Early Projects from the NORC Early Childhood Research and ...files.ctctcdn.com/9a69fb8e201/7aa1ffe5-9409-4c1f-b... · •Appreciate your assets (sample, data, impact) •Identify

Region V Leadership & PD Conference

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Early Projects from the NORC

Early Childhood Research and Practice Collaborative

Marc W. Hernandez, PhD

Senior Research Scientist &

Director

• Traditional Basic (Academic) Research

• Collaborative Overview

• Benefits

• Mission

• Activities

• Partnerships

• Early Projects

• PFCE Tool

• Rainin Foundation Collaboration

• Take Home Messages

• Discussion

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Presentation Outline

• Basic Research: Scientific research aimed to improve

scientific theories for improved understanding or

prediction of natural or other phenomena (NSF, 2014)

• Applied Research: Uses scientific theories, knowledge,

and methods to develop technology or techniques for a

specific, often client-driven purpose (e.g., intervention)

Often viewed as incompatible, but need not be!

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Types of Research

• Generated by a researcher

• Contributes to an academic research program

• Builds upon existing literature

• Funded via federal government or private foundation*

• Peer-review panels and/or Foundation Boards

• RFP or investigator initiated

• Conducted by a researcher

• In a laboratory (yours or theirs)

• Disseminated to academic audiences*

• Peer reviewed journal articles

• Academic conference presentations

What’s missing?

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Traditional Basic (Academic) Research

• Builds fundamental conceptual and theoretical

understanding

• Advances human knowledge

• May not generalize to real world settings

• May not reach practitioners who can apply findings

• May not be relevant to current practical needs/challenges

• Takes time and effort to translate findings into practice

Outcomes

5

Traditional Basic (Academic) Research

Challenges

• Research

• Uninformed by practitioner

needs and challenges

• Findings may be impractical

to implement in “real world”

• Incentives do not encourage

applied outcomes

• Practice

• Lack of time and resources

• Products do not generalize

outside a classroom,

program, etc.

Strengths

• Practice

• Meaningful and relevant to

practice - now

• Access to sample

• Practical outcomes

• Immediate use and broad

dissemination

• Research

• Access to research funding and

expertise

• Latest developmental science

• Rigorous methods

• Generalizable findings*

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Benefits of Research-Practice Partnerships

• Foster research-practice partnerships that apply rigorous

research methods and the latest developmental science

to pressing needs and problems practitioners face from

the local to national levels

Mission

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Early Childhood Research & Practice Collaborative

• Overarching Program of Research:

– Achievement/Opportunity Gap– 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency

– Kindergarten Readiness

– Early home environment

• Content Focus:

– Early childhood education

– Early elementary education

– Child development

– Family and parents

– Practitioner Professional Development

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Child Outcomes:• Oral Language

• Literacy

• Math

• Social-Emotional;

Non-Cognitive

• Children

• Parents/Guardians

• Families

• ECE practitioners– Home visitors

– PreK teachers

– Coaches

– T/TA providers

– Administrators

• Other Community Members and Stakeholders– Medical staff

– K-12 educators

– Museums

– Libraries

– Parks & Rec

– Government

Who do we work with?

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• Research and Development (R&D)

• Create new interventions, tools, or information

• Evaluation

• Does a program or intervention work? (Impact Evaluation)

• Why does it work? (Process Evaluation)

• Consulting and Technical Assistance

• Help organizations achieve goals

• Collaboration

• Foster connections between researchers, practitioners, and

stakeholders

• Dissemination

• Share results with appropriate audiences

Collaborative Activities

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• Research and Development (R&D)

• Parent, Family, Community Engagement (PFCE) Tool

• Oakland Household Survey

• 0-5 Effective Program Literature Reviews

• K-2 Effective Program Literature Reviews

• Kindergarten Readiness Review

• Web-based Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

• Getting on Track Early for School Success –PreK Formative Assessment

• Uses of Technology to Support Early Childhood Practice

• Evaluation

• Thirty Million Words (TMW) Initiative

• ACF Early Childhood T/TA Cross-System Evaluation

• Consulting & Technical Assistance

• Kenneth Rainin Foundation Collaboration

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Sample Projects

Parent, Family, Community Engagement (PFCE) Tool

• Goal

• Create a broad, evidence-based understanding of the core components

of OHS’ PFCE Framework

• Develop a tool that will allow local EHS/HS programs across the country

to easily assess PFCE through parent report, and obtain useful

information for ongoing program evaluation and improvement

• Collaboration with the Region V Head Start Associations and NHSA

• Use of natural language processing methodology

• Available for use by all EHS/HS programs in the US (as well as the

broader early childhood community)

• Funded by multiple Foundations and Region V

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Sample Projects – R&D


• How did this collaboration develop and evolve?

1. Gayle Kelly, Executive Director Minnesota Head Start Association – 2013

2. Invited to Region V Leadership & PD Conference – 2013

3. Explored initial collaboration opportunities with Region V – 2014

– Outlined practitioner challenges

– Discussed potential solutions with experts

– Identified highest priority need

4. Co-Created a project proposal – 2014

5. Generated interest in broader EHS/HS community NHSA – 2014

6. Solicited funding – 2014/2015

7. Began work – May 2015

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• Project Activities to Date:

• PFCE story template (created and piloted)

• Stratified-random sample

– 184 EHS and HS programs from across the US

– 12 regions (+ oversample Region V and Oakland, CA)

– 7 agency types (CAA, school system, government agency, etc.)

– Grantees and Delegates

– 5 randomly sampled families per program

• Family Services workers collect parent stories

• Webinar training

• Project website: headstart.norc.org

• Finish collecting stories by October 31st

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• Practitioner feedback so far…

• “I really enjoy the parents and getting to know them, especially having them share

their experiences and give feedback as to what we can do better to serve families.

The two things that we learned about our program are things we know and try to

do what is "Best Practice" but is sometimes difficult.

• One is that we need to keep continuity of care for our children, that is keeping a

familiar teacher with a group of children as they move up to the next age group or

classroom. When we do have a transition of staff from a classroom we need to

have support in place for both the children and parents so that we create a

smooth transition and cause as little stress as possible for children, parents and

staff members.

• Two is that we have to have excellent communication between our staff and

parents. Family Service Workers and Center Supervisors/Managers and our

parents/perspective parents must keep in close communication. We need to

inform parents as soon as possible if their child was in home base and is

expecting to move in to classroom if that option is available to their child.”

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• Practitioner feedback so far…

• “We enjoyed hearing their stories about their successes through Head Start. We

saw how important our jobs are to the families and children. The families and

children need us to be that extra support that will enable them to accomplish their

goals.”

• “I have not had any difficulty recording the interviews, I used my own personal

iPhone and apps available to record the interviews. Transcribing the interview and

entering the data in to the website was done with ease.”

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• Upcoming Project Activities:

• Analyze parent stories

• Hold an independent scientific advisory panel review

• Create 1st version of the web-based tool

• Conduct cognitive and usability testing with 140 EHS/HS parents

• Create 2nd version of the web-based tool

• Pilot test with 140 EHS/HS parents

• Create final version of web-based tool

• Launch final version for community use by September 1, 2016

• For more information:

• https://www.nhsa.org/our-work/initiative/parent-family-and-community-

engagement-study

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https://www.nhsa.org/our-work/initiative/parent-family-and-community-engagement-study

Rainin Foundation - Oakland City of Readers

• New education-focused program within the Foundation

• Place-based Foundation

• At least $5,000,000 annual program budget

• How can the foundation best leverage its resources to ensure that

Oakland is a City of Readers?

• Interests

• Program Implementation

• Ongoing Evaluation

• Research and Development

• Investments to improve practice and inform basic science

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Sample Projects – Consulting & Technical Assistance


• How did this collaboration develop and evolve?

1. Minnesota Reading Corps Evaluation Results Presentation – 2014

– Susan True and Kate Horst

2. Explored initial collaboration opportunities with Foundation – 2014

– Orientation to Rainin and NORC

– Outlined Foundation’s desired impacts

– Discussed investment options (R&D, programs, evaluation)

3. Co-created a collaboration proposal – 2014/2015

4. Began work – May 2015

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• Collaboration Projects:

• Literature review of effective programs, interventions and best practices

for 0-5 year old children and families

– Oral language & Literacy

– Mathematics

– Social-Emotional (non-cognitive)

• Kindergarten-2nd grade literature review (new)

• Kindergarten Readiness review– National and State

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• Collaboration Projects:

• Conduct in-depth interviews with a sample of low-income Oakland

families with 0-5 year old children

– Early childhood services received and desired, caregiver knowledge,

attitudes and behaviors that influence child oral language, literacy, math, and

social-emotional development

• Establish an Early Childhood Research and Practice Collaborative

– One-demand consulting

– Small-scale, quick turn-around research and analysis projects

– Facilitate researcher-practitioner collaboration

– Dissemination

• PFCE Project**

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• Project Activities to Date:

• 0-5 Literature Reviews – complete

– Effective programs

– “Active ingredients”

• Kindergarten Readiness review – in-progress

– All standards identified

• Household interview content and sample – set

– Data collection begins November 2015

• Oakland ECE stakeholder collaboration meetings – ongoing

• SEEDS of Early Literacy consulting – ongoing

• K-2 Literature Review – starting November 1st

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• Long-term collaboration activities:

• Consult on program selection

• Evaluate program implementation and impacts

• Continue Oakland ECE stakeholder engagement

• Conduct quick-response studies as needed

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• Appreciate your assets (sample, data, impact)

• Identify your needs

• Engage a research partner

• You are not a research subject or laboratory, you’re a collaborator

• Match their strengths with your needs

• Be open to incorporating new approaches

• Consider the community (basic and applied)

Take Home Messages

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Research & Practice Collaboration

Discussion

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Thank you!

[email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Early Projects from the NORC Early Childhood Research and ...files.ctctcdn.com/9a69fb8e201/7aa1ffe5-9409-4c1f-b... · •Appreciate your assets (sample, data, impact) •Identify