Her research focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie reading in a second language and on understanding the differences in the reading processes of bilinguals and monolinguals. She is coprincipal investigator on two NICHD funded projects that investigate the transfer of reading skills from Spanish to English among primary schoolchildren. She is also a coinvestigator on an IES funded evaluation study of educational interventions that strengthen the language and literacy abilities of Spanish-speaking English-Language Learners. Carlo has written articles and book chapters on the role of mother-tongue literacy in second-language literacy, and on the literacy assessment of bilingual learners. She is an Assistant Professor in the Teaching and Learning program in the School of Education at the University of Miami.