The Montgomery County Children's Alliance partnered with School Readiness Consulting (SRC) to lead an intentional and community-driven planning process to design the plan. That process involved creating The Foundational Action Plan to provide a set of clear actions for the Montgomery County Children's Alliance to focus on and organize around. It is meant to build on the ongoing work and momentum that exists in order to address the real and big challenges young children and families face every day. It offers a road map to highlight important next steps for the Alliance to contribute to creating a stronger and more equitable early childhood system.

The North Carolina DCDEE Stakeholder Engagement Study was conducted to learn from and strengthen connections with the early childhood community. This study focused on understanding how well the Division has done in the past to provide opportunities for community members to share their experiences and feedback, as well as gathering input on ways the Division can improve its engagement efforts in the future.

This report presents the findings and key considerations from an evaluation effort conducted by School Readiness Consulting (SRC) to support the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE). The study aimed to answer three research questions related to qualitative research, storytelling, and stakeholder input. The report presents findings that highlight the perceptions, experiences, and recommendations of various stakeholders involved in early childhood education and care in North Carolina, including DCDEE staff; early childhood directors, administrators, and teachers; Family Child Care Home Providers; and families. This effort is a significant step in the Division’s ongoing effort to evaluate the way it collects and uses qualitative data to inform policies, improve program implementation, and enhance the services it provides to children and families.

The Michigan Racial Equity Leadership Cohort Experience aimed to build up the capacity of leaders to make systems change at the community level and scale knowledge about and actions to improve racial equity across the state of Michigan. To best take advantage of this short-term, limited-funding situation, the effort emphasized equipping leaders to move equity work forward at the community level as a way to support sustainability and begin to impact the system.

When we say “equity in the early childhood system,” what do we mean? In partnership with Vanguard Strong Start for Kids, this effort aimed to explore this question. By leading with voices of the early childhood community, the Side by Side Playbook was created as an accessible, interactive resource to provide community-informed solutions toward meaningful change within the current structures that govern and define the early childhood system.

This validation study evaluates the Hope Starts Here (HSH) imperative metrics for success and examines the early implementation of the HSH initiative (2020 and beyond) to inform future evaluation efforts. The research questions that guided the validation study were designed to help explore the face validity and the content validity of HSH metrics and were determined based on HSH's priorities.

This implementation study focuses on the experiences (including successes and challenges) of different stakeholders in the early stages of implementation of the Hope Starts Here initiative.

This initial landscape summary and strategy map constitute a summary of findings to share a high-level overview of the current early childhood landscape in the City of Chicago, including recent city developments and relevant state-level context, as well as to lift up initial strategic priorities identified by the landscaping process. This landscape is meant to serve as a foundation from which to begin the strategic planning process.

This strategic plan is meant to support the Early Matters Chattanooga Coalition in Chattanooga–Hamilton County lead a unified effort in coordinating and improving the early childhood system. This plan will support the Coalition in its vision of increased and equitable access to early childhood programs and services, outlining clear strategies and action steps over the course of the next 5 years.

This community-facing report provides an overview of the Family Voices Project. This report was created to share findings with families and community partners.

The Virginia Preschool Initiative Plus (VPI+) aimed to provide high-quality preschool to children in Virginia classrooms. This evaluation report includes summative, formative, and cost effectiveness components of the initiative, as well as an evaluation of experiences of thousands of children and the programming in 11 school districts throughout the state of Virginia.

This report was produced to support and inform ongoing community-wide efforts to create a strong system of professional development and program quality for early childhood education in the City of Detroit. It focuses deeply on the importance of building the capacity of the early care and education workforce through professional learning and career advancement.

This presentation is part of our partnership with The Kresge Foundation. Tools for Hope: Equipping and Elevating Detroit’s Early Childhood Providers was a virtual learning series that was facilitated by Detroit community-based organizations and local early childhood systems leaders focused on topics that early childhood educators and administrators had prioritized.

In partnership with the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, SRC facilitated the work of the legislatively appointed Early Childhood Financing and Compensation workgroup. This group of diverse stakeholders was charged with examining issues related to ECE workforce compensation and developing a series of solutions, policy recommendations, and key considerations based on both the national and state contexts and best practice. SRC provided guidance and facilitated an iterative process of analysis and planning, culminating in a final report delivered to the Virginia School Readiness Committee.

This strategic refresh represents a deep commitment to providing services and supports that reflect current research and best practices, tackle issues of racial inequity within systems and services, and address the unique needs of the community in Baltimore City, including children’s social and emotional health and development. This plan builds upon the larger B’More for Healthy Babies strategic planning process.

This storytelling toolkit was developed to support the Office of Child Development and Early Learning in effectively communicating stories of innovation and progress of the Community Innovation Zones (CIZ) grant program to a wide range of stakeholders, including policymakers, federal and state leaders, and early childhood practitioners.