Program Details

What you’ll learn 

Given its unprecedented growth over the past five decades, the early childhood field logically has focused most of its efforts on program expansion and on the provision of high-quality services for young children. Although there is increasing attention to enhancing equity, most work in the field concentrates on practice improvement, typically pedagogical in nature, either for children or by the workforce. CU Denver’s Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) with a concentration in Early Childhood Policy tilts this focus. It acknowledges the importance of pedagogy but suggests that without explicit and specialized attention to policy, it will be difficult for the field to achieve quality, equity, and scale. The concentration holds institutional and system reform as its units of change.  

Students in this concentration will: 

• Prepare for leadership positions in government, private sector, and public sector organizations that require individuals who can create systemic, institutional, and equity-infused ECE policy change and prepare for positions in higher education and policy-focused research think-tanks to advance the scholarship in the field 
• Learn policy theories and existing ECE policy research in order to successfully shape, direct, implement, and evaluate early childhood services, infrastructure, and policy for the future. 
• Contribute to new research efforts that lead to more equitable outcomes and new understandings of complex ECE policy issues. 
• Benefit from close mentorship by national faculty leaders in ECE policy. 
• Culminate the program with a dissertation that contributes to the knowledge base in the field of early childhood policy. 

Faculty advisors for this concentration

• Cristina Gillanders
• Kristie Kauerz
• Diana Schaack

PhD student funding

PhD student funding may be available for this concentration. The financial support we provide our PhD students is often tied to federal and state funding decisions. Typically, students are admitted into this program through funds associated with scholarships, internships, funded grant projects, teaching assistant opportunities and/or a mix thereof. Student funding support varies based on funding streams. Students can elect to self-pay and thus, self-support. 

Choose CU Denver’s School of Education & Human Development

You can trust CU Denver to provide an education that will prepare you for excellence in your career as a faculty member or researcher. The university and school are recognized for preparing leaders of distinction who value educational excellence and social justice. Additionally, CU Denver’s School of Education & Human Development is counted among U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools,” making us one of the top education schools in the country.