About

Mary Bratsch-Hines, Ph.D., is the Senior Manager for Research and Evaluation at the University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning. Dr. Bratsch-Hines began her career as an early childhood educator, which sparked her desire to study how children's educational experiences in child care, prekindergarten, and early elementary school settings support optimal development. A primary goal of her research is to identify the experiences that are most likely to improve children's early language and literacy skills, which, in turn, advance their trajectories as successful readers. An applied statistician concentrating on research design and evaluation, her projects include experimental evaluations of teacher professional development programs as well as observational studies of children's early care and education settings and highlights the experiences of socioeconomically, linguistically, racially, and ability diverse children primarily living in rural areas. Dr. Bratsch-Hines has been the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator of over $10 million of funded research and has authored several publications advancing scholarship in the field of early childhood education and literacy. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also worked as an Advanced Research Scientist at Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute until joining the Lastinger Center in 2021. Dr. Bratsch-Hines continues to work on FPG projects, including Targeted Reading Instruction, Early Learning Network, and Family Life Project.

Education

• Ph.D. in Education, 2012 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• M.A. in Education, 2008 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• B.A. in English, 2002 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Professional Appointments

• Senior Manager, Research and Evaluation, Lastinger Center for Learning, University of Florida, 2021-present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017-present
• Advanced Research Scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2012-2020

Activities and Honors

• Editorial Review Board, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk
• Reviewer, Reading and Writing, Journal of Early Childhood Education, AERA Open, Elementary School Journal, Exceptionality, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, American Educational Research Journal, Teaching and Teacher Education
• Adhoc Grant Reviewer, Institute of Education Sciences Basic Processes Panel
• Conference Reviewer, Society for Research in Child Development, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness
• Recipient, Abecedarian Award, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Selected Publications

• Varghese, C., Bratsch-Hines, M. E., Aiken, H., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2021). Elementary teachers' intervention fidelity in relation to reading and vocabulary outcomes for students at risk for reading-related disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219421999844
• Aiken, H. H., Bratsch-Hines, M., Amendum, S., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2021). Targeted Reading Instruction: Four guiding principles. The Reading Teacher. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1975
• Burchinal, M., Bezdek, K., Foster, T., Bratsch-Hines, M., Franco, X., & Peisner-Feinberg, E. (2021). Relating early care and education quality to preschool outcomes: The same or different models for different outcomes? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 55(2), 35-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.10.005
• Zgourou, E., Bratsch-Hines, M. E., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2020). Home literacy practices in relation to language skills of children living in low-wealth rural communities. Infant and Child Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2201
• Bratsch-Hines, M. E., Carr, R. C., Zgourou, E., Vernon-Feagans, L., & Willoughby, M. (2020). Infant and toddler childcare quality and stability in relation to proximal and distal academic and social outcomes. Child Development, 91(6), 1854-1864. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13389
• Jordan, R. P., & Bratsch-Hines, M. E. (2020). Associations of reading knowledge with kindergarten and first grade teachers' reported instructional strategies. Literacy Research and Instruction, 59(4), 277-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2020.1774689
• Aiken, H., Varghese, C., Pedonti, S., Bratsch-Hines, M. E., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2020). Targeted Reading Intervention teacher certification: An approach to building and sustaining teacher expertise in rural schools. Literacy Research and Instruction, 59(4), 346-369. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2020.1777230
• Carr, R. C., Bratsch-Hines, M., Varghese, C., & Vernon-Feagans, L. (2020). Latent class growth trajectories of letter name knowledge during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 69(1), 101141, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101141
• Reynolds, E. R., Garrett-Peters, P. T., Bratsch-Hines, M., Vernon-Feagans, L., & The Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2020). Mothers' and fathers' mental state talk: Ethnicity, partner talk, and sensitivity. Journal of Marriage & Family, 82(5), 1696-1716. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12675
• Burchinal, M., Foster, T., Bezdek, K., Bratsch-Hines, M., Vernon-Feagans, L., Blair, C., & The FLP Key Investigators (2020). School-entry skills predicting school-age academic and social-emotional trajectories. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 51(2), 67-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2019.08.004

Selected Links

• Lastinger Center for Learning
• Targeted Reading Instruction, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute