The Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized $200 million for the development, implementation, and evaluation of pilot projects to test innovative strategies to reduce dependency on and increase employment among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Mississippi,…

The early care and education (ECE) system has been under-resourced and undervalued since well before the pandemic. Low pay and poor working environment have long plagued the ECE industry as key drivers of chronic high turnover rates and teacher staffing shortages in the field. Additional disparities within the system place providers on vastly…

This report provides a project snapshot of the Study of Coaching Practices in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) from 2016-2021. The primary goal in the SCOPE project was to learn more about the ways coaching is implemented to improve instructional practice in early care and education (ECE). SCOPE focused on coaching in center-based…

Coaching is a common approach to professional development and support for quality in early care and education (ECE) settings, and is an especially important part of professional development because it can be tailored to meet teachers' and family child care (FCC) providers' needs and can positively affect instructional practices, the quality of the…

Purpose/Objectives: Early childhood educators (ECEs) are encouraged to utilize supportive feeding practices (SFPs) to promote children's healthy eating. SFPs include sitting with children during mealtimes, role modeling healthy eating behaviors, encouraging children to try new foods, and addressing children's hunger cues. Although Head Start…

First-generation college students have received considerable attention in education research, yet there is still much that is unknown about their unique college experiences. This mixed-methods study provides a unique perspective on first-generation college students through the application of McClusky's theory of margin to first-generation students…

The Washington State Caseload Forecast Council (CFC) is required by RCW 43.88C to forecast the number of children who are eligible to participate in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) as defined in RCW 43.216.505 (4). ECEAP is Washington's pre-kindergarten program that prepares 3- and 4-year-old children furthest from…

The Mountain Plains Region (Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming), in partnership with the Southwest Region (Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas), have combined efforts to produce the first cross-regional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed)…

Awareness that educational equity and health care equity are intrinsically linked is becoming more commonplace, but because a significant share of states are providing much less school funding than they were a decade ago, there are fewer local education dollars allocated to addressing the health care issues of children in school. In December 2018,…

A school's primary responsibility is to provide students with a high-quality education. However, children cannot learn to their fullest potential with unmet health needs. For over thirty years, Medicaid has helped cover the costs for certain medically necessary services provided in school-based settings to children eligible for special education…

Several federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration (SBA), provide training and other assistance to veterans seeking civilian employment. For example, the Department of Defense (DOD), in cooperation with the SBA, Department of Labor, Department of Veterans Affairs, and several other federal agencies, operates the Transition Goals…

The 101 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play an important role in higher education and in their local and regional economies. Among African Americans who obtained a doctorate in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics in 2005-2010, more than one-third earned their undergraduate degrees from an HBCU. The Government…

This research brief describes the professional development (PD) experiences of Head Start staff (program directors, center directors, teachers, and other staff), using nationally representative data from the spring 2017 round of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014-2018 (FACES 2014). First we describe the landscape of PD for a…

Research Connections developed this document in collaboration with the Tribal Child Care Capacity Building Center for use during the OCC National Tribal Conference 2024 on April 9-11, 2024. This resource list highlights sample resources from the Research Connections library on the Conference topic areas. It also includes links to additional…

Early care and education (ECE) programs provide nurturing environments for young children--and the learning environments of children simultaneously serve as the work environments of early educators. In Stanislaus County, there are approximately 330 family child care home (FCCH) providers who own and operate licensed, home-based programs and…