Vouchers and Private School Entry: Evidence from Chile

Emily Mann

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effects of early remedial and special education services on academic achievement and social development using data from the first three phases of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Children placed in remedial services and special education early in elementary school (K-2) will be studied to determine if placement in remedial services or special education influences their social and academic trajectories through elementary school (grade 5) and serves as a natural intervention. Specifically, comparisons on child outcomes will be evaluated between children who receive low levels of educational remediation (i.e. reading assistance, tutoring), high levels of special education (i.e. full or part time resource room), and children who receive no special educational services. The purpose of the present research is twofold. First, I will examine whether social and academic outcomes vary for children with different initial identification criteria (i.e. between children placed in high or low levels of special educational services). Second, I will explore whether and how this relation is influenced by other child, family, and school factors over time.

About Emily Mann

Emily A. Mann received a Master’s of Science in Social Work (MSSW) (1998) and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare (2003) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her dissertation, entitled “Early intervention as delinquency prevention: Evidence from the Chicago Longitudinal Study,” Emily investigated the early predictors and pathways of delinquent behavior and explored the role of early intervention and family support on adolescent problem behavior. From 2003 to 2005, Emily participated in the Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) in Biological and Social/Developmental Psychiatry at Judge Baker Children’s Center, Harvard Medical School. Her postdoctoral research, which uses data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, investigates the early predictors of special educational services, as well as the role of the early child care experience on special education outcomes. As a CRTP fellow, Emily also began “Bridge the Gap,” a pilot home visiting preschool intervention for former low birth weight babies. This program is supported by the Deborah Munroe Noonan Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is designed to examine the feasibility of establishing pre-academic and social skills based intervention for at-risk children and their families. In the fall of 2005, Emily will join the faculty of Bridgewater State College in the graduate department of Social Work.