Explore:
Inequities in early childhood education and care (ECEC), formal education and youth training.
Test:
Novel solutions to known problems, collaborating with stakeholders.
Create:
Knowledge mobilization tools, including evidence-informed policy.
We draw on multidisciplinary insights from many fields, including economics, applied psychology and human development, and political science. We work with researchers across Canada and abroad to answer questions, develop interventions and mobilize information.
Featured Insight…
The Economics of Age at School Entry: Insights from Evidence and Methods
This article reviews the growing literature on age at school entry and its effects over the life course. Age at school entry affects a broad range of outcomes, including education, labor-market performance, health, social relationships, and family formation. We...
Quantitative Analysis and Methods
More Money Is Not Enough: (Re)Considering Policy Proposals to Increase Federal Funding for Special Education
New policy proposals to increase funding for the American Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—including recent efforts by the Biden-Harris administration to “fully fund” IDEA—bring a new sense of urgency to understanding how federal special education...
Unequal and Increasingly Unfair: How Federal Policy Creates Disparities in Special Education Funding
The formula used to allocate federal funding to US states for special education is one of IDEA's most critical components. The formula serves as the primary mechanism for dividing available federal dollars among states and represents policy makers’ intent to equalize...
Will the Increased Investment in Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada Pay off? It Depends!
This article explores the potential impact of the increased investment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Canada. With a multi-billion-dollar investment committed to making high-quality care accessible, affordable, flexible, and inclusive for all...
Intervention Creation and Testing
Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Creativity in Early Childhood Education and Care: A Scoping Review
Creativity has been identified as one of the most important skills of the 21st century. The development of creativity begins at an early age. Given that most children attend early childhood education and care (ECEC) during this critical developmental period, it is...
Beyond the mask: Decoding children’s mental health patterns amidst COVID-19 and the role of parenting
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on children and families worldwide. Children’s mental health has been at the forefront of pandemic research, with several observational studies documenting its decline. Limited person-centred research exists, however,...
Improving young children’s peer collaboration in early educational settings
Peer collaboration is a foundational skill that emerges in early childhood. Children spend significant time in early educational settings, making it an important setting where young children can learn how to collaborate with peers. However, research on how to support children’s collaboration effectively is limited and findings in this area have been inconsistent.
Designing Effective Policy Responses
Understanding Unlicensed Early Childhood Education and Care Utilization in Canada
This study examined early childhood education and care (ECEC) utilization in Canada,
focusing on use of unlicensed home child care (HCC) from an equity perspective. Data from the 2011 cycle of the General Social Survey (GSS) were used. Across Canada, parent responses reveal that 16.6% of children between the age of 12 months and entry to school were in unlicensed HCC.
Child care policy and child care burden
The policy feedback literature highlights that the design of public policies can affect recipients’ experience of those policies and programs. In this paper, we examine the largely unexplored distributional implications of market-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) services.
Charting the Rise of School Choice across Canadian Provinces
This article introduces and discusses the findings of the Canada School Choice Policy Index (CSCPI). This is the first index of its kind that measures the development of school choice policies across the Canadian provinces from 1980 to 2020 using eight unique indicators of choice.
Mailing Address
Department of Management
University of Toronto Scarborough
UTSC Instructional Centre
1095 Military Trail
Toronto, ON M1C 1A4









