An article in Education Week discusses Mathematica's recent review of research on early care and education partnerships and quotes associate director Diane Paulsell. The review informs the expansion of early learning opportunities for children from birth to age 3 through Early Head Start-child care partnerships. Here’s an excerpt:
Mathematica has been awarded a grant to study the partnerships, and as part of that work, reviewed 78 studies of those early-childhood connections.
One key area is how each partnership divides its responsibilities, Ms. Paulsell said. For example, Early Head Start requires children to have developmental assessments. Would day-care staff be trained to give those assessments? Will the Early Head Start partner send its staff to different centers instead?
"There's benefits to both ways of doing that, so they'll need to negotiate who is doing what," Ms. Paulsell said.
The review of research, which was released in November, indicated that strong partnerships correlated with well-defined structures, including formal agreements and staff assigned to oversee the partnership. Barriers included regulatory differences across funding streams and discrepancies in program standards across the different early-childhood settings.
