Kirby A Chow

Senior Education Researcher, SRI Education

Kirby Chow, PhD, specializes in the academic achievement and social and emotional well-being of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. She has expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods and extensive experience leading projects and partnering with state and local leaders to study and evaluate programs and interventions to improve policy and practice.

At SRI, Chow leads multiple early childhood research projects, developing survey and interview protocols, and collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data. Under a Child Care Policy Research Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), she is the principal investigator (PI) on a project to learn about the challenges to providing stable, high-quality early care and education to Arkansas children in foster care, as well as test and evaluate solutions to address those challenges. She was also co-PI of another ACF-funded partnership project to examine the implementation of policies and initiatives in Arkansas to prevent use of suspension and expulsion in early childhood programs and promote children’s social and emotional growth. Chow was also project director of a 4-year evaluation of the Virginia Preschool Initiative Plus (VPI+) to expand high-quality programs and of a Virginia Early Childhood Foundation-funded study to build state and local early childhood systems.

Chow also leads rigorous studies and technical assistance projects to improve trauma-sensitive practices and positive behavior-management strategies.  She is the project director for a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)-funded project to implement the Handle with Care (HWC) program, which fosters collaboration between law enforcement and schools to support students who experience trauma, with additional training and support in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). In West Virginia, Chow also co-led a DOJ-funded evaluation of the HWC program. For the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia, Chow led and supported projects in Kentucky and West Virginia to implement trauma-sensitive practices in K-12 schools and community college settings.

Before joining SRI, Chow was a Society for Research in Child Development Executive Branch Fellow in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, working on issues related to homelessness and child welfare in collaboration with other federal agencies. Chow earned her PhD in education (human development and psychology) from UCLA. She also holds an MA in education from UCLA and a BA in psychology and social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley.

Key projects

• Improving Participation of Children in Foster Care in Stable, High-Quality Early Care and Education
• Reducing Exclusionary Discipline in Arkansas Early Childhood Programs
• Virginia Preschool Initiative – Plus (VPI+)
• Regional Educational Laboratory – Appalachia – Building Safe, Caring, and Trauma-Sensitive Schools
• Evaluation of Handle With Care 2.0 – Supporting Students Who Experience Trauma

Selected publications

• Implementation of a comprehensive state effort to reduce exclusionary discipline in early care and education settings: Arkansas’s policy. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 67, 330–342
• Associations of teacher characteristics with preschool suspensions and expulsions: Implications for supports. Children and Youth Services Review, 129
• Understanding trauma and supporting staff and students to thrive. Blog. REL Appalachia Educational Laboratory Program