Ishita Ahmed

Global early childhood education (ECE) evaluation requires scalable learning measures that account for cultural specificity and development of the whole child. Economics emphasizes academic outcomes to measure education effectiveness. Psychology can build on the economics perspective by contributing measures of cognitive and social-emotional learning (SEL) skills central to ECE. My research will psychometrically evaluate ECE measures in low- and middle-income countries and create a measurement adaptation framework through piloting with preschools and parents in Ghana. I am also interested in focusing on parent voices to understand how they view cognitive and SEL skills, and I will investigate what informs parents’ ECE investment decisions. Integration of reliable, culturally relevant psychological measures into economic analyses of ECE effectiveness will holistically measure child learning to improve ECE and promote equitable child development globally.