Owen Schochet

Owen Schochet is a developmental psychologist with extensive training in statistical methodologies. He specializes in quantitative approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of public programs and policies that serve young, economically disadvantaged children and their families.

Schochet joined Mathematica in April 2021. His research primarily focuses on the capacity of two-generation, publicly funded early care and education programs—including Head Start and Early Head Start and the Child Care and Development Fund—to not only promote the learning and development of children whose families have low incomes, but also to influence the human capital and economic self-sufficiency outcomes of their parents. He also explores the role of early developmental vulnerabilities such as economic disadvantage, low levels of parental education, and children’s special needs in directly explaining children’s school readiness outcomes.

His research has been published in Children and Youth Services Review, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Exceptional Children, The Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, and The Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He is a proud alumnus of the Child Development and Social Policy Lab at Georgetown University, a 2020 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and a recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Koppitz Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from Georgetown University and an M.P.P. from Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy.