Partners & Funders

We are proud to partner with a variety of national centers and organizations who are leading the way on improving outcomes for young children, with schools and districts who are working hard every day to support children’s learning and development, and with the faculty, staff, and students at the University of Denver whose collaborations and contributions are essential to our work. None of this would be possible without the generous support of our national and private funders who challenge us to stretch and strengthen our approaches to reach more children with high quality early education and care.

Partnerships with National Centers

  • STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center

    The Marsico Institute is part of the national STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center (STEMI2E2) in partnership with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Center is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education. The Center is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education. The work of the Center is focused on developing and enhancing the knowledge base for engagement in STEM learning opportunities for young children with disabilities, implementing high-quality technical assistance and professional development to increase engagement for young children with disabilities in STEM opportunities, and engaging partners and stakeholders from diverse disciplines and industry in work to increase the inclusion of young children with disabilities in early high-quality STEM learning experiences.

  • Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education (DREME) Network

    The DREME Network is collaborative collection of scholars from around the country engaging in research and development to advance of understanding of early math. Funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation, the goal of DREME is to advance the field of early mathematics research in the U.S., significantly improving how early math is taught and learned. Network members include:

    • Deborah Stipek (Faculty Director), Professor, Stanford University
    • Amy Claessens, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • Douglas Clements, University of Denver
    • Cynthia Coburn, Professor, Northwestern University
    • Eric Dearing, Professor, Boston College
    • Dale C. Farran, Emerita Professor, Vanderbilt University
    • Megan Franke, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
    • Herbert Ginsburg, Professor, Columbia University
    • Susan Levine, Professor, University of Chicago
    • Michèle Mazzocco, Professor, University of Minnesota
    • Gigliana Melzi, Associate Professor, New York University
    • Linda M. Platas, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University

National Collaborations and Service to the Field

Our Executive Director, Douglas Clements, has served on the U.S. President's National Mathematics Advisory Panel, the Common Core State Standards committee of the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Research Council’s Committee on Early Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics national standards committees, and is a co-author on each of their reports.

Current and Past Funders

Logos for Marsico Institute Funders

Partnerships with Schools and Districts

Our research would not be possible without the dedication of schools and districts who partner with us to implement interventions with real world contexts. We are grateful to the children, teachers, caregivers, home visitors, and families who share their experience and thinking with us. In our partnerships providing both long and short-term professional development both in the U.S. and abroad, our thinking about how to improve early education experiences for young children is often reinforced and made sharper by practitioners doing this work every day.

Partnerships within the University of Denver

We work in collaboration with faculty across the University of Denver who are interested in early childhood research and policy. We are particularly grateful to the teachers, families, and children at Fisher Early Learning Center and Ricks Center for Gifted Children for their collaborations with piloting new activities.

The interdisciplinary and collaborative approach at the University of Denver and within the Morgridge College of Education has also benefited the Marsico Institute through faculty collaboration on grants and publications. We are also the fortunate recipients of many excellent DU student employees from across the campus who support our research, writing, operations, and communication with the public.