EXPERTISE
Wat provides state policymakers with analyses and information on promising practices and the latest research in early childhood education policy, from birth through third grade. His work focuses on preschool education systems and alignment of early childhood and early elementary practices and policies, including standards, assessments and data systems.
BACKGROUND
Previous Positions: Research Manager, Senior Research Associate and State Policy Analyst, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Center on the States, Pre-K Now
Education: Master of Arts in Education Policy Studies, The George Washington University; Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate, Georgetown University; Master of Arts in Education, with focus in Social Sciences in Education and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with Distinction, Stanford University
AWARDS AND PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Member, Board of Directors. Great Start DC. September 2008 to Present.
- Member, Board of Advisors. Student Coalition for Action on Literacy Education (SCALE) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. (Term ended)
- Member, National Mentoring Board, America Learns. Mission Hills, CA. (Term ended)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Transforming Public Education: Pathway to a Pre-K-12 Future, Pew Center on the States, October 2011. Co-author.
- “Why Pre-K for All,” Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 92, no.3, November 2010. Co-author with Libby Doggett.
- The Case for Pre-K in Education Reform: A Summary of Program Evaluation Findings, Pew Center on the States, April 2010.
- Beyond the School Yard: Pre-K Collaborations with Community-Based Partners, Pew Center on the States, July 2009. Co-author with Chrisanne Gayl, formerly of the National School Board Association.
- Pre-K Pinch: Early Education and the Middle Class, Pre-K Now, November 2008.
- Common Vision, Different Paths: Five States’ Journeys toward Comprehensive Prenatal-to-Five Systems, Pre-K Now, November 2007. Co-author with Jennifer Doctors of Pre-K Now and Barbara Gebhard and Lynn Jones of ZERO TO THREE.
- Dollars and Sense: A Review of Economic Analyses of Pre-K, Pre-K Now, May 2007.
