About MDRC
Hsueh, who joined MDRC in 2004, is the Director of the Family Well-Being and Children’s Development Policy Area. Hsueh has spent her career conducting research and evaluations at the intersection of social, economic, and educational policies and practices that aim to improve outcomes for low-income adults, families, and children. Her research has focused on strengthening evidence-based policy and practice in the areas of early care and education, Early Head Start, Head Start, and preschool programming; two-generational approaches with the dual focus of enhancing children’s outcomes and parental employment, educational, and economic self-sufficiency outcomes; family-focused and parenting interventions aimed at strengthening the nature of family interactions among mothers, fathers, and their children; and employment-based antipoverty and welfare programming.
She currently is the director and principal investigator of several projects that seek to answer four fundamental questions central to delivering effective early care and education and preschool programming at scale:
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What are effective combinations of curricula, professional development, and other supports in early care and education and preschool settings that strengthen quality and maximize improvements for child outcomes?
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What are core instructional practices and aspects of children’s learning experiences and opportunities in classrooms that are critical to maximizing positive impacts on children’s development across a broad range of outcomes?
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How do we sustain positive outcomes for children as they transition from early care and education and preschool to elementary grades and beyond?
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For whom and under what circumstances are different strategies and supports in early care and education more or less effective for supporting children’s gains?
Hsueh received her Ph.D. in developmental and community psychology from New York University.
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MDRC Publications
BriefWhat We Know and What We Are Learning
September, 2020MDRC is leading several studies that measure the quality of early childhood education classrooms in innovative ways. This policy brief focuses on instructional quality, highlighting promising practices that seek to promote school readiness and sustained academic success among low-income children.
BriefWhat Do We Know and What Are We Learning?
July, 2019There is growing evidence that alignment between preschool and elementary school can help sustain the learning gains that children make in preschool. A new policy brief examines two large-scale, multiyear projects seeking to build rigorous evidence about the promise of aligning instruction from preschool through third grade.
BriefIntroducing ExCEL P-3, a Study from the Expanding Children’s Early Learning Network
July, 2017The ExCEL Network, a collaboration of researchers, preschool providers, and local officials, is exploring how benefits of early childhood interventions persist. The ExCEL P-3 project examines whether one preschool program, reinforced by a system-wide alignment of instruction into elementary school, has impacts on a range of skills through third grade.
ReportExploratory Findings from the Head Start CARES Demonstration
December, 2014This report suggests that evidence-based approaches can improve 3-year-olds’ social-emotional competence in mixed-age preschool classrooms. While the findings are promising, further research is needed to confirm the results and to better understand how these benefits are generated.
ReportExploratory Subgroup Analysis in the Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation
March, 2014This paper explores effects of the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) program for six subgroups of couples in the study. SHM’s impacts were generally consistent across these subgroups, though some evidence suggests that couples whose marriages were more distressed at study entry may have benefited more from SHM.
ReportFinal Impacts from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation
January, 2014Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) was a yearlong voluntary marriage education program to help strengthen couples’ relationships. SHM had small sustained positive effects on marital quality more than a year after the program ended but did not achieve its objectives of leading more couples to stay together or improving children’s well-being.
ReportFinal Results of the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project and Selected Sites from the Employment Retention and Advancement Project
May, 2012Report42-Month Impacts from the Kansas and Missouri Sites of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project
February, 2012Two Early Head Start programs were enhanced with formalized services to proactively address parents’ employment, educational, and self-sufficiency needs. A random assignment evaluation finds limited impacts for the full sample but some positive effects on employment and earnings for families who had an infant or who were expecting a child at the outset of the study.
ReportFebruary, 2012This report, which presents 12-month impact results from a demonstration designed to strengthen marriages among low-income married couples with children, shows that the program produced a consistent pattern of small, positive effects on multiple aspects of couples’ relationships, including measures of relationship quality, psychological and physical abuse, and adult individual psychological distress.
ReportEighteen-Month Impacts from the Kansas and Missouri Sites of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project
March, 2011The report offers implementation and early impact findings from a random assignment evaluation of two Early Head Start programs that were enhanced with formalized services to proactively address parents’ employment, educational, and self-sufficiency needs.
ReportAn Introduction to the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project
October, 2007This demonstration is evaluating four diverse strategies designed to improve employment and other outcomes for low-income parents and others who face serious barriers to employment.
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Other Publications
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Projects
JoAnn Hsueh, Michelle Maier, Frieda Molina, Sharon Rowser, Samantha Wulfsohn, Marie-Andrée Somers, Electra Small, Sharon Huang, Amena Sengal, Alexandra Bernardi, Marissa Strassberger, Noemi Altman, Ilana Blum, Ebony Scott, Margaret Hennessy, Mervett HefyanThe Variations in Implementation of Quality Interventions ( VIQI ): Examining the Quality-Child Outcomes Relationship in Child Care and Early Education project is a large-scale, rigorous study with several important aims and implications for current child care and early education policy and practices, including:
Determining the effectiveness of interventions for...One of the hallmarks of Head Start is its whole-family approach to the services it provides. This approach is informed by evidence that low-income parents face challenges related to health, safety, and financial stability that can affect their well-being and economic mobility and their children’s school readiness. The Head Start Program Performance Standards ( HSPPS )...
JoAnn Hsueh, Sharon Huang, Sharon Rowser, Meghan McCormick, Michelle Maier, Rebecca Unterman, Desiree Principe Alderson, Barbara Condliffe, Jocelyn Page, Amena Sengal, Sonia Drohojowska, Ilana Blum, Marissa Strassberger, Marie-Andrée Somers, Noemi Altman, Alexandra Bernardi, Mirjana Pralica, Mervett HefyanWith broad support across the political spectrum, states and localities throughout the country are expanding preschool programs for low-income children. While the public will is strong and the experience to date is encouraging, there is a need for firmer evidence on the most cost-effective ways to produce lasting impacts for children, especially when programs operate...
Dina A. R. Israel, Michelle S. Manno, Dan Bloom, JoAnn Hsueh, Rekha Balu, Charles Michalopoulos, Virginia Knox, Erika Lundquist, Electra Small, Rebecca Behrmann, Samantha Wulfsohn, Ann Bickerton, Douglas Phillips, Patrizia Mancini, Emily Brennan, Jillian Verrillo, Bret BardenFathers play a unique role in their children’s lives and development, but some fathers face personal or societal barriers to positive involvement with their children — such as low levels of education, stigma from criminal records, declining wages for low-skilled men, or family instability. Responsible Fatherhood programs aim to improve the well-being of low-income...
Virginia Knox, Charles Michalopoulos, Sharon Rowser, JoAnn Hsueh, Helen Lee, Desiree Principe Alderson, Dina A. R. Israel, Erika Lundquist, Kristin Porter, Electra Small, Rebecca Behrmann, Anne Warren, Samantha Xia, Kelly Saunders, Ilana Blum, Jessica Kopsic, Noemi Altman, Caroline MageAdverse birth outcomes result in significant emotional and economic costs for families and communities. One promising avenue for helping expectant women is home visiting programs, which work with parents to promote prenatal care and improve infant health. The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start ( MIHOPE -Strong Start) will evaluate the...
Virginia Knox, Charles Michalopoulos, Sharon Rowser, JoAnn Hsueh, Helen Lee, Desiree Principe Alderson, Dina A. R. Israel, Erika Lundquist, Kristin Porter, Electra Small, Carolyn Hill, Rebecca Behrmann, Ximena Portilla, Anne Warren, Samantha Xia, Kelly Saunders, Ilana BlumHome visiting programs operate around the country to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 authorized the creation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting ( MIECHV ) program, expanding federal funding of home visiting programs....
Shira Kolnik Mattera, Electra Small, Nina Castells, Sharon Rowser, Barbara S. Goldman, JoAnn Hsueh, Ximena Portilla, Frieda Molina, Howard Bloom, Patrizia ManciniHead Start, which serves nearly 1 million low-income children, is the nation’s largest federally sponsored early childhood education program. Designed to narrow the gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers, Head Start provides comprehensive programming during the preschool period to improve children’s social competence and academic readiness for...
Dan Bloom, Lauren Cates, JoAnn Hsueh, Dina A. R. Israel, Charles Michalopoulos, Johanna Walter, Sally Dai, Ximena PortillaFueled by a strong economy and passage of the 1996 federal welfare law, which imposed new work requirements and time limits on cash benefits, welfare caseloads declined precipitously during the 1990s. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of families on welfare dropped 56 percent nationally, with individual states experiencing reductions ranging from 20 percent to more...
JoAnn Hsueh, Virginia Knox, Desiree Principe Alderson, Barbara S. Goldman, Erika Lundquist, Charles Michalopoulos, Jocelyn Page, Sharon Rowser, Electra Small, Helen Lee, Kristen Faucetta , Meghan McCormick, Noemi AltmanThe Supporting Healthy Marriage project is the first large-scale, multisite, multiyear, rigorous test of marriage education programs for low-income married couples. Supported by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ), the project is motivated by research that indicates that married adults...