Research

One of NHRI's research initiatives is in the CLIFTON Project, endowed by the late Dr. Donald O. Clifton. The research conducted on CLIFTON assesses the investment relationship between juniors and seniors in teacher education and freshmen and sophomores who plan to enter teacher education. The CLIFTON Project research also involves continual assessment of these students once they enter the field of education to see if this investment relationship experience has any impact on their classroom teaching methods. The endowed professors who have conducted research on the CLIFTON Project include: Dr. John Creswell (2002 - 2007) and Dr. Margaret MacIntyre Latta (2007 - present).

A second NHRI research initiative involved Teenage Project volunteer work at Hawthorne Elementary School's after-school program. The college-age mentors from mainstream culture were matched with elementary school immigrant English Language Learner (ELL) students. Under the direction of Dr. Michael Scheel, the study used multiple data sources to explore the acculturation of immigrant children to determine whether or not the influence of older mentors would lead to increased multicultural competence in the younger students.