Mary Lee Porterfield

Senior Education Researcher, SRI Education

Mary Lee Porterfield, PhD, is an experienced researcher and technical assistance (TA) specialist with expertise in child development; early care and education (ECE), ECE policy, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), systems building, and ECE quality improvement; cross-sector collaboration; early intervention and early childhood special education; and family engagement and partnerships. She uses community-engaged, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches to inform systems change work in the early childhood field.

Porterfield has more than 20 years of experience in ECE. At SRI, she co-leads an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)-funded model demonstration project to promote improved systems for identifying, screening, referring, and tracking infants and toddlers who may be eligible for early intervention. She has led multiple projects for the Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy), including an online tool to assess practitioners’ knowledge of the Child Outcomes Summary Process (COS-KC); intensive TA with state early intervention teams to improve family outcomes; revision of online tools for state use in calculating child and family outcomes data for OSEP reporting; and multiple quantitative and qualitative analyses to discover state trends, opportunities, and needs. She led a project to revise a state’s prekindergarten standards, and she has led family engagement work for the National Technical Assistance Center for Preschool Development Grants Birth Through Five (PDG B-5). Previously at SRI, Porterfield led qualitative analysis for a study of inclusion of preschoolers in subsidized early learning and care in California, funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families; ECE administrator competency revisions for a state CCDF agency; and ECE teacher competency and training development for one state participating in the Regional Education Laboratory. She serves on a national research collaborative aimed at reimagining ECE family partnerships and previously served on the leadership team of the Family Engagement Workgroup for North Carolina’s Birth through Third Grade (B-3) Interagency Council to develop guiding principles to implement the state’s Family Engagement and Leadership Framework in preschool settings.

Before joining SRI, Porterfield contributed to the development and testing of an ECE quality measurement tool at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also led a national family engagement community of practice and strategic planning, systems change, and quality improvement projects at a state Child Care and Development Fund lead agency.

Porterfield earned her MS and PhD in human development and family studies, with a focus on early childhood development and education and early childhood systems, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Key projects

• The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy)
• Child Find ACCESS: Advancing Community-Centered Child Find Systems & Supports

Recent publications

Selected publications

• Nevada Kindergarten Standards, Revised 2023: Building a Foundation for Success in PreK-12 and Beyond
• Child Outcomes Summary Knowledge Check (COS-KC) User Manual for State Administrators
• Analyzing Data for Decision-Making
• Porterfield, M.L. & Mauzy, D. (2020). Colorado Shines QRIS Refresh: ECERS-3 Transition Considerations. SRI International. Menlo Park, CA
• Policy levers to promote cultural competence in early childhood programs in the USA: Recommendations from system specialists*
• Classroom quality in infant and toddler classrooms: impact of age and programme type*

*Publication written prior to SRI employment