TC Today - Teachers College Columbia University

The Architect
Publishing Early on Early Childhood Education
While still a doctoral student, Kate Tarrant has published two books
on early childhood education. Her co-author is no slouch, either
Most graduate students consider themselves lucky
simply to discover the right research topic and find
a good advisor. Co-authoring books with the most
qualified person in the country—and possibly the world—
tends to be off the radar, yet that’s precisely the scenario
that has unfolded for Kate Tarrant.
In 2003, Tarrant, then a master’s degree student at Columbia
University’s School of International and Public Affairs, was
researching early care and education for very young children.
Aware that brain research had shown the importance
of a rich environment for children’s early development, she
was dismayed to find a disconnected hodgepodge of programs
that varied substantially in quality, depending on the
population they served.
“The lack of investments and infrastructure to support young
children was particularly disturbing, given their potential to
have such a tremendous impact on development,” she says.
Tarrant found her way to Sharon Lynn Kagan, TC’s Virginia
and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood Policy, who
has spent the past three decades leading the charge for
creation of a coordinated national early childhood education
system. Kagan, who co-directs TC’s National Center for
Children and Families (NCCF) has advised more than 40 of
the world’s poorest nations on developing early childhood
learning standards. Tarrant finished her work at Columbia,
signed on as a graduate research fellow at NCCF, and dove
into early childhood policy work.
Together with Kagan and another student at the time,
Kristie Kauerz, Tarrant co-authored The Early Care and
Education Teaching Workforce at the Fulcrum: An Agenda
for Reform (Teachers College Press, 2008), which calls for
increased compensation and benefits for early childhood
teachers, as well as improved preparation and credentialing.
Tarrant and Kagan then co-edited Transitions for
Young Children: Creating Connections Across Early Childhood
Systems, an international guide to efforts to help children
transition from one child care or learning setting to another.
After completing her dissertation, which examines the
impact of early childhood policy on program quality in
Colorado, Tarrant hopes to use research to help make realworld
policy that directly supports young children.
“My personal mission,” she says, “is to ensure that young
children, regardless of socioeconomic status, are exposed
to safe environments, responsive caregivers and stimulating
experiences that will give them a great shot in life.”
— Patricia Lamiell
12 T C T O D A Y l s p r i n g 2 0 1 1 photograph by Ryan Brenizer