About the lecture
Early childhood has been targeted as a key time for public investment, as an accumulating body of research suggests that early childhood education (ECE) programs may offset the detrimental long-term effects of early exposure to poverty. However, recent evaluations of ECE programs have also noted substantial impact fadeout in the years immediately following early intervention, raising questions about the durability and persistence of impacts generated from ECE programs.
This lecture will focus on recent research regarding the long-term persistence and fadeout of early childhood programs targeted at low-income children, and it will provide a framework for understanding why certain program evaluations have found long-term effects when others have observed impact fadeout.
Next, we will turn to major methodological approaches for evaluation of ECE programs, focusing in particular on cluster-randomized-control designs. It will cover state-of-the-art approaches to estimating impacts from cluster RCT studies and discuss newly developed approaches for understanding impact heterogeneity in multi-site studies.
Bio
Tyler Watts is Research Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Scholar in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University. He studies educational policies designed to promote the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children from underserved communities. He has recently published a replication of the Marsmellow test that has been subject to academic and media attention.
Further research visit events
- You may also be interested in attending the open lecture Setting the stage for preschool intervention: Children’s early learning in the context of poverty and inequality to be held by Professor Cybel Raver the day before, 27 May at 10am.
- These two open lectures are part of a PhD course held 27-28 May, Early childhood education as a tool to offset the detrimental long-term effects of early exposure to poverty. The course explores a range of measurement and methodological issues that may be of interest to folks working at the intersection of developmental psychology, econometrics, measurement, randomized trials, and policy-relevant educational research. More information about the course content and how to sign up to participate in the full course.
The open lectures and PhD course are organized by associate professor Josh Lawrence and professor Veslemøy Rydland and hosted by The department of Education and the research group Text Comprehension: Development, Instruction and Multiple Texts (TextDIM).
The events are held as part of a research visit sponsored by Mobility grants North America in educational research (UTNAM), the Research Council of Norway.