Policy Topics

Early learning

Content type
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Alumni

Anna Shapiro

Research Associate, RAND Corporation
[email protected]
Anna Shapiro's research focuses on the effects of early childhood programs and policies on young children’s cognitive and socioemotional outcomes. She is particularly focused on the effects of early childhood programs on children with or at-risk for…
Anna Shapiro
Affiliated faculty

Nell K. Duke

Professor, School of Education
Nell Duke’s work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and…
nell_k_duke_profile
Publication

Supporting 'Preschool for All' in Washington state

Nov 12, 2021
Policy Brief from the University of Michigan’s Education Policy Initiative outlines a vision for high-quality universal preschool in the state of Washington High-quality preschool helps prepare children for kindergarten and promotes their long-term...
Supporting 'Preschool for All' in Washington state
News

Weiland explains hurdles for early childhood education

Aug 13, 2021
As the new school year begins, many early childhood educators are wondering what the year will look like. Christina Weiland, associate professor of education and faculty co-director of the Education Policy Initiative, explained to WXYZ the obstacles...
Weiland explains hurdles for early childhood education
News

Education Policy Initiative's report gains more traction

Jul 6, 2021
The Education Policy Initiative's recent report, "Historic Crisis, Historic Opportunity: Using Evidence to Mitigate the Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Young Children and Early care and Education Programs," has gained more traction in the media,...
Weiland explains hurdles for early childhood education
News

Biden's plan for universal preschool, explained - Weiland

May 12, 2021
On April 28, the Biden Administration announced the American Families Plan, which includes universal preschool for all three- and four-year-olds. Christina Weiland, associate professor of education at the Ford School, weighed in on the plan and...
Investment in Pre-K can expand access, increase pay - Weiland
Boston RPP briefs

Going the Distance: Disparities in Pre-K Enrollment in Higher-Quality Schools by Geographic Proximity, Race/Ethnicity, Family Income, and Home Language

April 29, 2023
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Meghan McCormick, Mirjana Pralica, JoAnn Hsueh, Christina Weiland, Amanda Ketner Weissman, Anna Shapiro, Samantha Xia, Cullen MacDowell, Samuel Maves, Anne Taylor, Jason Sachs
This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012–2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and...
Learning from lottery-based evaluations of early education programs
Boston RPP briefs

Enrollment in Pre-K and children's social-emotional and executive functioning skills: To what extent are associations sustained across time?

April 20, 2023
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Lillie Moffett, Amanda Weissman, Meghan McCormick, Christina Weiland, Joann Hsueh, Catherine Snow, Jason Sachs
Pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) improves the school readiness of all children, but less is known about whether associations between enrollment in Pre-K and different indicators of social–emotional and executive functioning (EF) skills are sustained as...
Children and teacher reading
Boston RPP briefs

Professional Development in the Time of COVID-19: Evidence and Insights from Early Educators in the Boston Public Schools

April 7, 2023
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Christina Weiland, Meghan McCormick, Tiffany Wu, Cullen MacDowell, Paola Guerrero-Rosada, Anne Taylor, Catherine Snow, Jason Sachs
This brief is part of a larger body of research examining the Boston Universal Pre-K (UPK) expansion and the Expanding Children’s Early Learning (ExCEL) P-3 Project focused on sustaining children’s early learning gains. As we navigate the...
Teacher wearing a mask elbow bumping with child wearing a mask
Boston RPP briefs

Enrollment in Pre-K and children's social-emotional and executive functioning skills: To what extent are associations sustained across time?

December 22, 2022
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Lillie Moffett, Amanda Weissman, Meghan McCormick, Christina Weiland, JoAnn Hsueh, Catherine Snow, Jason Sachs
Pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) improves the school readiness of all children, but less is known about whether associations between enrollment in Pre-K and different indicators of social–emotional and executive functioning (EF) skills are sustained as...
Students sit around teacher reading, some raising hands
Boston RPP briefs

Learning experiences vary across young children in the same classroom: Evidence from the individualizing student instruction measure in the Boston Public Schools

November 28, 2022
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Christina Weiland, Lillie Moffett, Paola Guerrero Rosada, Amanda Weissman, Kehui Zhan, Michelle Maier, Catherine Snow, Meghan McCormick, JoAnn Hsueh, Jason Sachs
Classroom-level quality measures are widely used in early education settings but may mask important variation in learning experiences across children in the same classroom. This study investigates this possibility using detailed data from an...
Students raising hands in classroom
Boston RPP briefs

Mixed-Delivery Public Prekindergarten: Differences in Demographics, Quality, and Children’s Gains in Community-Based versus Public School Programs across Five Large-Scale Systems

September 1, 2022
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Christina Weiland, Meghan McCormick, Jennifer Duer, Allison Friedman-Kraus, Mirjana Pralica, Samantha Xia, Milagros Nores, Shira Mattera
Nearly all states with public prekindergarten programs use mixed-delivery systems, with classrooms in both public schools and community-based settings.  However, experts have long raised concerns about systematic inequities by setting within these...
Children and teacher reading
Boston RPP briefs

A New Approach to Sustaining Pre-K Impacts

April 1, 2022
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Meghan McCormick, Rebecca Unterman, Mijana Pralica, Christina Weiland, Amanda Weissman, Joann Hsueh
Support for expanding access to high-quality prekindergarten (pre-K) is at an all time high. Increased investments in early care and education have been spurred in part by rigorous evidence finding that four-year-old students who attend pre-K score...
Students playing with toys around teacher
Boston RPP briefs

Content-rich instruction and cognitive demand in prek: using systematic observations to predict child gains

February 3, 2022
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Michelle Maier, Meghan McCormick, Samantha Xia, JoAnn Hsueh, Christina Weiland, Abby Morales, Marina Boni, Melissa Tonachel, Jason Sachs, Catherine Snow
Currently available measures of PreK classroom quality inconsistently predict gains in children’s outcomes. Extant measures may not capture the full range of instructional practices—including the degree to which children are exposed to rich content...
Boston RPP briefs

Does Kindergarten Instruction Matter for Sustaining the Prekindergarten (PreK) Boost? Evidence From Individual- and Classroom-Level Survey and Observational Data

February 1, 2022
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Meghan P. McCormick, Mirjana Pralica, Christina Weiland, JoAnn Hsueh, Lillie Moffett, Paola Guerrero-Rosada, Amanda Weissman, Kehui Zhang, Michelle F. Maier, Catherine E. Snow, Emily Davies, Anne Taylor, Jason Sachs
The sustaining environments hypothesis theorizes that the lasting effects of PreK programs are contingent on the quality of the subsequent learning environment in early elementary school. The current study tests this theory by leveraging data from...
Boston RPP briefs

Unpacking pre-K classroom organization: Types, variation, and links to school readiness gains

December 23, 2021
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Lillie Moffett, Amanda Weissman, Christina Weiland, Meghan McCormick, JoAnn Hsueh, Catherine Snow, Jason Sachs
Classroom organization is an important facet of prekindergarten quality but is typically measured at a global level and as a single construct. Little is known about how experiences of different facets of classroom organization—namely, exposure to...