I lead a longstanding research-practice partnership with the Boston Public School Department of Early Childhood in which we strive to research a tool for building strong programs (and not just grading them). Currently, we are following four cohorts of children into late elementary and middle school who experienced the Boston program. Another team and I are also studying Michigan's Transitional Kindergarten program, where we have found impacts on children's school readiness and third grade math test scores.
I have been involved in research on the features of early childhood classrooms that matter most for promoting children's learning for over 20 years. But none of our existing measures have consistent predictive validity and they are very time consuming. I am excited by the possibilities that AI offers for learning about features missed to date and for scalable, more timely information that can improve teacher practice and ultimately, child learning.