Katie Dahlke

Leading Early Childhood Achievement and Development (LEAD), Oklahoma

About

Leading Early Childhood Achievement and Development (LEAD), Oklahoma
Katie Dahlke, PhD, a principal researcher at AIR, co-leads the Leading Early Childhood Achievement and Development (LEAD) partnership. Dahlke has 15 years of experience as a program evaluator and researcher, with a focus on early care and education (ECE) settings and preK–12 education programs. Her areas of expertise include quasi-experimental, experimental, and mixed-methods research and evaluation design as well as measure development and validation. Past studies she has led include a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design study of full-day kindergarten in Pennsylvania, validation studies of kindergarten entry assessments in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, and a descriptive study of early educator practices and supports in Massachusetts. Dahlke holds a doctorate in human development and social policy from Northwestern University.

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Blog

How a REL Southwest research-practice partnership is addressing inequity in early childhood education

REL Southwest works with our partners in Oklahoma to develop strategies for reducing inequity in early childhood education. This blog post explores the benefits of early childhood education, prekindergarten participation in Oklahoma, how children's early learning experiences in the state changed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ways in which REL Southwest and our partners in Oklahoma are addressing inequities in early childhood education.
Date published:
Jun 01, 2021
report Descriptive Study

Participation in State-Funded Prekindergarten in Oklahoma

Oklahoma offers state-funded prekindergarten (preK) to all 4-year-old children. The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southwest Early Childhood Education Research Partnership members in Oklahoma requested more comprehensive evidence on disparities in student participation in state-funded preK by student characteristics and geographic locale. Such disparities in participation can indicate challenges in access to or use of the program. Using administrative records from the Oklahoma State De...
Dec 01, 2020
report Descriptive Study

Children's Knowledge and Skills at Kindergarten Entry in Illinois: Results from the First Statewide Administration of the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey

At least half of states administer or are developing kindergarten entry assessments. In fall 2017 the Illinois State Board of Education began requiring teachers to report data on every child's skills at kindergarten entry using the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey. State and local stakeholders have asked for more information on the reliability and validity of the survey and on the gaps in children's skills at school entry. This study analyzed the psychometric properties of the 14 re...
Oct 01, 2019
report Descriptive Study

Scientific Evidence for the Validity of the New Mexico Kindergarten Observation Tool

The New Mexico Public Education Department developed the Kindergarten Observation Tool (KOT) as a multidimensional observational measure of students' knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry. The primary purpose of the KOT is to inform instruction, so that kindergarten teachers can use the information about their students' knowledge and skills from the KOT to inform their curricular and pedagogical decisions. Stakeholders also are interested in using data from the KOT for other purposes, su...
Dec 01, 2017