Facts In Action

In recent years a new appreciation has developed for the impact high quality early care and education and school age child care experiences can have on children and their families. What has long been understood by practitioners and families who use their services is increasingly being supported by research. The findings of studies and data gathering efforts are critical to advocacy efforts on behalf of children. Credible research provides tools advocates and practitioners can use to strengthen the field, influence policy makers and command action. Unfortunately, research is often underutilized - both in public advocacy and in program development - for reasons including the following:

• Advocates for affordable, high quality care and education are often extremely busy practitioners and the working parents who use their programs. Beautifully packaged reports find their way to individuals, but are eventually buried or thrown out in favor of more immediate demands.

• Traditional social science research methods, presentation, and vocabulary are foreign, and often incomprehensible, to many early care and education practitioners, advocates, and parents.

• Finally, much of the recent research on early childhood and school age services has not made its way to the field. Traditional sources of research, data and statistics - academic journals, government publications, and the Internet, for example - are expensive, obscure or out of reach to many practitioners, parents, and advocates.

To help bridge the gap between researchers, practitioners, advocates, and policy makers, Boston EQUIP has launched Facts in Action.

Facts in Action works to put research-based knowledge and tools into the hands of those who serve in the early childhood field, as well as those who influence or make policy that affects the field.

Facts in Action's audience includes:

• Statewide early childhood and school age care advocates and advocacy networks;

• Providers and staff who are members of trade organizations and networks, including the 0-8 Coalition, the Boston Child Care Alliance, the Massachusetts Association of Day Care Agencies (MADCA), the Boston Association for the Education of Young Children (BAEYC), the Massachusetts School Age Coalition, and family child care networks;

• Parents and parent organizations;

• State Legislators, public agency officials, legislative and administrative staff, and other policy makers; and

• Members of the media covering early care and education and school age care.

Although Facts in Action materials are targeted toward those who are operating programs or doing advocacy, they also provide clear, concise information to others who have an interest in the field. Given the varying professional backgrounds and education levels of the target audience, materials produced by Facts in Action are:

• Brief. Research and data are presented in ways that do not require excessive amounts of reading or additional summarizing. Users should be able to easily review, recall, and reproduce anything in a printed Facts in Action document.
• Accessible. Facts in Action products report research and data in language and graphics that can be understood by the average practitioner in the field.
• Timely. Facts in Action products sometimes draw on past research, but are geared toward current work in order to keep users on top of what is happening in the field, in the State House, and in communities across the Commonwealth.
• Action-oriented. The main goal of Facts in Action is to develop the capacity of early childhood and school age advocates and practitioners to use research and data in ways that strengthen their work. With that in mind, Facts in Action materials tie research findings and data back to potential advocacy actions, and current programmatic and policy initiatives.

Facts in Action does not duplicate existing research and data collection efforts, but helps them reach their audiences - ultimately building the capacity of the field to create and advocate for affordable, high quality early care and education and school age services.

Footnote
Some examples of Early Education research showing the impact of quality child care on children include.- Significant Benefits: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through Age 27 by L.I. Schweinharl, 11. V. Barnes, & D. P. Weikarl. with W. S. Bamett & A. S. Epstein, 1993; and the Cost, Quality and Outcomes Study by the National Center for early Development & Learning, authors: Dick Clifford, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, Mary Culking, Carollee Howes and Sharon Lynn Kagan.