Ep. 55 - Talking Pre-K Experiences of Students and Teachers with Dr. Anna D. Johnson

In this episode, we are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Anna D. Johnson, a Provost Distinguished Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University. We speak in depth this week about Anna's work and research with the Tulsa Pre-Kindergarten Program in Tulsa, Oklahoma (TULSA SEED) designed to follow children the year before they entered prekindergarten. Children just completed their third grade year. The study is designed to understand how Pre-k experiences when children are three and then four years old shape educational learning, developmental and health trajectories through elementary school. The breadth of the study using multi system, multi reporter, multi source data has allowed for the examination of mechanisms that may be responsible for associations between these early Pre-k experiences and later outcomes, which we discuss. We also speak about important findings related to teacher's experiences and how those experiences are reflected in their classroom practices. Findings indicate the need to better support teachers. We also discuss how the Tulsa's universal PreK programs result in their being used by a majority of families, and being of high quality, and the implications of this for child development and larger public policy. To learn more about Dr. Anna D. Johnson, please visit her website: https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014TwO9AAK/anna-johnsonn Also please visit The Child Development and Policy Lab twitter: https://www.cdsplab.org/ and follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/cdsplab