How our work is making a difference
The Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy is a multidisciplinary research center dedicated to conducting high-quality research that improves children’s learning and development at home, in school and in the community.
Our Work
Our work ranges from multi-year, federally funded projects that examine outcomes of thousands of children and families, to program evaluation work in our state, to smaller scale analyses and briefs meant to inform policy makers and practitioners.
Recent News
Crane faculty associate Dr. Shayne Piasta has been honored by Ohio State’s College of Education and Human Ecology with the 2025 Distinguished Research Award. The award recognizes a faculty member who has made transformative contributions to an academic discipline.
This week in Tuned In: ‘Losing the child’ in discussions about child care, efforts in Ohio to include children with disabilities in early education classrooms, and what a Crane study on first graders’ media use reveals about PBS’ role in educational programming.
This week in Tuned In: Starting AI literacy before kindergarten, nearly 150,000 Ohio families benefit from the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and using digital “nudges” to remind parents to engage their children.
What aspects of your young child’s life might be affecting their sleep? That’s what researchers at Ohio State are investigating – and you and your child can help!