Honored to receive the Mangone Young Scholars award from the University of Delaware. I'm lucky to be supported by incredible colleagues and to be in a department that encourages and values early career researchers. 🩷 www.udel.edu/udaily/2025/...

Excited to share our new publication in JPAM - "Why are preschool programs becoming less effective?" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... #EdPolicy #EarlyChildhood #QuantResearch #RCTs

Not one to gate keep (sorry not sorry for the non-work post): thecostpro.com/pureology-hy...

Developing a syllabus for the upcoming academic year? Consider including the AEFP Live Handbook. It provides a dynamic, evolving collection of insights from education finance and policy experts. A digital hub for evidence-based education policy research: livehandbook.org/

Our paper empirically examining the early childhood education structure-process-outcome model is out now in Developmental Psychology. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

HHS announced today they will consider Head Start a welfare program, not an education program, and will subject it to new citizenship requirements. This goes against decades of legal precedence that all children in America have a right to education. Announcement here. www.hhs.gov/press-room/p...

Great flash talks this morning from @chloergibbs.bsky.social and @anawhit.bsky.social about the impacts of early childhood education policies, part of the new AEFP Live Handbook! #AEFP2025

Objective, comprehensive, rigorous, timely, and useful: A digital hub for evidence-based education policy research. #EdResearch #EdPolicy livehandbook.org

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📢 Another new post-doc position at @UChicago! The Committee on Education seeks an early childhood development scholar from any relevant discipline. EOE/Vet/Disability. Work with us @HarrisPolicy @HarrisBIPLab among other units. voices.uchicago.edu/coed/about-ies

Yes! Please share! Twitter was helpful in introducing me to new research and I’m hopeful we build that same vibe over here too.

Here's a good read for those intro to research/grad school courses. Community has been essential to my success and something I strive to promote and create in the spaces I join.

We are hiring in our brand new Social Work program! Happy to answer any questions about UD's College of Education and Human Development. I have really fabulous colleagues :) Check out the position in the link below. careers.udel.edu/en-us/job/50...

Going to #APPAM2024? Check this out! I'm hoping to stop by this happy hour. If you are going to APPAM and want to connect, send me a chat/email!

Starter packs are a really smart idea. Makes this site much less daunting/easier to navigate. Also really helpful to share with students and for them to build their online community.

ECE folks - reach out to Pia to get added to the starter pack!

Given the new followers (hello 👋!), I want to reshare this starter pack on ECE policy and research. This list is full of really smart, thoughtful folks and I expect the group to just keep growing! go.bsky.app/SpVmXZP

Well this is great news!

Thanks to @piacar.bsky.social for putting this early care and education policy and researcher starter pack together! Glad we are continuing a community in a new space go.bsky.app/SpVmXZP

On a brighter note: I have 2 recent working papers to share, both led by PhD students! Paper 1: we examine how redshirting patterns changed during the pandemic. We find increased redshirting, particularly among groups not previously likely to redshirt. edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1038

Earnest post, but: a thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism. We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive

Here's a great starter list - just followed it!

Finally making the full transition over here from Twitter. Any starter packs that are a must in the education, early childhood, social policy worlds? Looking forward to engaging with everyone here💙

Our commentary on the long-term effects of preschool is out now in Science. We call for more rigorous research on preschool programs, particularly on understanding the key ingredients that promote short and long term child development. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Honored to be part of this group and proud of the work we've done so far in Delaware! wtgrantfoundation.org/announcing-t...

I spoke with Education Week about our new working paper on preschool effectiveness. Glad to have a chance to talk more about this paper! www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Excited to share a new article where we examine state ECE policies on suspensions and expulsions. We find: - inconsistent policies across & within states - limited data collection requirements on suspensions & expulsions - terms are inconsistently used, making comparisons difficult t.co/RnbNJHB2fY

Glad we had a chance to talk more about our working paper on preschool effectiveness! #ECE #prek newamerica.org/education-po...

Excited to share a new working paper on preschool effectiveness! Recent high-quality evaluations of preschool programs produced puzzling results. We examine theories on why results from modern programs differ from those from demonstration programs. edworkingpapers.com/ai23-885 Comments welcome!

Another crisis highlighted in this harrowing editorial: “…more than 40% of high school students had persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness; 22% had seriously considered suicide; 10% reported that they had attempted suicide.”

I'm glad to see the NYT Editorial Board drawing needed attention to our ongoing academic-recovery challenges today and noting the relevant insights from our recent Stanford-AP collaboration (osf.io/bfg3p/). www.nytimes.com/2023/11/18/o...

Jumping on the introduction trend...👋 I'm Ana Whitaker an Assistant Professor of Early Care and Education Policy at the University of Delaware. Mostly studying ECE policy alignment, ECE quality, and pre-K effectiveness.

The Department of Learning and Instruction in the UB Graduate School of Ed is hiring in Early Childhood Education! This is an incredibly supportive department and school, and I'm excited to have another early childhood colleague! Deadline Oct 1

A new publication from me and Melissa Dahlin on the impact of Head Start on families' use of services and demographic predictors of service use. Glad this paper is finally published! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UMDVY...

What started as my 2nd yr paper in grad school is now finally PUBLISHED in Dev Psych! We examined the long-term association between early home and ECE quality on youth and early adult development. psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-...

Well this is already great. 99% of my following tab is @darthbluesky.bsky.social ❤️

Alright. Let’s give this app a try. Where are the ed policy, education, ECE folks? Follower suggestions?