The Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Early Childhood Issues and Initiatives (ECRC) was established by the College of Education and Human Development in 1999 to conduct and disseminate research about the development and education of young children.

The Interdisciplinary Center's mission is to encourage research activities by faculty within the College of Education and Human Development and in departments from across the university and the nation with complementary research strengths in areas such as early and middle childhood education, family therapy, music, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, public policy, speech pathology, social work, and teacher preparation.

Our current goals include:

• A focus on early childhood education in the broadest sense that allows us to create a research center that reaches the needs of the community, parents, pre-service teachers, teachers, researchers and children.
• Create a center that gathers a variety of people from different fields who would provide a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of early childhood (education, psychology, sociology, anthropology, medicine, and the like) including subject areas traditionally found in early learning standards and curriculum (mathematics, science, language, literacy, music, art, drama, social studies).
• Strengthen and deepen the research focus and our connection to the Early Learning Campus to create a state of the art research facility where children, parents, teachers, and researchers contribute to the research process and dissemination of research findings.
• Grow our connection with the Early Learning Campus as a center for teacher training and teacher learning that can be studied and contribute to a broader understanding of teacher preparation and lifelong learning.

With appreciation

This center's research endeavors were started in 1999 with the vision of Dr. Victoria Molfese along with her many colleagues and graduate students. The current faculty members wish to express their gratitude for her vision and contribution to the development of this center.