Recent Research

This article from the American Educational Research Journal reports findings of two 9-week randomized controlled trials with 263 first-grade children from low-income communities to examine whether free educational videos and digital games supported children's ability to use informational text to answer real-world quetions.

In this report, EDC and SRI present research into the impact of resources from the PBS KIDS series Molly of Denali on children's ability to use informational text to answer real-world questions.

Research partners EDC and SRI International completed six case studies as part of their evaluation of the implementation and impacts of a national network of 30 Community Collaboratives for Early Learning and Media (CC-ELM)—local partnerships among public media stations and organizations such as schools, libraries, afterschool program providers, parent and family advocacy groups, and housing authorities. This report opens with a cross-case analysis that places case study findings in the context of overall evaluation findings; the six case study reports follow, each focused on a single community.

This is the executive summary of a case study report for people interested in funding, managing, forming, or improving community partnerships. It provides an in-depth account of strategies associated with success in Community Collaboratives for Early Learning and Media, or CC-ELM. A national network of 30 CC-ELM—local partnerships among public media stations and organizations such as schools, libraries, afterschool program providers, parent and family advocacy groups, and housing authorities—were developed and implemented between 2015 and 2020.

This study's goal was to understand the extent to which providing access to media resources focused on critical science and engineering concepts can help children living in low-income households learn. The resources examined were from the PBS KIDS multi-platform property The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Researchers found that exposure to these resources had meaningful impacts on 4- to 5-year-old children's physical science knowledge and their ability to engage with science and engineering practices.

The PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science app was developed as part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Ready To Learn Initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. This study explored the impact of the PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science app—when used in a supportive context—on children’s understanding of science concepts and their use of science and engineering practices; children’s use of science vocabulary; child and parent-child engagement in science and engineering; and parent confidence supporting their child's science learning.

This report presents the results of a first-of-its-kind national survey of parents, who were asked about the types of early science educational activities they do with their young children. It also includes a follow-up qualitative study, focused on low-income families, which sought to illuminate parents’ survey responses. The purpose of the study was to provide new insights on the ways in which parents help their young children learn, as well as new information on parents’ beliefs and practices related to early science learning and the use of learning media.

Getting Ready to Learn (Routledge, 2018) describes how educational media have played and are continuing to play a role in meeting the learning needs of children, parents, and teachers. Based on years of research data from the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative, the book’s chapters cover the production, scholarly research, and technological advances surrounding public media and digital resources.