Making Smart Investments in Early Childhood Education

This presentation provides an overview of how economists think about early childhood care and education (ECE) interventions, including a synthesis of rigorous evidence on program effectiveness at improving children's and families' outcomes. The robust research base on Head Start, the federally funded preschool program for children from low-income households, serves as a foundation. The talk focuses on how to use the evidence on ECE program effects to inform policy and practice - how to build on what we know to move beyond the debate, "Does preschool work?" to a broader understanding of what works, for whom, in what settings, and at scale. Chloe Gibbs studies how public investments in education, particularly in early life, translate into outcomes for children, their families, communities, and education systems. She is currently a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and a faculty affiliate of the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives where she directs the Early Childhood Policy Lab. From 2022-2023, Gibbs served at the White House as a senior economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, focusing on child and family policy. In that capacity, she conducted analyses on child care access and affordability, work-family policies, and women's employment. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Her work has been cited in the Economic Report of the President and by National Public Radio, Newsweek, TIME, U.S. News, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.