its first editor in chief for six years( Illinois Early Learning Project 2024).
Internationally, Dr. Katz is known for her work recontextualizing Deweyan progressivism and the educational project in Reggio Emilia, Italy, into a clear framework for project-based learning in early childhood.
Dr. Katz became NAEYC’ s president in 1992, which was another period of political change that impacted early childhood education. In“ A National Goals Wish List,” her March 1993 column in Young Children, she outlined five goals for consideration at the start of the Clinton administration. Though written as a personal letter to membership and not as a formal position of NAEYC, Dr. Katz asserted what she saw as steps forward for the early childhood education community. Her wish list included:
1. A national commitment to meeting the full cost of quality early childhood programs so that fair and decent compensation would be available to all who work with young children.
2. Resisting the temptation to justify national expenditures, priorities, goals, and other reforms on the grounds of being better able to compete with other countries.
3. Resisting the urge to justify social and educational programs in terms of cost effectiveness.
4. Adopting a national goal that all children become bilingual in English and Spanish.
5. Ensuring that children’ s outcomes and futures are not predetermined at birth by their socioeconomic circumstances, gender, race, ethnicity, first language, nationality, or other factors out of their control.
These advocacy stances are as salient today as they were over 30 years ago, particularly the emphasis that all children receive high-quality education.
Dr. Katz continues to be recognized for her work on project-based learning, which emphasizes child inquiry, teacher facilitation, the importance of curiosity, and integrating content areas while fostering children’ s knowledge and skills. She was a strong proponent— both in her scholarship and when working with educators— that teachers should build upon or cultivate children’ s interest in a topic, decide if that topic was consistent with a learning curriculum’ s larger goals, then encourage children to investigate phenomena, ask questions, seek answers, and share what they learned with others( Helm & Katz 2016; NASEM 2024).
Dr. Katz’ s interest in and emphasis on fostering social competence is reflected in the numerous articles, book chapters, and books she authored. Social competence was a frequent topic addressed in her countless international presentations as well. Examples of this work include Fostering Children’ s Social Competence: The Teacher’ s Role( Katz & McClellan 1997) and Assessing Young Children’ s Social Competence( McClellan & Katz 2001).
What Can We Learn from Drs. Spodek and Katz?
As NAEYC presidents, Drs. Spodek and Katz had a platform from which they could directly correspond with association members about pressing issues during their time in office. Their Young Children columns provide us with glimpses of how they navigated public policy, crafted positions, and took stances in service of the early childhood education field. At the same time, they had tremendous impacts on the profession more broadly.
We began writing this article at the start of 2025, with a new US president and new priorities for education. As was the case for Dr. Spodek in the early days of President Jimmy Carter’ s administration and Dr. Katz as President Bill Clinton took office, we know that changes in educational policy and approaches will be made. During their time as NAEYC presidents and throughout their careers, these pioneers called upon educators and scholars to remember and prioritize our roles in relation to the lives of children and their families and in the continued
50 Young Children
Spring 2026