • 9/01/2019 to 8/31/2021
• Impact Score: 10, Percentile: 1

This project expanded two public-use datasets in innovative ways by placing measures of youths’ behavioral health on a common metric both between datasets and across subgroups within datasets, by harmonizing the subgroup variables as well as key design variables, by demonstrating the utility of the linked scores in comparison to the original raw scores, and by creating a crosswalk of variables needed for high-priority research questions using the linked scores.

Grant #R01HD081022 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Predictors of Achievement from Early Childhood to Adulthood

• $734,279
• PI: Rachel Gordon, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Co-PI: Robert Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin
• Co-Is, Judith Langlois and Daniel S. Hamermesh, University of Texas at Austin
  • 6/1/15 to 5/31/19

This project significantly contributed to the growing body of research on physical attractiveness as a source of social stratification with wide implications for health, akin to more frequently studied factors like race and gender. The project created and analyzed the largest-ever public repository of physical attractiveness ratings for a cohort from birth into young adulthood.

Grant #R305A130118 from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Research, Early Childhood Program (Goal 1)

Measuring Preschool Program Quality: Multiple Aspects of the Validity of Two Widely-Used Measures

• $666,373.97
• PI: Rachel Gordon, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Co-Is: Kerry Hofer and Sandra Wilson, Vanderbilt, and Everett Smith, UIC
  • 6/1/13 to 5/31/16

This project examined two widely used measures of quality, the ECERS-R and CLASS, including their structural validity (dimensionality of each scale), response process validity (order, fit and separation of items along underlying dimensions), and predictive validity specific to cutoffs defined in policy system (Quality Rating and Information Systems; Head Start Recompetition). The project studied these aspects of validity across a dozen datasets, using meta-analyses to systematically accumulate results.

Grant #R01HD060711 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Domain-Specific Child Care Quality and Child Health, Cognition and Behavior:

• R01, $918,479
• PI: Rachel Gordon, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Co-Is: Robert Kaestner, Sanders Korenman, Everett Smith, Lauren Wakschlag
  • 1/15/2010 to 12/31/2013

The major goal of this project was to examine the association between child care quality and child cognitive, behavioral and health outcomes focusing on new domain-specific (cognition, behavior, health) measures of quality. The study used four longitudinal data sets to establish new measures of quality and to examine patterns and changes in the quality of care settings used from infancy through preschool, including transitions among maternal care and family day care and child care centers of varying quality, and how these trajectories in the quality of these care settings relate to child outcomes, within domains of development.

Grant #R305A090065 from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Research, Early Childhood Program (Goal 1)

Specific Aspects of Quality that Support Children's School Readiness in Community-Based and School-Based Early Childhood Programs

• $602,792
• PI: Rachel Gordon, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Co-Is: Robert Kaestner, Sanders Korenman, Everett Smith
  • 5/16/2009-5/15/2012

The major goal of this project was to examine the association between quality of preschool classrooms and child health, behavioral and cognitive outcomes in community-based and school-based early care and education programs. The project combined rigorous psychometric analyses of existing measures of preschool classrooms with regression analyses associating quality to child outcomes, within domains.