Judith Carta

Judith Carta is a Senior Scientist at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in the Institute for Life-Span Studies and a Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas. Her key research and policy interests include tiered intervention models for advancing children’s language, early literacy and social-emotional development; methods for monitoring children’s progress, and community-wide interventions for promoting early learning. She has worked with states and school districts seeking to implement multi-tiered systems of support in their PreK programs. She has directed a number of multi-site federally funded research centers and projects focused on developing practices that teachers and parents can use to promote children’s early learning and reducing disparities in children’s early experience. She currently co-directs the Bridging the Word Gap Research Network, a collaborative of over 100 researchers, program implementers, civic leaders, and policymakers developing partnerships within their communities to promote children’s early language experiences. She was formerly a teacher of young children with developmental delays, a member of the Federal Advisory Panel on Head Start Research and Evaluation, a member of DEC’s Commission on Recommended Practices, the Pyramid Model Consortium, and Editor of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. She was a founding member of the Conference for Research Innovations in Early Intervention.