In 2000, Start Early developed the first Educare school to serve the children and families rebuilding their community after the demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest public housing developments in Chicago. Since then, we’ve partnered with diverse communities and early childhood champions across the country to build a national network of 25 birth-through-five Educare schools and improve access to high-quality early learning and care across the country.
Collaboration is the core ingredient powering the work of Educare schools. Each school leverages public-private partnerships as a Head Start and Early Head Start provider, bringing together local school districts, philanthropic organizations, researchers, policymakers and families. These dynamic partnerships comprise the Educare Learning Network and drive continuous improvement and positive student outcomes. Unique research-practice partnerships (RPPs) between researchers/evaluators and Educare program leaders and staff support data-driven practice and decision making and inform policy decisions across the country.
We act as the national coordinating office for the Educare Learning Network to generate resources, highlight and share Network innovations and solve practice and policy challenges.
Our research team also serves as the local evaluation partner for the first school in the Network, Educare Chicago, where it leads a Follow-Up Study to examine the progress of former Educare Chicago students and families. We also facilitate leadership and support across all components of the Network’s work, with a specific focus on sharing the research findings and data within and outside the Network.
Here we share an overview of the data, analyses and shared research findings through Networkwide evaluations we conducted in partnership with a nationwide team of researchers committed to improving outcomes for children and families in early education and care settings.
