Jessica Harding studies early childhood education, home visiting, and other programs that support families to promote their children’s development.
Dr Harding has led large-scale qualitative and quantitative studies of early childhood programs, including public pre-K, Head Start, and home visiting. For example, she has led numerous analyses of classroom quality, teacher professional development and children’s outcomes for the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey. For the Understanding and Expanding the Reach of Home Visiting project, she oversaw case studies with more than 90 interviews with home visiting program staff and families. Dr Harding has also led studies of other programs to support families, including a randomized control trial of the Teen Options to Prevent Pregnancy Program in New York City.
Dr. Harding’s work has been published in top-tier journals, including the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Developmental Psychology, and the Journal of Marriage and Family. She received her Ph.D. in applied psychology from New York University.
Mathematica and its partner, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, are examining how Head Start programs successfully recruit, select, enroll, and retain families experiencing adversities.
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