Foundations for Teaching Excellence

Carollee Howes, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Improving Child Care Quality, Department of Education, and a professor of the Applied Developmental Psychology doctorate program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Howes is an internationally recognized developmental psychologist focusing on children's social and emotional development. She has served as a principal investigator on a number of seminal studies in early child care and preschool education, including the National Child Care Staffing Study; the Family and Relative Care Study; the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study; and the National Study of Child Care in Low Income Families.

Dr. Howes has been active in public policy for children and families in California as well as across the United States. Her research focuses on children's experiences in child care, their concurrent and long-term outcomes from child care experiences, and child care quality and efforts to improve child care quality. Dr. Howes is the editor of Teaching 4- to 8-Year-Olds: Literacy, Math, Multiculturalism, and Classroom Community (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2003) and the coeditor of The Promise of Pre-K (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2009) and Foundations for Teaching Excellence: Connecting Early Childhood Quality Rating, Professional Development, and Competency Systems in States (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2011).

Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D., is Dean of the Curry School of Education, Director of the Center for Advanced Study in Teaching and Learning and Novartis U.S. Foundation Professor of Education at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. A former special education teacher, Dr. Pianta is a developmental, school, and clinical child psychologist whose work focuses on assessment and improvement of teacher-student interactions and their role in fostering children's learning and development.

Dr. Pianta is a principal investigator on several major grants including the National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education and the Virginia Education Sciences Training Program, and he has worked closely with the Gates Foundation-funded Measure of Effective Teaching project.

He is the author of more than 250 journal articles, chapters, and books in the areas of early childhood education, teacher performance assessment, professional development, and teacher-child relationships, and he consults regularly with federal agencies, foundations and universities.

Dr. Martinez-Beck coordinates the work of the child care research team at the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), developing the child care policy research agenda, managing large research projects, and representing OPRE and the child care policy research perspective in diverse federal interagency research work groups. Prior to joining The Administration for Children and Families, Dr. Martinez-Beck held a Society for Research in Child Development Executive Branch Policy Fellowship with the Child Care Bureau where she was involved in designing a research agenda to answer policy-relevant questions for Child Care and Development Fund State Administrators and other key stakeholders. A recent focus of her work has been on issues related to the quality of early care and education settings and links to young children's developmental outcomes.

Dr. Halle is Codirector of Early Childhood Research at Child Trends. She oversees projects in Child Trendsâ (TM)s Washington, D.C., office. She conducts research on childrenâ (TM)s early cognitive and social development, childrenâ (TM)s school readiness, family and community supports for school readiness, and school characteristics associated with ongoing achievement and positive development. Her recent work focuses on early literacy development among children who are English language learners and evaluations of early childhood curricula, programs, and professional development aimed at supporting childrenâ (TM)s school readiness.

Alison Lutton, M.Ed., Senior Director of Higher Education Accreditation and Program Support, National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1313 L Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005. Ms. Lutton's 30-year career in early childhood education includes direct work with children and families, consulting, community college faculty, and administrative positions. She has 20 years of experience in the development of early childhood professional standards and accreditation systems.

Dr. Tout is Codirector of Early Childhood Research at Child Trends. She oversees projects in Child Trendsâ (TM)s Minnesota office. Her research focuses on policies and programs to improve the quality of early care and education and familiesâ (TM) access to quality settings and programs to improve the quality and effectiveness of the early childhood workforce.

Pamela J. Winton, a Senior Scientist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, has been involved in research, outreach, technical assistance, professional development, and scholarly publishing related to early childhood for the last three decades. Winton has directed multiple national TA centers over the last two decades including the National Center on Professional Development on Inclusion (NPDCI), whose purpose was to work with states to create a cross-agency system of high quality professional development (PD) for early childhood teachers; and CONNECT, bringing an evidence-based practice approach to professional development in key early childhood content areas. Winton has published numerous books, articles, chapters, and curricula on topics related to professional development, collaboration, systems change, family-professional partnerships, and inclusion. She has served on national, state and local advisory boards, review panels, and been recognized by local, state and national awards.

As Director of the Office for Policy and Communications of SRCD, Dr. Zaslow works to bring research on children's development to policy makers and the broader public and to bring information about policy developments to the SRCD membership. She also oversees the SRCD Policy Fellowship program. As Senior Scholar at Child Trends, Dr. Zaslow's research focuses on early childhood development and takes an ecological approach, considering the role of multiple contexts including the family, early care and education (ECE) settings, and programs and policies for families with young children.