Professional Biography
Katie Barghaus is Executive Director of the Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center (PECF) and a senior research investigator with the Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) Network at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Barghaus contributes her expertise in quantitative methodology, measurement, and social policy to conduct applied research that informs high-priority policy issues at the local, state, and national level. Her current PECF research activities include examining the validity evidence available for over 400 widely-used early childhood assessments, validating a state’s kindergarten readiness assessment, and validating a measure of behavioral engagement embedded in Philadelphia’s kindergarten report card. With AISP, Dr. Barghaus has been involved in studies using Integrated Data Systems (IDSs) to examine important policy issues such as the educational well-being of children in assisted housing programs. She is also serving on an AISP expert panel to develop data standards and quality criteria for IDSs. Dr. Barghaus earned her Ph.D. in quantitative methods from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education where she was also a pre-doctoral fellow with the Institute of Education Sciences.
