• Evidence-based Project for the Integration of Curricula

Funded by a $5.7 million federal grant, EPIC, short for Evidence-based Project for the Integration of Curricula, is based on the hypothesis that focusing on pre-schoolers', social, emotional, and behavioral development will make them more resourceful and resilient learners. Designed by Drs, John Fantzzo, Paul McDermott, and Vivian Gadsden, EPIC is a pre-school curriculum intended to enhance the school readiness of low-income, urban children in the city of Philadelphia. EPIC integrates the social, emotional, and cognitive into one comprehensive and stimulating clasroom program designed to give pre-schoolers a foundation in how to learn.

• University-School-Community Partnerships

Dr. Vivian Gadsden and her research team at NCOFF are involved in a documentation study of university-school-community partnerships. The research agenda was developed around multiple issues; health, pedagogy and practice, and student learning. The study examines a university assisted school that is situated within a larger university school partnership, and focuses on the implementation of a university assisted school, paying particular attention to the potential and complexities of collaboration, sustainability, and support. The study looks at whether and how the school, university, and community are changing as a result of the partnership.

• Incarcerated Parents and Children of Incarcerated Parents

Dr. Vivian Gadsden is conducting a policy study on incarcerated parents and their families, and a study of children of incarcerated parents. She is currently examining the effects of a parent's incarceration on children, and the implications of parent absence for children's lives at school and at home.