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Investing in Children and Parents:Fostering Two-Generation Strategies
in the United States
Christopher King, DirectorRay Marshall Center
LBJ School of Public Affairs, UT-Austin
Texas Early Childhood Education Needs Assessment Conference
AT&T Executive Education Center
October 29, 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2020 VISION FOR 2-GEN INITIATIVE*
• Policymakers at all levels will routinely think and plan beyond their traditional silos to implement quality early learning (PK-3rd grade) and leading-edge workforce and education strategies thoughtfully and systemically.
• Practitioners at the state and local level will routinely implement 2-generation strategies in which children and their parents simultaneously learn and acquire workforce skills leading to family economic success.
• Researchers will more fully understand the synergistic impacts of 2-generation strategies and the mechanisms through which they occur.
*Funded largely by the Foundation for Child Development.
PROJECT GOALS
1. To deepen our understanding of 2-gen strategies involving high-quality early childhood education (PK-3rd grade) and parents’ workforce development and education.
2. To foster 2-gen strategies through policy and program development.
3. To create a policy framework for diffusing and enhancing the use of 2-gen strategies.
4. To identify and suggest legislative changes at the federal and state level to facilitate the implementation of 2-gen strategies.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK*
*Building on Chase-Lansdale et al. (April 2011).
Child
Parent
Quality Early Education
(PreK-3rd Grade)
Leading-edge Postsecondary
Education & Trainingplus
Adult Ed, ESL & Wrap-around Services
Family Support Services
Short-term Outcomes
• Early literacy & math preparation• Improved attendance• Career exposure• Social/emotional readiness for K-
3rd grade
• Understanding relationship between own and child’s education
• Motivation to pursue postsec. education, training & careers
• Defined E&T and career goals• Higher rates of postsecondary
education and career training enrollment and persistence
Components
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK*
*Building on Chase-Lansdale et al. (April 2011).
Child
Parent
Quality Early Education
(PreK-3rd Grade)
Leading-edge Postsecondary
Education & Trainingplus
Adult Ed, ESL & Wrap-around Services
Family Support Services
Mid-term Outcomes
• Academic success in elementary school
• Improved social adjustment in elementary school
• Higher rates of adult basic education (including ESL)
• PSE credit accumulation• PSE persistence• PSE completion• Improved parent/child
interaction
Components
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK*
*Building on Chase-Lansdale et al. (April 2011).
Child
Parent
Quality Early Education
(PreK-3rd Grade)
Leading-edge Postsecondary
Education & Trainingplus
Adult Ed, ESL & Wrap-around Services
Family Support Services
Long-term Outcomes
• Increased academic performance in middle and high school
• Increased rates of PSE enrollment, persistence and completion
• Increased emotional well being
• Greater life stability• Career advancement• Improved employment,
earnings and family incomes
Components
THEORY OF ACTION
Two-generation strategies can be initiated either …
1)From workforce development/postsecondary education, building in quality early learning (PreK-3rd grade) programs for the children of parents pursuing or seeking to pursue high-performance sectoral training and/or postsecondary credentials;
2)From quality early childhood learning (PreK-3rd grade), building in training, education and other needed services (e.g., Adult Ed, ESL) for the parents of children enrolled or enrolling in them; or
3)From both excellent workforce/postsecondary and early childhood programs, building explicit connections between them where few or none existed before.
2-Gen Program Components
• Quality early learning (PreK-3rd)• Sectoral job skills training
– Postsecondary education– Workforce intermediaries
• Wrap-around & family support services– ABE, developmental ed, ESL– Career coaching– Peer community-building– Conditional cash transfers– Asset development & financial ed– Transportation assistance
Major Challenges
• Policy and program inertia
• Differing provider cultures and ‘baggage’
• Absence of high-level policy coordination
• Conflicting goals and performance expectations
• Differing structures and loci of decision-making
• Varying funding mechanisms
• Resource limitations
• Conflicting timelines and schedules
Major Opportunities
• Growing commitment to evidence-based policymaking and program design
• Pending federal legislative reauthorizations
• Flexible funding sources, as well as redeployment/repurposing of existing funding
• Supportive policy structures in selected states
• Innovative local 2-generation initiatives
• Rising public and philanthropic interest
Source: Analysis of data from The State of Preschool 2011, National Institute for Early Education Research.
Source: Analysis of 2010 Sector Snapshot, National Network of Sector Partners; and 2005-2011 Academy Fellows, Sector Skills Academy.
Innovative Local Initiatives
Annie E. Casey Foundation Civic Sites in Atlanta, Baltimore & New Haven feature varying 2-gen strategies supported by AECF’s Family Economic Success Initiative.
Jeremiah Project, a place-based PSE effort operating in Minneapolis and St. Paul (MN), Austin (TX) and Fargo (ND) for single mothers and their children.
Tulsa’s CareerAdvance® Initiative, providing sectoral job training (nursing, healthcare IT), career coaching, peer supports, conditional cash transfers and other supports for the parents of Head Start/Early Head Start kids.
Early Childhood Early Childhood ProgramProgram
Career Coaches
Peer Support
Incentives
Support Services
Sectoral Training/
Employers
Elementary Schools
Local
Colleges
Adult Basic Education &
ESL
CareerAdvance®
Participant Voices
• Too soon to capture measurable impacts.
• But, participants have been sharing their experiences and insights with the UT/Northwestern team in focus groups and interviews since 2010. Their voices tell us the program is on the right track.
• Partner (e.g., Tulsa Tech, Tulsa Comm. College) and CareerAdvance® interviews are encouraging as well.
Coordinated Parent-Child Schedules
“I like how they’ve made the program fit around the youngest child’s schedule... how they’ve tailored it to fit around those hours, which really would tailor around all school-age children’s hours. So only during clinical times do you have to really worry about before and after care. But for the most part, all of us can still take the kids, kiss them goodbye, do our thing, and then be there to pick them up.”
Peer Support
“I mean, it’s just that we’re not the typical college student. Like, we have kids and I have doctors’ appointments and different things, but we’re all, um We all have kids, we all have the same kind of appointments and obligations, and...so we understand when one of us has to miss, and we go, ‘Can you take notes for me because I have to take the kids to the pediatrician?’”
Peer Support (cont.)
“I know if I tried to leave this program, I would have some people on my phone. And that’s the good thing about us being, that’s the one good thing about us being a small group of people. If one of us tried to leave it, oh, we gonna be on that phone quick, ‘Wait a minute what are you doing?’ “
Career Coaches & Staff Support
“We constantly have the support not only from our classmates but also from our teachers and our coach. You know, and when I was in college before, it was just me against the world basically you know. So if I dropped out, nobody cared. It was just, I was only just disappointing myself. Now if anybody is missing too much class we’d call them and are like, you know ‘Where are you at? Come to class.’”
Role Modeling
“I’m the first person to even go to school. So it feels good to me to just know that I’m gonna make a better, like pave a better path for my son. The chances of him going to school if I complete school are so much higher. And that’s you know, not only will I create a better life for him as a child, but it’ll give him some encouragement and motivation, and I can be a better role model for him to go to school when he’s older. So it makes me feel a lot better I think.”
Less Time with Children
“I almost feel like I’m neglecting my son, like I know he’s taken care of … but as far as spending time with him, and he’s taking a hit, when it comes to like mommy and baby time. Because I don’t have that extra time to spend with him anymore now that I am in this program... But I always just have to tell myself that in the long run, it’s actually more beneficial.”
Hope for the Future
“This program has changed my life; it’s changed my future, my family’s future definitely. I mean, this has opened up so many opportunities for me and my family.”
Outlining a 2-Generation Agenda
Two-generation strategies intentionally and systematically connect adult/child investments for larger, longer lasting impacts on family economic success.
Policy Elements
•Supportive policies & leadership at the federal, state and local levels
•Policy coordination supporting 2-gen strategies at the highest levels
2-Generation Agenda…
Program Elements
• Quality early learning (PreK-3rd)
• Affordable, accessible postsecondary education
• Quality sectoral skills training
• Workforce intermediaries
• Support services, esp. career coaching, peer supports, coordinated childcare, transportation
• Conditional cash transfers
• Asset development/financial education
2-Generation Agenda…
Research Elements
• Implementation studies in varying contexts to identify added challenges, necessary and sufficient conditions for successful operations
• Longitudinal mixed-method studies to better understand mechanisms supporting 2-gen strategies and document joint outcomes/impacts
• Long-term analysis of the benefits and costs of 2-gen strategies in varying environments
Next Steps
Work with federal, state and local policymakers and practitioners to flesh out 2-gen understanding and commitments, followed by:
•NGA State Academy-type process with “faculty” support, where state and local area participation recruited; or
•Expand organically to demonstrate 2-gen strategy alternatives in interested sites.
Either should be coupled with investment in 2-gen research.
For More Information
Christopher T. King, Director
Ray Marshall Center
LBJ School of Public Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin
512.471.2186
www.raymarshallcenter.org
