Shira Mattera’s research expertise is aimed at identifying effective practices and policies in early childhood education and children’s development. In significant studies that have played a role in guiding practices nationally, she helped lead the Head Start CARES project, which demonstrated the effects of social-emotional interventions, supported by teacher coaching and training, on preschool children’s behavioral, social, and emotional outcomes, and the Making Pre-K Count and High 5s studies, which found that aligned math experiences for children in pre-k and kindergarten can lead to improved outcomes into third grade. Mattera’s other work includes studies of aligned interventions leading into and out of the preschool years, including an evaluation of an aligned system of care for families prenatally through age 8 in North Carolina (Guilford ROCS), and a large-scale evaluation, with over 25,000 students, of the effects of tutoring in K-12 schools (Personalized Learning Initiative). Mattera received her PhD in applied developmental psychology from the University of Miami.
