Child Development and Social Policy Lab
Currently accepting doctoral students for the 2018-2019 academic year
Dr. Johnson directs the Child Development and Social Policy (CDSP) lab, which provides opportunities for students at all levels - undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral - to develop their own lines of inquiry into the myriad ways that public social policies can promote the development of young, low-income or otherwise vulnerable children in the U.S.
Anna Markowitz is a recent graduate of the Psychology Department at Georgetown. Now a post-doctoral associate at EdPolicyWorks at the University of Virginia, Anna completed joint Developmental Science (Ph.D.) and Public Policy (MPP) degrees. Anna is broadly interested in the policy-alterable contexts of human development, and in particular how those contexts can be shaped to enhance children's academic and social-emotional development. Her dissertation used advanced econometric methods to approximate causal effects of school connection and closeness among adolescents on their middle- and high-school achievement and social-emotional functioning. With Dr. Johnson, Anna continues to work on projects exploring sources of school-based variation in public pre-k impacts on kindergarten readiness, and on examining links between food assistance program use, food insecurity, and child cognitive and social school readiness.
Recent collaborative publications and presentations: Johnson, A.D., Markowitz, A.J., Hill, C.J., & Phillips, D.A. (in press). What explains variation in pre-k impacts? The role of instructional quality. Developmental Psychology. Johnson, A.D., & Markowitz, A.J. (2017). Associations between early childhood food insecurity and readiness for kindergarten. Child Development. Johnson, A.D. & Markowitz, A.J. (2016, November). What explains negative effects of food Insecurity on children? Identifying family-level mechanisms. Paper presented at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management annual conference, Washington, DC. |
Jenna Finch is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Developmental and Psychological Sciences program at Stanford University. Her current research focuses on how home and school contexts influence the development of children’s cognitive and social-emotional skills in early and middle childhood. In 2013, Jenna completed her honor’s thesis under the co-advisement of Dr. Johnson, examining the impacts of child care quality on children’s self-regulation skills; this work was recently published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly (Finch, Johnson, & Phillips, 2015). Jenna and Dr. Johnson's current work together explores how temperament moderates relations between child care type and low-income children’s school readiness.
Recent collaborative publications and presentations: Finch, J.E., Johnson, A.D., & Phillips, D.A. (2015). Is sensitive caregiving in child care associated with children’s effortful control skills? An exploration of linear and threshold effects. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 31, 125-134. Johnson, A.D., Finch, J.E., & Phillips, D.A. (2015, April). Associations between child care experiences and kindergarten readiness in a low-income sample: Moderation by child temperament. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial meeting, Philadelphia, PA. Johnson, A.D., Finch, J.E., & Phillips, D.A. (under 2nd review). Associations between publicly-funded center-based preschool programs and low-income children's school readiness: The moderating role of child temperament. |
Shannon Reilly is currently a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical and School Psychology program at the University of Virginia. In her research at the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), she hopes to explore elements of classroom quality, self-regulation, and school readiness in preschoolers from diverse backgrounds. As an undergraduate Psychology major at Georgetown and under Dr. Johnson's advisement, Shannon developed an honors thesis project investigating classroom quality and language and literacy skills for Spanish-speaking dual language-learners in Head Start programs nationwide. Shannon and Dr. Johnson are continuing this work; a manuscript presenting results from this project is in preparation.
Recent collaborative publications and presentations: Reilly, S. & Johnson, A.D. (2015, April). How are quality factors in Head Start classrooms associated with kindergarten language and literacy outcomes of Dual Language Learners? Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development bienniel meeting, Philadelphia, PA. |
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Owen Schochet is a second-year doctoral student in the Human Development and Public Policy program in the Psychology Department at Georgetown University working under the advisement of Dr. Johnson. As an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, he was a research assistant in the Rochester Baby Lab where he studied the development of infant visual and auditory cognition as a precursor to language acquisition. Following graduation in 2012, Owen spent 4 years studying international and domestic education programs and policies at Mathematica Policy Research as a Research Analyst. His graduate research is focused on the application of rigorous evaluation methods to study the quality of publicly-funded early childhood education programs and policies designed to support school readiness and the optimal development of at-risk children and their families. Currently, Owen and Dr. Johnson work together to explore variation in classroom and workforce characteristics across the full landscape of publicly-funded early care and education programs available to low-income families.
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Shannon Reilly at SRCD 2015
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Anna Markowitz, Jenna Finch, and Dr. Johnson
Anna Johnson and Anna Markowitz,
APPAM 2016
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Jenna Finch and Dr. Johnson at SRCD 2015
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