Peggy Clements, senior researcher at EDC's Center for Children and Technology, has extensive experience supervising and advising the work of researchers from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, education, medicine, sociology, public policy, political science, and social work, including offering statistical workshops that are designed to foster other researcher’s understanding of statistics and statistical methods. She is committed to working with researchers to develop their understanding of and ability to conduct quantitative research, so that they can think carefully and critically about the types of research designs and statistical methods used in their research.

Peggy currently splits her time at EDC between CCT and the Regional Education Lab—Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI). At CCT, Peggy is the Principal Investigator for Big Math for Little Kids study, an evaluation of a preschool mathematics curriculum. She also consults on the research design and data analysis for numerous other projects at the Center. As part of her work with the REL-NEI, Peggy is co-Principal Investigator (with Teresa Duncan of AIR) of the Virtual Algebra study, a randomized control trial investigating the impact of offering an online Algebra I course to 8th grade students who don’t have access to an Algebra I course in their schools.

In addition to her work at EDC, Peggy has an active research agenda examining how family, school, and community characteristics influence children’s academic achievement and social development, especially among low-income children. Because children live their lives in a variety different environmental contexts, most of which cannot be “randomly assigned” and examined in a study with an experimental design, it’s necessary to apply sophisticated methods of data analysis to studying these questions. A major focus of Dr. Clements' work has been applying statistical methods to large-scale, longitudinal survey data that support making causal inferences about the processes at play. Some of the statistical methods she employs are structural equation modeling, latent growth modeling, propensity score analysis, and fixed effects analysis. She is a Co-Investigator (with colleagues from New York University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Buffalo) on an NICHD-funded longitudinal study investigating the impact of family socioeconomic disadvantage on children’s academic and social-emotional development.

Peggy holds master's and doctorate degrees in Psychology from New York University, and a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies and Sociology from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Select External Writings

Gershoff, E. T., Aber, J.L., & Clements, M. (in press). Parent learning support and child reading ability: A cross-lagged panel analysis for developmental transactions. In A. J. Sameroff (Ed.), The Transactional Model of Development: How Children and Contexts Shape Each Other. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Clements, M., Aber, J. L., & Seidman, E. (2008). The dynamics of life stressors and depressive symptoms in early adolescence: A test of six theoretical models. Child Development, 79, 1168-1182.

Clements, P. & Seidman, E. (2002). The ecology of middle grades schools and the development of possible selves. In T. M. Brinthaupt & R. P. Lipka (Eds.), Understanding early adolescent self and identity: Applications and interventions. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.