SESP Faculty

Terri J. Sabol

Faculty Profile

Terri Sabol is a developmental psychologist who conducts research at the intersection of child development and social policy. She investigates how individual and environmental factors contribute to children’s healthy development and applies this scientific evidence to strengthen early childhood education (ECE) programs and policies in the United States. Her broad goal as a scholar is to produce innovative research to help optimize investments in ECE and support children in the 21st century.

Prior to entering graduate school, Terri Sabol was a first-grade teacher in Chicago. She received her doctorate in applied development science from the University of Virginia and was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research. She is currently the director of the Development, Early Education, and Policy (DEEP) lab,  faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University; and faculty co-director for EC*REACH. 

The Development, Early Education, and Policy (DEEP) Lab

The Early Childhood Research Alliance of Chicago (EC*REACH)

The Childhood Assessment Tool- Electronic

*select publications (for complete list, see CV)

Sabol, T. J., Chor, E., Sommer, T. E., Tighe, L. A., Chase‐Lansdale, P. L., Morris, A. S., … & King, C. (2024). Does adding parent education and workforce training to Head Start promote or interfere with children’s development?. Child Development, https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14141

Sabol, T. J. (2021). Improving preschool accountability systems: Bringing individual children’s experiences back to child policy. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8(2), 217-224. doi.org/10.1177/23727322211031591

 Sabol, T. J., Sommer, T. E., Chase-Lansdale, P. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2021).  Intergenerational economic mobility for low-income parents and their children: A dual developmental science framework. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 265-92.doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-051001

Sabol, T. J., Bohlmann, N., & Downer, J. (2018). Low-income ethnically diverse children’s engagement as a predictor of school readiness above preschool classroom quality. Child Development.

Sabol, T.J. & Chase-Lansdale, P. L. (2015). The influence of low-income children’s participation in Head Start on their parents’ education and employment. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Sabol. T. J., Hong, S. S., Pianta, R. C., & Burchinal, M.R. (August, 2013). Can rating pre-k programs predict school readiness?. Science: 845-846.