Joseph Sparling



Joseph Sparling is a Board Member of the Abecedarian Education Foundation (International), a Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina (USA), and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education of the University of Melbourne (Australia). His 50-year career has been focused on bringing educational opportunities to all children from birth to school entry. With Professor Craig Ramey, he developed an early educational program known as the Abecedarian Approach. This program has been evaluated in a series of randomized controlled trials with results published in hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He serves as a consultant on international early childhood research and/or staff training activities currently being conducted in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Jordan, Mexico, Singapore, and the USA. Sparling was the Director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Care Center during the intervention phase of the world-known Abecedarian Project. Nobel Laureate James Heckman’s recent economic analysis shows a 13.7% annual return on Abecedarian investment.