Annalee Kelly

Annalee Kelly is a principal survey researcher that has directed large-scale studies of children, families, and a variety of early care and education program staff in diverse settings including tribal locations. As an experienced survey director, she is skilled at leading teams for recruiting study sites and collecting quantitative and qualitative data. Kelly has nearly 20 years of survey research experience training field staff to administer standardized assessments of children’s language and cognitive skills and gather observation-based ratings of preschool classroom quality and teacher-child interactions that support children’s early learning and development.

As survey director for the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a longitudinal study of Head Start program quality and child outcomes, Kelly oversaw instrument development and testing, recruitment, training, and data collection. For the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (AIAN FACES), she oversaw data collection and participated in workgroup meetings in a collaborative process with tribal Head Start directors, early childhood researchers, and federal partners on sample design, measure selection, and data collection procedures.

Kelly is currently responsible for directing large-scale studies involving complex data collection efforts that provide valuable information on children’s early development and school readiness. She is the deputy project director on the Maternal and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation, Long-Term Follow-Up (MIHOPE-LT), a legislatively mandated, large-scale study of the effectiveness of home visiting programs. Kelly oversaw all aspects of data collection including instrument design and testing and training staff on administering an in-home assessment of children and caregivers (including a video-recorded play task). Kelly was also the Survey Director on the Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS) and directed the data collection effort on the Assessing the Implementation and Cost of High Quality Early Care and Education (ECE-ICHQ) study.

Kelly, who joined Mathematica in 2002, is co-author of the article “Preschool Boys of Color: Portraits of the Population Served by Head Start” published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Management, with a concentration in Education Policy from Drexel University.