Kathleen McCartney, the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development, was named Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2006. In collaboration with a dedicated faculty and administrative team, she has implemented a strategic plan that has resulted in the creation of two new degree programs, the doctorate in education leadership (Ed.L.D.), and a new interfaculty Ph.D. in education; a 25 percent growth in core faculty; a doubling of financial aid for Ed.M. students; a dramatic increase in fellowship support for doctoral students; and the establishment of a partner network with over 30 districts and non-profit organizations.
McCartney’s research program concerns early experience and development, and she has published more than 150 articles and chapters on child care, early childhood education, and poverty. She is a member of the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, which summarized the results of their longitudinal study in Child Care and Child Development. She also co-edited Experience and Development, The Blackwell Handbook of Early Childhood Development, and Best Practices in Developmental Research Methods.
McCartney received her B.S. in psychology summa cum laude from Tufts University, where she now serves as a trustee, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Yale University. In 2012 she was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2009 she received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. McCartney is also a Fellow of the American Education Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society.
NICHD Study of Early Child Care, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (1995-2005) HGSE Professor Kathleen McCartney, formerly affiliated with the University of New Hampshire (UNH), and Nancy Marshall of the Wellesley Center for Research on Women have worked jointly at the Massachusetts site of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care since the project began in May 1989. The NICHD award for Phase III was transferred to HGSE. The goal of Phase III is to extend a collaborative, prospective, longitudinal study of a cohort of 1103 children and their families, first enrolled at one month of age and studied intensively through first grade (age 7) in Phases I and II of the NICHD cooperative agreement. In Phase III, the participants are followed through middle childhood (fifth grade) in order to investigate how important contexts contribute to trajectories of development from birth through middle childhood within the broader social ecology of work and family.
The Social Ecology of After-School Care, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, (1993-1997)
The Social Ecology of Infant Child Care, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, (1989-1995)
The Socioemotional Effects of Typical Center-Based Child Care, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, (1989-1993)
How Children Make Their Own Language Environments, National Institute of Mental Health, (1987-1988)
