Shannon Monahan

Shannon Monahan has expertise in developing early childhood assessments and observational measures, evaluating programs that serve young children and their parents, supporting the early childhood workforce, and developing evidence-based professional development and instructional materials for educators.

Monahan was the survey director for a measures development project, the Quality of Caregiver–Child Interactions for Infants and Toddlers (Q-CCIIT, now known as the QCIT), and co-developed a measure of caregiver-child interactions for infants and toddlers. She also was the co-project director for a project that created and evaluated research-based professional development resources that align with the QCIT observational measure called the We Grow Together professional development system. Monahan also directed a project that created a conceptual framework of early childhood teachers’ use of child assessments to individualize instruction, and developed a measure to examine this process. Currently, she is the principal investigator for a project developing postsecondary teaching materials that highlight aspects of applied research based on research products from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE). All of these projects were funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF). OPRE is also within ACF.

Monahan worked with colleagues at Mathematica to make the QCIT measure and observer training available to the public.

In the education sector, Monahan was the topical products lead for the Institute of Education Sciences’ What Works Clearinghouse. She oversaw the development of a variety of products that provide useful information in appealing formats to educators, policymakers, and researchers. She was also principal investigator for an evidence review of early education services for infants and toddlers. The review was funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in partnership with ACF.

Monahan joined Mathematica in 2007. She is a reviewer for the National Research Conference on Early Childhood and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She holds a Ph.D. in applied psychology and human development from the University of Pennsylvania.