Ben Domingue is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He has two areas of active research. The first focuses on statewide standardized test scores and their uses, particularly how test scores are used in statistical models that evaluate the effectiveness of teachers and schools. On a technical level, he also is interested in the extent to which test scores and the data from which they are drawn demonstrate certain desirable properties. The second area of research focuses on the integration of genetic data into social science research.

Kin Bing Wu was Lead Education Specialist for China and Mongolia at the World Bank. She had worked in 26 countries in East Asia, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean Region during her career at the World Bank that spanned over two decades. She has covered low-income, middle-income economies, transitional economies, and post-confliect countries. Her World Bank and academic publications have dealt with the finance and efficiency of education systems, and public policies toward education.

Ulrich Trautwein, Prof. Dr., is full professor for educational science at the University of Tuebingen. He studied psychology at University of Goettingen and University of California, Santa Cruz (diploma in 1999). From 1999 to 2008, Trautwein hold a position as research scientist at Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin in 2002 for his work on schools and self-esteem. His habilitation work on a multilevel homework model was finished in 2005.

Joseph Sparling, Ph.D., is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and a Fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina. Professor Sparling's 50-year career has been focused on bringing educational opportunities to needy families with children from birth though age 5. With Professor Craig Ramey, he developed an early educational program known as the Abecedarian Approach.

Larry Schweinhart is an early childhood program researcher and speaker throughout the United States and in other countries. He has conducted research at the HighScope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, since 1975 and served as its president since 2003. He became president emeritus in 2013. He has directed the HighScope Perry Preschool Study through age 40, the Michigan School Readiness Program Evaluation, HighScope's Head Start Quality Research Center, and the development and validation of the Child Observation Record.

Nirmala Rao is Professor, Faculty of Education and Director of Graduate Studies & Associate Dean, Graduate School, The University of Hong Kong. She is a Developmental and Chartered (Educational) Psychologist who is internationally recognized for her research on early child development and education in Asian cultural contexts. This research has focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence-based programmes directed at children in the early childhood stage of development with the objective of finding out why they have the effects that they do.

Milagros Nores is an Assistant Research Professor at NIEER, Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education. Her expertise is in early childhood attainment, the economics of education, poverty, and international and comparative education. She runs early childhood studies in the U.S. and Latin America. She holds a Ph.D. in Education and Economics from Columbia University and an Ed.M. in Educational Administration and Social Policy from Harvard University. Dr.

Sophie Naudeau is a Senior Education Specialist in the Africa region at the World Bank. In this capacity, she is primarily responsible for leading the policy dialogue on the education portfolio in Mozambique, including on Early Childhood Development (ECD). Since joining the World Bank in 2005, Sophie worked in the EAP (East Asia and Pacific) and MENA (Middle-East and North Africa) regions, as well as in the Children and Youth Unit of the Human Development Network.

Jung-Sook Lee's research focuses on the processes through which social and psychological factors interplay in creating barriers for the social advancement of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. She is interested in developing interventions to facilitate their social advancement by targeting the processes. Jung-Sook Lee has been working on various research projects involving vulnerable children and their families.

Since 1985, Dr. Landers has worked with UNICEF and other international agencies to promote policies and programs in support of children and their families. Over the past 20 years, she has provided technical assistance and support to child development programs in over 60 countries throughout Southern Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. She has extensive experience in the design, implementation, and training of practitioners at all levels, developing global interventions ranging from parenting education to developmental pediatrics.