Hirokazu Yoshikawa is the Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a developmental and community psychologist who studies the development of young children in the U.S., China, and Chile. He focuses on the effects of public policies, particularly those related to parental employment, poverty and early childhood care and education, on children of diverse ethnic and immigrant backgrounds. He received four early career awards from divisions of the American Psychological Association. He has been a member of the Board on Children, Youth and Families and the Committee on Family and Work Policies of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation. His recent books include Making it Work: Low-Wage Employment, Family Life, and Child Development (Russell Sage, 2006, with Thomas S. Weisner and Edward Lowe) Toward Positive Youth Development: Transforming Schools and Community Programs (Oxford, 2008, with Marybeth Shinn), and Immigrants Raising Citizens: Undocumented Parents and Their Young Children (sole authored), published by Russell Sage in 2011. In 2011 he was nominated by President Obama to the National Board on Education Sciences.

Degrees

• Ph.D., New York University

• Godfrey, E.B., & Yoshikawa, H. (in press). Caseworker-recipient interaction: Welfare office differences, economic trajectories and child outcomes. Child Development. (forthcoming)
• Schindler, H.S., & Yoshikawa, H. (in press). Preventing crime in the preschool years. In D. Farrington and B. Welsh (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of crime prevention. New York: Oxford University Press. (forthcoming)
• Yoshikawa, H., & Ramos Olazagasti, M.A. (in press). The neglected role of community narratives in culturally anchored prevention and public policy. In M.S. Aber, K. Maton, & E. Seidman (Eds.), Empowering settings and voices for social change. New York: Oxford University Press. (forthcoming)
• Yoshikawa, H., & Currie, M. (in press). Culture, public policy, and child development. In X. Chen & K. Rubin (Eds.), Culture and Children’s Socio-Emotional Development. New York: Guilford press. (forthcoming)
• Yoshikawa, H., & Kalil, A. (in press). The effects of parental documentation status on the developmental contexts of young children in immigrant families. Child Development Perspectives. (forthcoming)
• Yuan, Y.M., & Yoshikawa, H. (in press). Conceptualizing and improving Asian American youth program: A setting-level approach. In F. Leong, L. Juang, D.B. Qin, & H.E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Asian American and Pacific Islander Children and Mental Health: Volume 2. Prevention and Treatment. (forthcoming)
• Zhao, X., & Yoshikawa, H. (in press). Parent and child citizenship status and youth development. In E. Grigorenko (Ed.), Handbook of U.S. Immigration and Education. (forthcoming)
• Yoshikawa, H., Gassman-Pines, A., Morris, P.A., Gennetian, L.A., & Godfrey, E.B. (2010). Racial/ethnic differences in effects of welfare policies on school readiness and later school achievement. Applied Developmental Science, 14, 137-153. (2010)
• Jia, Y., Way, N., Ling, G., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Ke, X., & Lu, Z. (2009). The influence of student perceptions of school climate on socio-emotional and academic adjustment: A comparison of Chinese and American adolescents. Child Development. (2009)
• Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Yoshikawa, H., Kahana-Kalman, R. (2009). Father involvement in immigrant and ethnically diverse families from the prenatal period to the second year: Prediction and mediating mechanisms. Sex Roles, 60, 496-509. (2009)
• Chae, D.H., & Yoshikawa, H. (2008). Perceived group devaluation, depression, and HIV risk behavior among Asian gay men. Health Psychology, 27, 140-148. (2008)
• Shinn, M., & Yoshikawa, H. (2008). (Eds.). The power of social settings: Promoting youth development by changing schools and community programs. New York: Oxford University Press. Spring 2008 publication date. (2008)
• Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Way, N., Hughes, D., Yoshikawa, H., Kahana-Kalman, R., & Niwa, E. (2008). Parents’ goals for children: The dynamic co-existence of collectivism and individualism in cultures and individuals. Social Development, 17, 183-209. (2008)
• Tseng, V., & Yoshikawa, H. (2008). Reconceptualizing acculturation. American Journal of Community Psychology, 42, 355-358. (2008)
• Yoshikawa, H. Godfrey, E.B., & Rivera, A.C. (2008). Access to institutional resources as a measure of social exclusion: Relations with family process and cognitive development in the context of immigration. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 121, 73-96. (2008)
• Yoshikawa, H., & Shinn, M. (2008). Improving youth-serving social settings: Intervention strategies for schools, youth programs, and communities. In M.Shinn & H. Yoshikawa (Eds.), The power of social settings: Promoting youth development by changing schools and community programs (pp. 350-364). New York: Oxford University Press. (2008)
• Yoshikawa, H., & Way, N. (2008). From peers to public policy: Broader social contexts of the development of children and youth in immigrant families. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 121, 1-9. (2008)
• Yoshikawa, H., Weisner, T.S., Kalil, A., & Way, N. Mixing qualitative and quantitative research methods in developmental science: Uses and methodological choices. Developmental Psychology. (2008)
• National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation and National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. A science-based framework for early childhood policy. Harvard University: The Center on the Developing Child. (2007)
• Hsueh, J., & Yoshikawa, H. (2007). Working nonstandard schedules and variable shifts in low-income families: Associations with parental psychological well-being, family functioning, and child well-being. Developmental Psychology, 43, 620-632. (2007)
• Yoshikawa, H., McCartney, K, Myers, R., Bub, K., Lugo-Gil, J., Knaul, F., & Ramos, M. Preschool education in Mexico: Expansion, Quality Improvement, and Curricular Reform. Florence, Italy: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Working Paper. (2007)
• Gassman-Pines, A., & Yoshikawa, H. The effects of anti-poverty programs on children’s cumulative levels of poverty-related risk. Developmental Psychology, 42, 981-999. (2006)
• Lugo-Gil, J., & Yoshikawa, H. Assessing expenditures on children among low-income, immigrant and ethnically diverse families. Working Paper 06-36, National Poverty Center, University of Michigan. (2006)
• Yoshikawa, H., Weisner, T.S., & Lowe, E. (Eds.). Making it work: Low-wage employment, family life, and children’s development. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. (2006)
• Yoshikawa, H., Magnuson, K.A., Bos, J.M., & Hsueh, J. Effects of welfare and anti-poverty policies on adult economic and middle-childhood outcomes differ for the “hardest to employ.” Child Development, 74, 1500-1521. (2003)
• Yoshikawa, H., Rosman, E.A., & Hsueh, J. Variation in teenage mothers’ experiences of child care and other components of welfare reform: Selection processes and developmental consequences. Child Development, 72, 299-317. (2001)
• Yoshikawa, H. Prevention as cumulative protection: Effects of early family support and education on chronic delinquency and its risks. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 28-54. (1994)

• Chair, Committee on the Science of Family Research: A Workshop, National Academy of Sciences (2010)
• American Psychological Association, Committee on Socioeconomic Status. Emerging Leadership Award. (2009)
• Member, Board on Children, Youth and Families, National Academy of Sciences (2009)
• Ethnic Minority Mentorship Award, Division 27 (the Society for Community Research and Action) of the American Psychological Association (2007)
• Boyd McCandless Award from the American Psychological Association, for early career contributions to developmental psychology (2006)
• Fellowship, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (2004)
• Louise Kidder Early Career Award, Division 9 of the American Psychological Association (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) (2004)
• American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program Early Career Award (2001)

• Consulting Editor, AIDS Education and Prevention (2006-present)
• Member, Board of Directors, Zero to Three: The National Center for Infants and Toddlers (2006-present)
• Consulting Editor, American Journal of Evaluation (2005-present)
• Consulting Editor, Developmental Psychology (2004-present)
• Consulting Editor, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2002-2005)
• Member, Committee on Family and Work Policies, National Academy of Sciences (2002-2003)
• Member, Advisory Committee on Head Start Research and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services (1999-1999)

• Pre-K-3rd Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Foundation for Child Development, (2009-2010)
  The goal of this project is to create a network of school systems that are implementing high-quality Pre-K-3rd programming and generating and disseminating new knowledge, with a goal of creating the foundation for school success during these critical years and reducing social-economic and racial achievement gaps.
• Preparing to Succeed: An Efficacy Trial of Two Early Childhood Curricula, U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, (2009-2011)
  In “Preparing to Succeed: An Efficacy Trial of Two Early Childhood Curricula,” we propose an efficacy trial of two widely used Early Childhood curricula – Opening the World of Learning (OWL; Schickedanz & Dickinson, 2005) and Building Blocks (Clements & Sarama, 2007a) under the Early Childhood RFA, Goal 3. Opening the World of Learning is an early literacy curriculum, while Building Blocks is an early numeracy curriculum. Neither yet meets IES’s requirement of demonstrating strong evidence of educationally meaningful results (What Works Clearinghouse, n.d.), nor have the two curricula been studied in combination. The study conducts in a sample of preschool and kindergarten classrooms in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) - a large urban school district diverse in race/ethnicity, SES, and language. We use a Regression Discontinuity (RD) approach to assess the impact of one year of preschool education using these two curricula in 4-year-old classrooms, with 1700 children who attend BPS preschool in 2008-2009 constituting the treatment group and 1700 children who attend BPS preschool in 2009-2010 constituting the control group. During the 2008-2009 year, the control group will experience “business as usual,” with parents placing children in a variety of care settings. To implement our identification strategy, we take advantage of a long-standing and strictly enforced policy that requires a child to turn four on or before September 1 to enter preschool in BPS in a given year. Using the RD approach, we will estimate impacts of a year in a BPS 4-year-classroom that has implemented the OWL and Building Blocks on children’s literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional, and executive functioning outcomes
• Un Buen Comienzo: An Initiative to Improve Preschool Education in Chile, Andronico Luksic, (2008-2010)
  Goals of the Project• Create an intensive professional-development program (called Un Buen Comienzo) to improve preschool education and family involvement in Chile for children ages 4 to 6.• Produce manuals and training materials that can be disseminated widely.• Implement a cluster-randomized experiment in 60 schools to test the efficacy of Un Buen Comienzo.• In children: 1. Contribute to their development of oral language and early literacy.2. Coordinate early childhood education with health services to promote the overall development and attendance of children at school.3. Strengthen socio-emotional development, a key component to school success. 4. Work with families, recognizing parents´ roles as the primary educators of their children. • In preschool classroom personnel:1. Improve their understanding of language and early literacy development.2. Teach and support the use of classroom practices to support language engagement and literacy learning.3. Improve attention to and management of minor childhood health problems.4. Provide strategies for promoting parent involvement in children’s education.• Through collaboration with key stakeholders, be a change agent that results in more informed policy, research, and practice at the national, municipal, and school levels.

• Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

• Achievement Issues
• Arts in Education
• Child Care
• Child Development
• Early Childhood Development
• Economy and Education
• Ethnic Issues
• Gay Studies
• Immigrant Issues
• Learning
• Minorities
• Parenting Issues
• Policy Analysis and Evaluation
• Poverty and Children
• Psychology
• Racial Discrimination

An Ed. magazine Q&A with Yoshikawa on early learning and development in low-income immigrant families.

An article on Hirokazu Yoshikawa being awarded the U.S. Department of Education Grant.

A press release on Hiro Yoshikawa being named visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation.

An interview with Hirokazu Yoshikawa on low-wage employment, family life, and child development