Co-Principal Investigators: Farkas, George; Vandell, Deborah; Bitler, Marianne; Carpenter, Christopher

This program trained four postdoctoral fellows in a variety of methodological techniques within studies that explored the effects of education interventions across childhood and adolescence. Fellows were recruited to join an interdisciplinary research team housed in the Department of Education and led by faculty with appointments in the Department of Education, Department of Economics and Paul Merage School of Business. Over the course of their 2-year fellowship, fellows gained substantive knowledge of policy-relevant education outcomes (such as school readiness, behaviors that support learning in academic contexts, and higher order thinking in core academic content) while acquiring methodological and statistical skills using experimental and quasi-experimental methods.

Fellows received close mentoring from program faculty; attended seminars and meetings; presented at national research conferences; wrote papers; and honed their skills in methodological techniques. In addition, fellows gained practical experience with planning and running large research projects and supervising research assistants.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Duncan, Robert (ORCID)
Hanselman, Paul
Jenkins, Jade (ORCID)
Petre, Melinda (ORCID)

As of 2020, Dr. Duncan was an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Department of Public Health at Purdue University; Dr. Hanselman was an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine; Dr. Jenkins was an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine; and Dr. Petre was a lecturer of economics at Dartmouth College.

Products and Publications

Book chapter

Hanselman, P., Grigg, J., Bruch, S.K., and Gamoran, A. (2016). The Consequences of Principal and Teacher Turnover for School Social Resources. Family Environments, School Resources, and Educational Outcomes (Research in the Sociology of Education, Volume 19): 49–89. doi:10.1108/S1479-353920150000019004 Full text

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Jenkins, J. M., and Handa, S. (2017). Parenting Skills and Early Childhood Development: Production Function Estimates from Longitudinal Data. Review of Economics of the Household, 1–27.

Bailey, D.H., Nguyen, T., Jenkins, J.M., Domina, T., Clements, D., and Sarama, J. (2016). Fadeout in an Early Mathematics Intervention: Constraining Content or Underlying Skills? Developmental Psychology, 52(9), 1457–1469.

Domina, T., Lewis, R., Agarwal, P., and Hanselman, P. (2015). Professional Sense-Makers: Instructional Specialists in Contemporary Schooling. Educational Researcher, 44(6): 359–364 . doi:10.3102/0013189X15601644 Full text

Domina, T., Hanselman, P., Hwang, N., and McEachin, A. (2016). Detracking and Tracking Up: Mathematics Course Placements in California Middle Schools, 2003–2013. American Educational Research Journal, 53(4): 1229–1266. doi:10.3102/0002831216650405 Full text

Duncan, R. J., McClelland, M. M., and Acock, A. C. (2017). Relations Between Executive Function, Behavioral Regulation, and Achievement: Moderation by Family Income. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 49: 21–30.

Duncan, R. J., Washburn, I. J., Lewis, K. M., Bavarian, N., DuBois, D. L., Acock, A. C., Flay, B. R. (2017). Can Universal SEL Programs Benefit Universally? Effects of the Positive Action Program on Multiple Trajectories of Social-Emotional and Misconduct Behaviors. Prevention Science, 18, 214–224. doi: 10.1007/s11121-016-0745-1

Duncan, R.J., Schmitt, S.A., Burke, M., and McClelland, M.M. (2018). Combining a Kindergarten Readiness Summer Program With a Self-Regulation Intervention Improves School Readiness. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 42 (1), 291–300.

Fortner, C.K., and Jenkins, J.M. (2017). Kindergarten Redshirting: Motivations and Spillovers Using Census-Level Data. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 38(1), 44–56.

Foster, E.M., and Jenkins, J.M. (2017). Does Participation in Music and Performing Arts Influence Child Development? American Educational Research Journal, 54(3), 399–443.

Hanselman, P. (2018) Do School Learning Opportunities Compound or Compensate for Background Inequalities? Evidence from the Case of Assignment of Effective Teachers. Sociology of Education, 91(2):132–58. doi: 10.1177/0038040718761127

Hanselman, P. and Fiel, J. (2017) School Opportunity Hoarding? Racial Segregation and Access to High Growth Schools. Social Forces, 95(3): 1077–1104. doi: 10.1093/sf/sow088

Hanselman, P., Rozek, C. S., Grigg, J., and Borman, G. D. (2017). New Evidence on Self-Affirmation Effects and Theorized Sources of Heterogeneity From Large-Scale Replications. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(3): 405–424. doi:10.1037/edu0000141Full text

Jenkins, J. M., Sabol, T. J., and Farkas, G. (2018). Double Down or Switch It Up: Should Low-Income Children Stay in Head Start for 2 Years or Switch Programs? Evaluation review, 0193841X18786591.

Jenkins, J.M. (2018). Healthy and Ready to Learn: Effects of a School-Based Public Health Insurance Outreach Program for Kindergarten-Aged Children. Journal of School Health, 88(1), 44–53.

Jenkins, J.M., and Henry, G.T. (2016) Dispersed vs. Centralized Policy Governance: The Case State Early Care and Education Policy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26(4), 709–725.

Jenkins, J.M., Duncan, G.J., Auger, A., Bitler, M., Domina, T., and Burchinal, M. (2018). Boosting School Readiness: Should Preschools Target Skills or the Whole Child? Economics of Education Review, 65, 107–125

Jenkins, J.M., Farkas, G., Duncan, G.J., Burchinal, M., and Vandell, D.L. (2016). Head Start at Ages 3 and 4 Versus Head Start Followed by State Pre-K: Which is More Effective?. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(1): 88–112. doi:10.3102/0162373715587965 Full text

Jenkins, J.M., Watts, T., Magnuson, K., Gershoff, E., Clements, D., Sarama, J., and Duncan, G.J. (2018). Do High-Quality Kindergarten and First-Grade Classrooms Mitigate Preschool Fadeout? Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 11(3), 339–374.

MacDonald, M., Lipscomb, S., McClelland, M.M., Duncan, R.J., Becker, D., and Kile, M. (2016). Preschoolers' Fine and Gross Motor Skills Differentially Predict Executive Function and Social Behavior. Research Quarterly for Exercise & Sport, 87(4), 396–407.

McClelland, M. M., Tominey, S. L., Schmitt, S. A., and Duncan, R. J. (2017). SEL Interventions in Early Childhood. The Future of Children, 27(1), 33–47. Full text

Nguyen, T., Duncan, R.J., and Bailey, D.H. (2019). Theoretical and Methodological Implications of Associations Between Executive Function and Mathematics in Early Childhood. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59(3), 276–287.

Nguyen, T., Jenkins, J.M., and Auger, A. (2018). Are Content-Specific Curricula Differentially Effective in Head Start or State Pre-K Classrooms? AERA-Open, 4(2), 1–17.

Petre, M. (2018). Are Employers Omniscient? Employer Learning About Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 57(3), 323–360.

Schmitt, S. A., Geldhof, G. J., Purpura, D. J., Duncan, R. J., and McClelland, M. M. (2017). Examining the Relations Between Executive Function, Math, and Literacy During the Transition to Kindergarten: A Multi-Analytic Approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(8), 1120–1140. doi: 10.1037/edu0000193

Schmitt, S. A., Lewis, K. L., Duncan, R. J., Korucu, I., and Napoli, A. (2018). The Effects of Positive Action on Preschoolers' Social-Emotional Competence and Health Behaviors. Early Childhood Education Journal, 46, 141–151. doi: 10.1007/s10643-017-0851-0