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Evaluation of Preschool Special Education

Request for proposals seeks providers of formal training and implementation support.

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Relationships Matter

New research brief highlights best practices in early child care.

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Adverse Childhood Experiences

Community partnerships in Washington State reduce effects of trauma.

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Practices Tied to Positive Interactions

National Academies Committee informs new framework.

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Assessing the Cost and Implementation of High Quality Early Care and Education

Findings from a review of the literature.

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New Report on Early Head Start

How children and families fared in key areas when children were 3 years old.

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Early Learning Insights

LITES project examines out-of-home learning for infants and toddlers.

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Special Journal Issue

Reducing uncertainties about using QRIS as a means for promoting systems change Read the articles

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Early Childhood

Mathematica evaluates programs designed to improve the well-being of young children and their families, particularly those at greatest risk in our society. The projects reviewed here illustrate the diversity of themes we address, the range of clients we serve, and the breadth of our early childhood and family research. Read more about our work in the early childhood area.

Our Featured Work

Human Services for Low-Income and At-Risk LGBT Populations: Identifying the Knowledge Base and Developing a Research Agenda

Research indicates that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations can face disproportionate risks to their economic and social well-being, yet much remains unknown about the needs of these populations and whether federal human service programs are equipped to meet them. Mathematica Policy...

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Measurement Development: Quality of Caregiver-Child Interactions for Infants and Toddlers

Mathematica developed a new measure to assess the quality of caregiver-child interactions for infants and toddlers in nonparental care. The measure can be used across child care settings, including center‐based and family child care settings, as well as single- and mixed-age classrooms.

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Expert Spotlight

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NIKKI AIKENS

Senior Researcher

Nikki Aikens specializes in descriptive and evaluation studies focused on young children, their families, and the quality of programs serving them, including Head Start, Early Head Start, and publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs.

Featured Projects
- Professional Development Tools for Improving Quality of Infant and Toddler Care (Q-CCIIT PD Tools)
- Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES)
Featured Publications
- Toddlers in Early Head Start: A Portrait of 2-Year-Olds, Their Families, and the Programs Serving Them (Executive Summary)
- Early Head Start Programs Deliver a Variety of Quality Services to Families with Infants and Toddlers
Topics
- Early Childhood Systems
- Child Development
- Quality Measurement
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In the United States

26% of Head Start children

live in a household in which the primary language spoken to them is not English.