Sheldon H. White, 76; Psychologist Influenced Education Policy

Sheldon H. White, whose studies of how children learn influenced the government’s education policy and children’s television programming, has died, Harvard University announced Saturday. He was 76.

The Brooklyn native died Thursday from heart failure at a Boston hospital. He had been a Harvard faculty member from 1965 until his retirement in 2001.

A developmental psychologist, White gained national prominence in the 1960s for his studies of how young children learn, which contributed to development of the federal Head Start program. He also worked with Children’s Television Workshop between 1968 and 1970, when that organization developed “Sesame Street.”

White’s work “helped the field of developmental psychology to grow. His role in shaping the highest-quality, most efficacious programs for children’s education affected the lives of countless young people,” said William C. Kirby, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard.

Harvard psychology professor Brendan Maher said White believed research should have a practical use and spent his career turning study findings into educational policy and practice. He said White was also concerned about how children learn ethical standards.

“He wanted to convince people that concern with ethics ought to be a concern in the schoolroom,” Maher said. “When educators said that was not their job, he wanted to make the point that it was their job.”

White graduated from Harvard in 1951 and earned a master’s degree from Boston University a year later. After serving as a research assistant at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, he earned a doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1957 and taught at the University of Chicago from 1957 to 1965.

During his long tenure at Harvard, White headed the psychology department from 1984 to 1987 and was acting chairman from 1998 to 1999.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; a brother, Aaron; two sons; and three grandchildren.