Rebecca Dowling (she/her) joined the Empirical Education team as a Research Manager in 2023. Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology with a specialization in educational contexts of development from UMBC. Her dissertation was on the impact of classroom quality on Head Start children’s vocabulary knowledge.
Prior to joining Empirical Education, she led evaluations on 10+ NSF-funded projects, conducted research on the use of board games to improve children’s numeracy skills, contributed to a meta-analysis on adaptive learning platforms, and evaluated an early literacy program implemented in a NICU.
Currently, Rebecca’s work focuses on the evaluation of two EIR-funded social-emotional learning curricula: “How Are the Children?” and “Sankofa Chronicles”. Rebecca also contributes to Task 4 and Task 5 projects under the Regional Education Lab Southwest. In 2023, Rebecca became a What Works Clearinghouse certified reviewer for Group Design Standards Version 5.0.
