Christina Weiland is an associate professor at the School of Education at the University of Michigan, where she is affiliated with the Educational Studies department and the Combined Program in Psychology and Education program, and co-directs the Education Policy Initiative at the Ford School of Public Policy. She also serves as faculty director for the University of Michigan’s Predoctoral Training Program in Causal Inference in Education Policy Research. Dr. Weiland’s research focuses on the effects of early childhood interventions and public policies on children’s development, especially on children from families with low-incomes. She is particularly interested in the active ingredients that drive children’s gains in successful, at-scale public preschool programs. Her work is characterized by strong, long-standing research collaborations with practitioners, particularly the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood. She holds a doctorate in quantitative policy analysis in education and masters degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Christina Weiland
EdWorkingPapers
Lottery-Based Evaluations of Early Education Programs: Opportunities and Challenges for Building the Next Generation of Evidence
Lottery-based identification strategies offer potential for generating the next generation of evidence on U.S.
Mixed-Delivery Public Prekindergarten: Differences in Demographics, Quality, and Children’s Gains in Community-Based versus Public School Programs across Five Large-Scale Systems
Nearly all states with public prekindergarten programs use mixed-delivery systems, with classrooms in both public schools and community-based settings. However, experts have long raised concerns about systematic inequities by setting within these public systems. We used data from… more →
A Strengths-Based, Culturally Responsive Family Intervention Improves Latino Kindergarteners’ Vocabulary and Approaches to Learning
Food routines play a special role in Latino families. Using a cluster randomized trial with 248 children (M age = 67 months) from 13 schools, this study investigated the impact of a four-week family program designed to capitalize on food routines in improving Latino kindergarteners’ outcomes in… more →
Higher-Quality Elementary Schools Sustain the Prekindergarten Boost: Evidence from an Exploration of Variation in the Boston Prekindergarten Program’s Impacts
While there is a consensus that attending preschool better prepares children for kindergarten, evidence on the factors that sustain the preschool boost into the early elementary years is still emerging. To add to this literature, we use lottery data from applicants to oversubscribed… more →