W. Steven Barnett, PhD

Director, National Institute for Early Education Research, Rutgers University

W. Steven Barnett is a Board of Governors Professor and Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. His research includes studies of the economics of early care and education including costs and benefits, the long term effects of preschool programs on children's learning and development, and the distribution of educational opportunities.

Dr. Barnett earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan. He has authored or co-authored over 180 publications including 20 books.  Research interests include the economics of human development and practical policies for translating research findings into effective public investments. 

His best known works include: reviews of the research on long-term effects; benefit-cost analyses of the Perry Preschool and Abecedarian programs; randomized trials comparing alternative approaches to educating children including length of day, monolingual versus dual-language immersion, and the Tools of the Mind curriculum; and, the series of State Preschool Yearbooks providing annual state-by-state analyses of progress in public pre-K.

Recent publications include “Effectiveness of early educational intervention” in the journal Science and “Four reasons the United States should offer every child a preschool education” in The pre-k debates: Current controversies and issues from Brookes Publishing, edited by Edward Zigler, Walter Gilliam, & Steven Barnett.