EDUCATION
| Degree | Area of Study | University |
|---|---|---|
| Ph.D. | Quantitative Methods | University of Pennsylvania |
| M.Phil. | Quantitative Methods | University of Pennsylvania |
| M.Sc. | Educational Studies | Johns Hopkins University |
| B.Sc. | Liberal Arts and Sciences | University of Freiburg |
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Program evaluation
Multivariate analysis
Longitudinal analysis
Social-emotional learning
HIGHLIGHTED PUBLICATIONS
- Gerstner, C.-C. E., Suntheimer, N. M., Weiss, E. M., Appiah, R., Aurino, E., & Wolf, S. (2026). Home and school factors associated with math trajectories before and after COVID-19 in Ghana. Child Development, aacag018. https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag018
- Gerstner, C.-C. E. (2026). Promoting students’ social-emotional well-being in diverse school settings: An implementation study of the SEL program Fly Five in international schools. School Mental Health, 18, 555–572. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-026-09854-6
- Gerstner, C.-C. E., McDermott, P. A., Weiss, E. M., Rovine, M. J., Worrell, F. C., & Hall, T. E. (2024). Latent profiles of home behaviour problems in Trinidad and Tobago. International Journal of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.13261
- McDermott, P. A., Rovine, M. J., Gerstner, C.-C. E., Weiss, E. M., & Watkins, M. W. (2022). Latent profile analysis of classroom behavior problems in an American national sample of prekindergarten children. Social Development, 31, 1059-1078. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12606
- Allen-Platt, C., Gerstner, C.-C. E., Boruch, R., & Ruby, A. (2021). Toward a science of failure analysis: A narrative review. Review of Research in Education, 45(1), 223-252. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X20985074
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Gerstner seeks to create a student-centered classroom environment that nurtures both academic and personal growth. She emphasizes active engagement, critical thinking, and the integration of students’ own interests and life experiences into the learning process to help them develop as independent scholars. A core commitment in her teaching is supporting students who may struggle with the mathematical foundations of statistics. Her goal is to ensure that all students feel capable of mastering course materials in a statistics class and applying quantitative methods meaningfully in their fields of study.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Clara-Christina Gerstner is an Assistant Professor of Educational Research at The University of Alabama, College of Education. Her research examines how to promote children’s social and behavioral development and improve conditions for academic learning. She applies psychometric, longitudinal, and mixture modeling methods to evaluate educational interventions and understand how home and school contexts shape children’s development. Her work spans from early childhood to secondary education and has an international focus, with research on student populations in the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, and Morocco. Before receiving her Ph.D. in Quantitative Methods from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, she worked as a secondary science teacher and completed an M.Sc. in Educational Studies at Johns Hopkins University.