Ross Thompson joins the podcast to discuss current knowledge in developmental science, and how brain science has been used to shape public policy in early childhood.

Dr. Katharine Stevens joins host Nic Dunn of the Sutherland Institute to help recenter true pro-family policy at the core of public debates and offer policymakers and voters a framework for a better approach.

Dr. Katharine B. Stevens joins Saurabh Sharma on American Moment’s Moment of Truth to discuss child and family policy in the U.S. and what young children truly need to thrive.

Katharine Stevens shares thoughts with the Institute on Family Studies on the “child care crisis,” what's missing from current early childhood debates, and the launch of CCFP.

Dr. Katharine B. Stevens explains why she founded the Center on Child and Family Policy, the nation’s first think-tank dedicated to early childhood research and policy.

A growing chorus of advocates are vigorously pushing for a large expansion of U.S. child care as a “win-win-win” that supports women’s careers and boosts the economy while promoting children’s healthy development. However, a growing body of research on childcare’s impact on children suggests that greater caution is warranted.

A profoundly faulty generalization, plucked from the brilliant work of Nobel-prize winning economist James Heckman, is sabotaging early childhood policy and jeopardizing the well-being of America’s young children today.

The American Rescue Plan was presented as an emergency response to prevent the childcare sector from collapsing. But its primary aims are in fact to advance a longstanding advocacy agenda: leveraging pandemic relief funds to carry out a kind of “trial run” of universal childcare.

Three Swedish childcare experts describe the unintended consequences of Sweden's implementation of universal childcare and discuss lessons the US can draw from Sweden’s experience.

High-quality childcare is essential for families who need it. But more thought and debate is needed around huge funding proposals with such serious implications for children's lives

James Heckman joins Katharine Stevens for an in-depth discussion of his interdisciplinary research on human capital development and skill formation over the life cycle, the origins of inequality and social mobility, and the crucial role of families in children’s development.

We know too little about the child care problem we’re spending billions of dollars to solve. To make good policy in a crucial area, we need more reliable data.

A state-funded New Mexico study reports “statistically significant” improvements in children’s outcomes, which in real life are essentially meaningless.

Research on the effects of preschool are actually showing the effects of parenting. Preschool doesn’t cause better long-term outcomes — it predicts them.

High-quality early care — whether at home, a childcare center, or grandma’s house — matters greatly to young children’s healthy development. But to get the economy going again, the critical problem is care for school-age children.

States increasingly recognize childcare’s critical impact on children’s early learning and development. Yet to support growing state efforts to provide low-income working families with adequate access to high-quality care, we must fix dysfunctional and fragmented federal funding streams.

Tacking additional grades onto a poorly performing school system won’t help the children who need help the most. Improving the 13 grades they already attend could help them a lot.

While PACE Act supporters claim that it will “promote expanded access to affordable child care for everyone," it will actually do zero for the families who need help most.

It’s hard to see how funneling a little more money into a badly underperforming, inefficient system will result in the “high quality” schools promised by Issue 44 promoters.

The compelling promise of the early childhood focus is its real potential to close the opportunity gap and significantly improve outcomes for the nation’s most disadvantaged children.