Introduction to the Special Issue on Early Care and Education Collaboration

ABSTRACT

The Special Issue on Early Care and Education (ECE) collaboration presents seven articles – followed by a commentary – that describe collaborations among different ECE programs. The articles present conceptual frameworks of ECE collaboration, explore the ways that organizations form and sustain ECE collaborations, and share findings regarding the outcomes of the collaborations. The studies employ a range of methods, including qualitative approaches, descriptive statistical analyses, regression analyses of survey data, network analysis, and mixed methods analyses. The articles and commentary in this special issue describe specific implications for policy and practice.

Policymakers consider early care and education (ECE) collaboration as instrumental in providing broader access to higher quality education in a cost-effective manner. Public and private institutions support collaborations between child care, Head Start, and prekindergarten (pre-K) programs. The hope is that collaboration will lead to (a) improved school readiness for children, (b) increased workforce knowledge and skills, (c) better program quality, and (d) greater access to child care for working parents (Chien et al., 2013; Frede, Jung, Barnett, & Figueras, 2009; Selden, Sowa, & Sandfort, 2006; U.S. Department of Education, 2016; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013, 2017). As noted in the call for this special issue, a large percentage of child care, Early Head Start/Head Start (EHS/HS), and pre-K providers jointly deliver services to young children and their families (National Survey of Early Care and Education Project Team, 2015). The laws authorizing each of these programs and associated regulations require coordination or collaboration (Schilder, 2017). Despite the substantial support for collaborations, few peer-reviewed research articles exist on the topic of ECE collaboration. This special issue begins to address the gap in the research literature.

The seven articles in this issue – followed by a commentary – describe collaborations among different ECE programs, present conceptual frameworks of ECE collaboration, explore the ways that organizations form and sustain ECE collaborations, and share findings regarding the outcomes of the collaborations. While the manuscripts focus on similar constructs, the studies implicitly or explicitly present different definitions, conceptual frameworks, and operationalizations of successful collaboration. Six of the seven articles examine collaborations in which EHS/HS are involved, and one article focuses specifically on collaborations among public early childhood teachers. All of the articles include the characteristics of ECE providers engaged in collaboration. The studies employ a range of methods, including qualitative approaches, descriptive statistical analyzes, regression analyses of survey data, network analysis, and mixed methods analyses.

Two of the articles in this special issue focus specifically on forming and identifying the benefits of EHS/child care partnerships. Levere, Del Grosso, Thomas, Madigan, and Fortunato (2019) describe a grant program that supports these partnerships and present findings from a national survey of programs that received these grants. Halle et al. (2019) examine the development and implementation of six EHS/child care partnerships using a mixed-methods approach. Partnership benefits described in both articles include working together to offer professional development opportunities to teachers and additional services to families (Halle et al., 2019; Levere et al., 2019).

Two research articles examine collaborations among child care, Head Start, and pre-K programs that are required to follow rigorous standards because of federal grant funding. Hawkinson and Davis Tribble’s (2019) qualitative study examines collaborations among ECE programs that are supported through a federal program that funds collaborations through grants to school districts. Their study describes how ECE collaborations are developed and sustained. Notably, the article provides parent perspectives on the benefits of services offered through collaborations. Schilder, Broadstone, and Leavell (2019) present descriptive findings from surveys of child care providers engaged in formal collaborations with EHS/HS and/or pre-K programs in two states. The authors describe the characteristics of the collaborative process that are correlated with success. Authors report that strong administrative processes and solid relationships, as measured by two separate scales are correlated with success. They operationalize success to include both process measures and improvements in observed quality.

Mowrey and King (2019) use an innovative network analysis of qualitative data to study collaborations among public school pre-K educators. Their article presents patterns of collaboration among early childhood educators and suggests that face-to-face, informal collaborations focusing on behavior management are the most common types of collaboration for this group. Their article provides a unique methodological approach and conceptual framework for conducting research on ECE collaboration.

DeMeo-Cook and Coley (2019) examine how Head Start programs coordinate with elementary schools to support children’s transition to and success in kindergarten. The authors present results from their analysis of data from a nationally representative sample of Head Start children who transitioned to kindergarten. Employing regression analysis, the authors found that coordination efforts were significantly related to children’s language and mathematics skills in kindergarten for children attending elementary schools engaging in limited school transition practices to support school entry, suggesting that coordination practices initiated by preschools may play a compensatory role for children. In addition, this article found that that direct meetings between Head Start and kindergarten teachers are predictive of higher language skills in kindergarten.

Soliday Hong et al. (2019) present a conceptual framework that broadens the definition of ECE collaboration by focusing on collaborations among Head Start, child care, pre-K programs university partners, funders, leaders, and teachers. This paper presents a review of existing research on ECE collaboration and details the different ways the research field defines ECE collaboration. Their article presents a new conceptual framework that includes national, network, and school policies and as such, goes beyond the focus on collaborations among programs and educators. Authors suggest this conceptual framework can inform future research and policy.

These seven articles are followed by a commentary by Lori Connors-Tadros (2019), a scholar who has led numerous studies of ECE policies. She has written extensively about ECE collaboration and recently served as an author of a National Academy of Medicine report on creating a unified approach to supporting the early childhood workforce (Adams et al., 2017). She is currently the director of the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes, housed within the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. In this role, she translates empirical research for state and local policymakers and supports the use of evidence by policymakers and practitioners. Her commentary presents her reflections on the implications of the articles in this special issue for research, policy, and practice. She notes that even though collaborations have been supported for decades, research on this complex topic is nascent and additional research is needed. She reflects on several key issues that emerged across the seven articles, including the importance of building relationships among ECE providers and the fact that most of the special issue articles focus on collaborations that require adherence to federal standards. She raises questions about how policies to support collaborations could address inequities, but raises concerns that none of the articles focused explicitly on this issue.

Many of the contributors to this special issue suggest specific implications for policy and practice. Taken together, the findings suggest areas in which policies have already made a difference to ECE programs and areas for policy improvement. A key finding across several studies that has policy implications is the importance of building relationships within ECE collaborations. Many collaborations are the result of previously established relationships; but while this contributes to ECE collaboration success for some programs, programs without existing relationships could be at a disadvantage or have fewer opportunities for success. When programs develop a collaboration without a prior relationship, what policies are in place to support the time needed to build trust and clarify collaboration roles and responsibilities?

Another policy issue raised by these articles is program “readiness” for collaboration. When policies call for collaboration, what supports are in place during the planning phase? Do we know how much program administrators and/or educators value ECE collaboration? What infrastructure supports foster collaboration between a weak partner and a strong partner? We believe these questions are essential to consider as new initiatives – such as the new Preschool Expansion Grants – Birth to Five initiative – require ECE collaboration and stakeholders create early care and education systems (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). As new collaborations and ECE systems form, it is essential to have intentional discussions about shared missions, values, joint operations, and responsibilities.

Additional research on the nature and outcomes of collaboration is needed. Future work should examine how ECE collaboration impacts child and family outcomes, the most distal outcomes of system collaboration. Because there were no experimental studies within the special issue, we cannot make causal claims about how the process and/or quality of ECE collaboration might positively or negatively impact children and families.

Future studies should also explore the potential for collaborations to address inequity in early care and education. Stakeholders often tout collaborations as a solution to educational inequity, but in practice, new requirements and competing goals may limit program participation. As we continue to build the research base, broaden the definitions, and introduce new frameworks, how can we begin to feature equity explicitly as a goal of ECE collaboration?

Policymakers and practitioners can use the empirical evidence presented in this issue to inform the design and implementation of ECE collaborations. However, it appears that research on the complex nature and outcomes of early care and education collaboration is still in its infancy. We are eager to see how the articles in this special issue contribute to future research, policy, and the practice of establishing and sustaining ECE collaborations.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge funding support from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for this special issue. The views expressed in this publication do not reflect the views or policies of the funder.

Authors thank Ann Rivera, Ivelisse Martinez-Beck, Kathleen Dwyer, and leaders at OPRE for providing opportunities for the authors to collaborate with and learn from other early care and education researchers through the Child Care and Early Education Policy Research Consortium.

We appreciate Holli Tonyan for sharing her experiences as a special issue editor. Her input was enormously helpful.

We thank our respective institutions, our colleagues at these institutions, and all of those we have collaborated over the years. Their research, insights, and support have been instrumental in our work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.