Ashley Lewis joined EDC’s Center for Children and Technology in September 2005. She is currently working on several research projects, including:

• The Big Math project is a randomized controlled trial intended to measure the effectiveness of the Big Math for Little Kids curriculum as compared to a traditional curriculum at preschool centers in New York City.


• The Hidden Sparks project also evaluates the effectiveness of a professional development program. Hidden Sparks provides professional development, including All Kind of Mind’s “Schools Attuned” and “Positive Behavioral Support” programs, to practitioners at Jewish day schools in the New York area to improve their understanding and support of students with diverse learning needs.


• The Supporting Staff Developers project is investigating the kinds of supports that are needed to develop the capacity of teacher leaders to effectively implement two curriculum-based professional development (PD) programs in their districts.


• The GreenFab provides formative and summative evaluation for the GreenFab program, a project-based, hands-on approach to teaching STEM concepts to high school students, while emphasizing a focus on career development in the emergent field of sustainable technologies.


• The Possible Worlds project is a five-year research effort to develop a series of game-based activities that can aid science and literacy instruction and then rigorously test the efficacy of these tools on students science knowledge and critical thinking.



With experience in educational, developmental, and social psychology as well as program evaluation, Ashley brings a variety of different research interests to her work at CCT, such as the moral development of gifted students, comprehension within various media formats, the evaluation of after-school programs, the impact of domestic violence on children’s development, and the symbolic understanding of young children. Before joining CCT, Ashley worked as a research assistant at the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. In addition to her research experience, Ashley has extensive experience teaching both graduate and undergraduate students. At the University of Minnesota, she taught an applied educational psychology course in the teacher preparation program. In addition, she assisted in the design and implementation of an online gifted education course for the department’s certificate in gifted education and talent development, which she has also obtained. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and both a M.A. and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

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Select External Writing

Lewis, A. & Mandinach, E. (2008). Informal Education on the Internet. In Good, T.L. (Ed), 21st Century Education, Sage Publications, Inc.

Mandinach, E. & Lewis, A. (Accepted with Revisions) Designing a Rigorous Study: Balancing the Practicalities and the Methodology. (Educational Psychologist).