Bio Page

Lisa McCabe

Cooperative Extension Associate, Cornell Early Childhood Program
Beebe Hall
FLDC
 
Phone: (607) 254-7292
Email: lam4@cornell.edu
View Cornell Contact Info
Curriculum Vitae

Biographical Statement:
Dr. Lisa McCabe is Director of the Cornell Early Childhood Program and a Research Associate at the Family Life Development Center. Her work focuses on applied research and outreach in the area of early childhood care and education.  Currently, she leads the evaluation of a new home visiting and support program ("Caringfor Quality") for both formal and informal family child care providers in Rochester, New York. She is also part of a team (with Dr. John Sipple and Judith Ross-Bernstein) examining rural child care issues with a particular emphasis on the state-funded pre-kindergarten program.  Finally, she is part of the Residential Child Care Project where she contributes to an evaluation of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training system.  

Before coming to the Cornell Early Childhood Program, Dr. McCabe was a Research Scientist at the National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University where she specialized in policy oriented research focusing on early childhood education and emotional development.  She has also worked as a center-based child care provider for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.  Dr. McCabe received both her M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (1999) in Human Development from Cornell University.

Current Professional Activities:
  • Society for Research in Child Development, Member
  • National Association for the Education of Young Children, Member
  • National Association of Family Child Care, Member
  • National Alliance for Family Friend and Neighbor Child Care, Chair of Research Committee
  • Rochester Association for the Education of Young Children, Public Policy, Co-Chair
  • Reviewer for Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Current Research Activities:
Dr. McCabe focuses on early care and education, child development, and program evaluation.  Current work examines how participation in the Caring For Quality program, a new training and support program for registered and informal home-based child care providers in upstate New York, relates to child care quality, provider and child outcomes. Another current project examines early care and education in rural New York settings, with a particular emphasis on the roll out and impact of state-funded pre-kindergarten on rural educational communities, systems, and children's school readiness.  In addition, Dr. McCabe's current research also explores rural children's school readiness in a child welfare population (using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being.)  Finally, as part of the Residential Child Care Project, her current work contributes to an evaluation of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training system for residential child care facilities.

Related Websites:

Education:
  • Ph.D. Cornell University Human Development, 1999
  • M.A. Cornell University Human Development, 1995
  • B.A. Cornell University Human Development and Family Studies, 1992

Current Extension Activities:
Dr. McCabe's extension work focuses on outreach in the area of early childhood education and development.  Currently, she is involved in the dissemination of results from the Caring for Quality program evaluation and the Rural Early Education Project.  Most recent dissemination efforts include two new research briefs designed for non-academic audiences. 

Dr. McCabe also conducts workshops for child care providers and parents on the following topics:  parenting an infant or toddler, challenging behaviors, play and literacy, children's stress in group early care and education settings.

Selected Publications:

McCabe, L. A. & Cochran, M. (2008, October). Can Home Visiting Increase the Quality of Home-based Child Care? Findings from the Caring for Quality Project. (Research and Policy Brief Series, Issue 3). The Cornell Early Childhood Program, Family Life Development Center, Cornell University.

Sipple, J. W., McCabe, L. A., & Ross-Bernstein, J. (2008, January). The Capacity of Early Care and Education in Rural New York State. (Research and Policy Brief Series, Issue 13). Community and Rural Development Initiative, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University. Available at http://devsoc.cals.cornell.edu/cals/devsoc/outreach/cardi/upload/01-2008-RPB.pdf

McCabe, L. A. (2007). School-Age Care. In R.S. New & M. Cochran (Eds.), Early Childhood Education: An International Encyclopedia, Vol. 3 (pp. 707-711). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

McCabe, L. & Ackerman, D. (2007). Child Care Center Quality: Measurement Issues and Links to Child Developmental Outcomes. Published on-line by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) Data Documentation Series. Available at http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/78078/diw_datadoc_2007-025.pdf

McCabe, L.A., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2007). With a little help from my friends?: Self-regulation in groups of young children. Infant Mental Health Journal, 28(6), 584-605.

McCabe, L.A., & Frede, E. (2007, December). Challenging Behaviors and the Role of Preschool Education. (Preschool Policy Brief Issue 16). Rutgers, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research. Available on-line at http://nieer.org/resources/policybriefs/16.pdf.

McCabe, L.A., Cunnington, M. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2004). The development of self-regulation in young children: Individual characteristics and environmental contexts. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications (pp. 340-356). New York: Guilford Publications, Inc.

McCabe, L.A., Rebello-Britto, P., Hernandez, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2004). Games children play: Observing young childrens self-regulation across laboratory, home, and school settings. In R. DelCarmen-Wiggins & A. Carter (Eds.). Handbook of infant, toddler, and preschool mental health assessment (pp. 491-521). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

The information on this bio page is taken from the CHE Annual Report.