Sarah L. Caverly
Project Director

Sarah Caverly is a Project Director with SEDL's Research and Evaluation (R&E) program. Her current work includes serving as the project director for three randomized controlled trial (RCT) projects. These projects include two national multisite cluster RCTs of SRA Imagine It! Today's Open Court Reading and Everyday Mathematics®. In addition, she was the project director for the Louisiana Striving Readers RCT project.

Contact Information
You may contact Sarah L. Caverly at 512-391-6509

or by using SEDL's contact form.

Areas of Expertise
Dr. Caverly’s research interests include early childhood education, socio-emotional development, and program evaluation. In addition, she was selected to attend the 2009 Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster Randomized Trials, held by the Institute of Educational Sciences, National Center for Educational Research.

Experience
Dr. Caverly’s previous projects at SEDL include conducting an external evaluation using a matched-comparison quasi-experimental design of the Early Reading First program in the Madison Parish School District in Louisiana. She also assisted directors and evaluators of the nation’s 62 Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) in implementing and collecting data for their Annual Performance Reports (APRs); reviewing and validating the evidence base of more than 20 reading curricula submitted to the New Mexico Public Education Department; and assisting in a case study to identify promising staffing practices in higher-quality afterschool programs across the United States. In addition, she conducted site visits, collected and analyzed data, and led the development of the final evaluation report for the completed Arkansas Education Renewal Zone project.

Prior to joining SEDL in April 2007, Dr. Caverly was a senior research analyst with Xtria LLC from 2003 to 2007. In this position, she worked on several projects, including the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES, 2003), Head Start National Reporting System, Head Start National Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) System Quality Assurance Evaluation, and the Classroom Literacy and Intervention Outcome Study (CLIO, Even Start). She also served as adjunct faculty at George Mason University and as a lead teacher at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center.

Education
Dr. Caverly holds a bachelor of arts in psychology from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI; a master of arts in clinical psychology from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY; and a doctorate in applied developmental psychology from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

SEDL Publications

• Bright Futures: Early Reading First Year Three Summary Evaluation Report (2010)
• Evaluation of Madison Parish Bright Futures Early Reading First Grant (2008)
• What Works? Common Practices in High Functioning Afterschool Programs: The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning Final Report (2008)
• Arkansas Education Renewal Zones Initiative - 2007 Final Evaluation Report (2007)
• Education Renewal Zones: Increasing Partnerships and Sharing Resources for School Improvement (2006)

Selected External Publications

• Harper, B., Lemerise, E., & Caverly, S. (2010). The effect of induced mood on children’s social information processing: Social goals and response evaluations. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 38(5), 575–586. DOI:10.1007/s10802-009-9356-7
• Monahan, K., Richards, T., St. Onge, A., Larsen, J., Hardin, M., Noursi, S., & Caverly, S. (2005, August). Michigan Court Improvement Program Assessment. Portland, ME: University of Southern Maine, Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy and the American Bar Association, Center for Children and the Law.
• Pai-Samant, S., DeWolfe, J., Caverly, S., Boller, K., McGroder, S., Gulin, J., Maahs, J., Mills, J., & Quinones, M. (2004). Measuring outcomes targeted by Head Start Quality Enhancement initiatives (Vol. 2). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services.
• Caverly, S. L., Lemerise, E. A., & Harper, B. D. (2002). Patterns of friendship in ungraded primary classes. Early Education and Development, 13, 5–21.
• Denham, S. A., Caverly, S., Schmidt, M., Blair, K., Demulder, E., Caal, S., Hamada, H., & Mason, T. (2002). Preschool understanding of emotions: Contributions to classroom anger and aggression. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 43, 901–916.
• Denham, S. A., von Salisch, M., Olthof, T., Kochanoff, A., & Caverly, S. (2002). Emotions and social development in childhood. In P. K. Smith & C. Hart (Eds.), The handbook of social development. New York: Guilford.
• Winsler, A., Caverly, S. L., Willson-Quayle, A., Carlton, M. P., Howell, C., & Long, G. N. (2002). The social and behavioral ecology of mixed-age and same-age preschool classrooms: A natural experiment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 305–330.
• Denham, S. A., Mason, T., Caverly, S., Hackney, R., Caswell, C., & DeMulder, E. (2001). Preschoolers at play: Co-Socializers of emotional and social competence. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 290–301.
• Diehl, D., Lemerise, E., Caverly, S., Ramsay, S., & Roberts, J. (1998). Peer relations and school adjustment in ungraded primary children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 506–515.

Selected Presentations

• Fong, C. J., Boelter, J., Vaden-Kiernan, M., Caverly, S. L., & Sullivan, M. K. (2012, March). The relationship between reading motivation and academic ability in low performing adolescent readers. Poster presented at the Bienniel Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Vancouver, CN.
• Caverly, S., Rudo, Z., & Vaden-Kiernan, M. (2009). Staffing and staff development in high quality after-school programs. Paper for presentation at the Annual Conference for the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
• Rudo, Z., & Caverly, S. (2008). Education Renewal Zones: Increasing partnerships and sharing resources for school improvement. Paper for presentation at the Annual Conference for the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.
• Caverly, S., Denham, S., & Sarampote, N. (2007, April). Sibling conflict’s role in children’s social competence as perceived by teachers and peers. Paper for presentation at the Biennial Conference for the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA.
• Caverly, S., Neal, K., & Winsler, A. (2002, April). Sibling influences on pragmatic language development. Poster accepted for presentation at the Biennial Conference on Human Development, Charlotte, NC.
• Caverly, S., Denham, S., Winsler, A., & Sarampote, N. (2002, April). Social competence and siblings: Do they make a difference? Poster accepted for presentation at the Biennial Conference on Human Development, Charlotte, NC.