Biographical Sketches
Barbara T.Bowman (Chair) is a founding faculty member of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development in Chicago. Her specialty areas are early education, cultural diversity, and the education of at-risk children. In addition to teaching, Bowman has directed a wide range of projects, including ones for Head Start teachers, caregivers of infants at risk for morbidity or mortality, teachers on American Indian reservations, and the Child Development Associates program. Her most recent work has been with the Chicago Public Schools, where she provided in-service education for teachers in inner-city neighborhoods. Bowman has served on numerous professional boards, including the Family Resource Coalition and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, of which she was president (1980–1982). Currently she is on the boards of the Great Books Foundation and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She has served on a variety of professional committees, including the Task Force on Early Childhood Education of the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Panel on Day Care Policy and the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children for the National Research Council, the Leadership Initiative for the National Black Child Development Institute, and the Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education of the Illinois State Board of Education.
Honors include D.H.L. degrees from Bank Street College of Education in New York and Roosevelt University in Chicago. She has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. from the University of Chicago.
William Steven Barnett is a professor specializing in education economics and policy at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education and also director of the Center for Early Education at Rutgers. In addition to his academic career, he also has extensive experience working in public policy research and program evaluation. He has served on the editorial boards of Early Education and Development and Early Childhood Research Quarterly and on the National Head Start Advisory Committee. He has conducted research on the cost-effectiveness of early childhood education and intervention programs, the relationship between quality of preschools and efficacy, and the long-term effects of preschool education. He has also examined the effects of early education on the development of disadvantaged and developmentally disabled children. His publications include Early Care and Education for Children in Poverty: Promises, Programs and Long-terms Results (1998, with S.Boocock), and Cost Analysis for Education Decisions: Methods and Examples (1994). He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.
M.Susan Burns (Study Director) is currently a faculty member at the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. She held faculty appointments at Tulane University and the University of Pittsburgh. At the National Research Council, she was study director for the Committee on Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Her research interests include instructional practices that facilitate early cognitive development, dynamic assessment of young children, early childhood curriculum development, and parent-child interaction and emergent literacy. Applied interests include the development of intervention/ prevention programs for young children at risk for academic problems or who have been identified with emotional or behavioral problems. She is a coauthor of Bright Start: A Cognitive Curriculum for Young Children. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
M.Suzanne Donovan (Study Director) is a senior program officer at the National Research Council’s Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education and study director for the Committee on Minority Representation in Special Education and for How People Learn: Targeted Report for Teachers. Her interests span issues of education and public policy. She has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Policy and was previously on the faculty of Columbia University’s School of Public and International Affairs.
Linda M.Espinosa is an associate professor at the College of Education of the University of Missouri. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including the boards of Project Construct and the Far West Laboratory Bay Area Early Intervention Program, and is currently a member of the Task Force on Professional Development of the National Association of Educators of Young Children. She has been a consulting editor for Early Childhood Research Quarterly. In addition to her research and university teaching career, she has professional experience as a preschool teacher and administrator. She served on the National Research Council/Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Head Start Research. Her research has focused on bilingual preschool education, Hispanic families and children, the effectiveness of family support programs and home intervention programs, and preschool education in rural areas. She teaches courses in early childhood assessment, parent-community involvement, child development and curriculum development. She has published over 20 journal articles and book chapters, and has written curriculum guidelines and training manuals for teachers in the early childhood field. She has a Ph.D. in educational design and implementation (1980) from the University of Chicago.
Rochel Gelman is professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She conducts research on causal and quantitative reasoning, constraints on concept acquisition and conceptual change (with a focus on the language and the conceptual basis of fractions and scientific concepts), and is interested in the effects of schooling, language, and culture on these. At the National Research Council, she is a member of the Board on Be-
havioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences and was a member of the Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Psychological Science, and the Committee on Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Her publications include The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Cognition (1991, with S. Carey), and The Child’s Understanding of Number (1978, with C.R. Gallistel). She has a Ph.D. in psychology (1967) from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Herbert P.Ginsburg is the Jacob H.Schiff Foundation professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and was previously cochair of its Department of Human Development. He has taught at Cornell University, the University of Maryland, Harvard University, and the University of Rochester. He is a consulting editor for the Journal of Mathematical Behavior, and for the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology and Cognition and Instruction. At the National Research Council, he was a member of the Committee on Strategic Education Research Program Feasibility and of the Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy. His work has focused on the intellectual development and education of young children, particularly poor and minority children. He has conducted numerous studies of the development of mathematical thinking and the development of cognition in this domain, and examined the implications for instruction and assessment in early education. His publications include Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development (1988), Children’s Arithmetic (1989), The Teacher’s Guide to Flexible Interviewing in the Classroom (1998). He has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology (1965) from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Edmund Gordon is the John M.Musser professor of psychology (emeritus) at Yale University and distinguished professor of educational psychology at the City University of New York. He was one of the founders of Head Start and was its first national director of research. At the National Research Council, he was a member of the Committee on Education Finance. He has conducted research on children living in poverty, cultural diversity
and multicultural education, educational policies for socially disadvantaged children, and cognitive development and schooling. His publications include Day Care: Scientific and Social Policy Issues (1982, coedited with E.Zigler), Human Diversity and Pedagogy (1989), and A View from the Back of the Bus: Education and Social Justice (1993). He has three honorary doctorates from the Bank Street College of Education, Brown University, and Yeshiva University, as well as an honorary master’s degree from Yale University. He has a Ph.D. in child development and guidance (1957) from Columbia University Teachers College.
Betty M.Hart is an associate scientist (emeritus) at the Institute for Life Span Studies at the University of Kansas Human Development Center. In addition to her career as a researcher and professor, she also has extensive experience as preschool teacher and director. Her research has focused on language development and language teaching, teaching practices and early intervention programs, and family-child interactions in home environments. She has also conducted research on children with Down syndrome. Her publications include Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (1995, with T.R. Risley) and The Early Years: Arrangements for Learning (1984, with K.E.Allen). She has a Ph.D. in developmental and child psychology (1969) from the University of Kansas.
Carollee Howes is professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, and was head of the division of educational psychology until 1996. She has been principal investigator for a number of studies of preschool children and quality in day care and is currently principal investigator for the National Center for Development and Learning in Early Childhood, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. She is also participating on the National Evaluation Consortium for Early Head Start through grants from the Mathematics Policy Institute and Early Head Start. Her research has focused on the social development of young children, especially the development of peer relationships in day care settings through interaction and play. She has also conducted research on attachment relations between children and their mothers and between children and child
care providers. Her publications include Keeping Current in Child Care Research: An Annotated Bibliography (1986, 1988, 1990) and The Collaborative Construction of Pretend: Social Pretend Play Functions (1992, with O.A.Unger and C.C.Matheson). She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology (1979) from Boston University.
Sharon Lynn Kagan is the Virginia and Leonard Marx professor of early childhood and family policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a senior research scientist at Yale University. She is the immediate past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and a Past President of Family Support America. A member of over 40 national boards or panels, she has served as chair of the National Education Goals Panel Technical Planning Group for Goal One, as a member of the Clinton Education Transition Team, and on numerous foundation and administration panels. Her research has centered on public policies affecting the lives of young children and families, including child care and preschool programs, family-school relationships, and leadership in early childhood education. Her publications include United We Stand; Collaboration for Child Care and Early Education Services (1991), Reinventing Early Care and Education (1997, with N.Cohen); Putting Families First: America’s Family Support Movement and the Challenge of Change (1994 with B.Weissbourd), Integrating Services for Children and Families: Understanding the Past to Shape the Future (1993) and Leadership in Early Care and Education (1997, coedited with B.Bowman). She received an honorary doctorate from Wheelock College in 1992 and the distinguished alumna award from Teachers College in 1996. She has an Ed.D. (1979) from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Lilian Katz is professor of early childhood education and director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has taught at the University of Illinois, as well as a number of universities abroad, including institutions in West Germany, India, Canada, and the United Kingdom. She was a past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and serves on the editorial boards of several early childhood edu-
cation journals. Her research has focused on early childhood and preschool education and has examined the quality of education for young children through investigations of teaching practices and teacher education. Her publications include Current Topics in Early Childhood Education (seven editions, for which she was editor-in-chief), Building Social Competence in Children (1995, with D. McClellan, J.Fuller, and G.Walz), and Fostering Children’s Social Competence: The Teacher’s Role (1997, with D.E.McClellan). She has a Ph.D. in school education and psychological studies (1968) from Stanford University.
Robert A.LeVine is the Roy E.Larsen professor of education and human development at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and professor of anthropology at Harvard University. He has served on the boards of directors of the Social Science Research Council and the Spencer Foundation. At the National Research Council, he was a member of the National Advisory Panel to Head Start Transition Project. He has been examining questions at the intersection of psychology and anthropology for more than 40 years and has conducted research on parenting and early childhood in East Africa, Mexico, and Nepal. His areas of inquiry include the relationship between maternal schooling and infant mortality, the development of personality and its relation to culture, and parenting goals and strategies across cultures. His publications include Culture, Behavior, and Personality (1982), Human Conditions: The Cultural Basis of Educational Development (1986), and Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa (1994). He has a Ph.D. in social anthropology (1958) from Harvard University.
Samuel J.Meisels is a professor and research scientist at the University of Michigan School of Education. His areas of research include performance assessments in early childhood and elementary programs, the impact of standardized tests on young children, screening and assessment of young children’s development, and policy issues in the implementation of early intervention programs.
He is the author of The Work Sampling System and the Early Screening Inventory, Revised. He serves on the editorial boards of
Applied Developmental Science, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and the Journal of Early Intervention. The current president of the Board of ZERO TO THREE: The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Family, he has been an advisor to numerous groups, including the National School Readiness Task Force of the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National Education Goals Panel of the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Head Start Administration. He has an Ed.D. (1973) from Harvard University.
Lynn Okagaki is an associate professor in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University. She conducts research on Mexican-American and Asian-American children’s school achievement, cultural influences on cognitive development, intelligence and intellectual development, and parental beliefs and family values. Her publications include Direc-tors of Development: Influences on the Development of Children’s Thinking (1991, coedited with R.J.Sternberg), and Parenting: An Ecological Perspective (1993, coedited with T.Luster). She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology and is a consulting editor for the Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence of the U.S. Department of Education. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology (1984) from Cornell University.
Michael I.Posner is the head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon and a distinguished professor in its College of Arts and Sciences. His research has focused on the neural systems and cognitive computations that underlie selective attention in the human. He has studied the role of attention in high-level human tasks, such as visual search, reading, and number processing, and is currently examining the development of attention networks in infants and young children and how these influence learning, emotion, and language acquisition. He has received numerous honors for his contributions to science, including the Dana Foundation award for pioneering research in medicine and the John T.McGovern medal of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. He has served as editor
of the Journal of Experimental Psychology and has conducted reviews of the psychology departments of several universities, including Northwestern University and McGill University. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1981 and became a member of the Institute of Medicine in 1988. At the National Research Council, he has served as a member of the Committee on Human Factors, the Committee on the Enhancement of Human Performance, the Committee on Research Opportunities in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Committee on Research Opportunities in Biology. His numerous publications include Contemporary Approaches to Cognitive Psychology (1991, coedited with C.Dwivedi and I.Singh) and Images of Mind (1994, coauthored with M.Raichle), which won the William James book award of the American Psychological Association in 1996. He has a Ph.D. in psychology (1962) from the University of Michigan.
Irving E.Sigel is a distinguished research psychologist (emeritus) at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Previously, he was professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. He has conducted research on children’s cognitive development, children’s educational experiences at school and at home, and the relationship between parenting and teaching behaviors that encourage children’s autonomy and competence in problem solving. He is currently the coeditor of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (with Rodney R.Cocking), and he is editor of the book series Advances in Applied Developmental Psychology. He has served on a number of editorial and advisory boards, including the Advisory Board of the Center for Cognitive Growth in Early Childhood, and he was previously president of division 7 of the Piaget Society. His numerous publications include Parental Belief Systems: The Psychological Consequences for Children (1992, edited with A.V.McGillicuddy-DeLisi and J.Goodnow) and Educating the Young Thinker: Classroom Strategies for Cognitive Growth (1979 and 1984, with C.Copple and R.Saunders). He has a Ph.D. in human development (1951) from the University of Chicago.
Marie Suizzo (Senior Research Associate) served as senior
research associate to the Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy. She has served as a teacher of English to adult university students in China, then as a teacher, social studies department chair, and junior class moderator in a U.S. high school, and finally as a teaching assistant in the infant room of a U.S. day care center. For her dissertation study, she collected both quantitative and qualitative data on French parenting and examined the relationships between parents’ beliefs about infants and toddlers and their long-term goals and values for their children. She continues to be interested in the effects of parents’ and caregivers’ beliefs and behaviors on children’s early emotional and social development. She has a Ph.D. in human development and psychology from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Barbara H.Wasik is a professor at the School of Education of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center. She has conducted research on home visiting and family support programs and other early childhood intervention programs, as well as the early predictors of school failure for at-risk children. Currently, she is conducting a longitudinal study of family literacy programs and has developed measures and implemented interventions on parent problem-solving skills. She serves on numerous advisory panels and was invited to participate in the White House Conference on Child Care in October 1997. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Educational Psychology and was associate editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis. Her publications include Home Visiting: Procedures for Helping Families (1990, with D.Bryant and C.Lyons). She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Florida State University.
Grover J.Whitehurst is professor of clinical psychology and professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has served as director of the Program in Developmental Psychology and as chairman of the University Committee on Child and Family Studies at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and as vice president for academic affairs at the Merrill Palmer Institute. He has conducted research on language acquisition and language disorders, emergent literacy, therapeu-
tic and educational uses of interactive technology, and interventions to enhance the school readiness of children from low-income families. He has been editor of the Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, Developmental Review, and the Annals of Child Development, and he has served on review teams and committees of the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as various advisory boards and review panels in the area of early childhood education. He served on the National Research Council/ Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Head Start Research. He has a Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Illinois.
Alexandra K.Wigdor is deputy director of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (CBASSE) of the National Research Council. An NRC staff officer since 1978, Wigdor is responsible for the development of the education and behavioral science programs in CBASSE. Other recent NRC studies with which she is associated include Improving Student Learning: A Strategic Plan for Education Research and its Utilization (1999); Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998); How People Learn: Mind, Brain, Experience, School (1999); How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice; and Making Money Matter: Financing America’s Schools (1999).