Early Childhood Initiative Lecture featuring Tyler Watts

Tyler Watts is an assistant professor of developmental psychology in the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. He studies educational policies designed to promote the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children from underserved communities. He is currently working on several large-scale, longitudinal, studies of early childhood development, including evaluations of the Chicago School Readiness Project and the Building Blocks preschool mathematics curriculum. Watts seeks to understand whether interventions designed to boost children's early cognitive and behavioral skills will make long-lasting changes on developmental outcomes.

Watts received his Ph.D. in education from the University of California, Irvine in 2017. His work is funded by the Institute of Educational Sciences and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. His studies have been published in "American Psychologist," "Psychological Science," "Child Development," "Educational Researcher" and "The Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness."