"For almost 300 years, the United States had an education system that was intentionally designed to keep millions of people illiterate and uneducated," says Stephanie Curenton, a Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development early education researcher and associate professor. "I would like to see that change."
She even remembers being a preschooler herself, and how instrumental those early learning years were in her own life. Memories of those years have continued to shape her research focus and inspire her work to promote healthy, culturally competent school environments.
Curenton, who is the director of the Ecology of School Readiness Lab-a group dedicated to using applied developmental psychology to study classrooms and educational settings for young children-is passionate about using research to inform education policy decisions, building effective early childhood teaching practices, and creating an education system that fosters academic success for black and brown children in the United States.
Now, Curenton has been named a 2019 Policy Fellow at the National Black Child Development Institute. The inaugural two-year fellowship will give Curenton the opportunity to expand her current projects at BU and prepare her to become a national leader in education policy. The Brink spoke with Curenton to learn more about how she plans to leverage the fellowship.
