Erika Gaylor

Erika E. Gaylor, Ph.D., is a senior early childhood researcher in SRI International’s Center for Education and Human Services. She is co-principal investigator on two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation program. One grant with the Erikson Institute is to evaluate a preschool to third grade early math professional development model, and the other is with the University of Minnesota to evaluate a multisite expansion of the Chicago Child-Parent Center preschool to third grade model.

Gaylor also provides technical assistance on the Model Demonstration Coordination Center, an OSEP-funded center for early childhood language intervention projects; she is responsible for developing common measures and synthesizing outcomes across three projects located throughout the United States. Gaylor served as project director of the Illinois Statewide Birth to Five Early Childhood Block Grant Program and the Early Childhood Scholarship Program, a market-oriented early childhood education quality initiative in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is also a certified reviewer on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC).

Gaylor has worked as a researcher and evaluator in both clinical- and community-based settings for more than 15 years. She has considerable experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research, including designing research projects; recruiting and coordinating research sites; collecting survey, interview, and observational data; training and supervising research assistants; managing databases; coding, analyzing, and interpreting data; and writing articles and reports for both academic and nonacademic audiences.

Her research and evaluation efforts have concentrated primarily on understanding the policies and contexts that shape early childhood development. Before joining SRI, Gaylor was an evaluator in a private nonprofit mental health agency serving children and families in the greater Bay Area.

In addition to early childhood policy, she is interested in the links between health, sleep, and developmental outcomes in young children. Gaylor has conducted research on the development of sleep disorders in children from birth to age five and secondary analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort to examine the impact of inadequate sleep on early literacy and math skills.

She earned her Ph.D. in human development from the University of California, Davis. Gaylor also holds an M.S. degree in child development from UC Davis and a B.S. degree in psychology from the University of Iowa.

Key projects

• Evaluation of the Midwest Expansion of the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Education Program
• Model Demonstration Coordination Center
• Evaluation of Achieving the Illinois Learning Standards for Math