| Research Design: |
The Partnership Impact Research Project adopted
the QUILT project's taxonomy to categorize local partnership
structures into three types:
One organization blends multiple funding streams.
Two or more organizations blend funding and resources.
An organization blends funds with a family child care
provider.
Year One of the study focused on a qualitative analysis to explain
partnership approaches at the state and local levels and to produce a
report for national dissemination to a variety of audiences. During
project Year Two and Year Three, the focus was on the influence of
provider-level partnership practices on quality and access.
Year One Methodology
During the first year of the project, a standardized case study
approach was used to analyze the state- and provider-level data in the
QUILT partnership profiles database. Additionally, research literature
about partnerships was reviewed as well as studies of state early care
and education funding and policies. Two research questions framed the
Year One analysis and writing: (1) How are states across the country
supporting and promoting early care and education partnerships? (2)
How are early care and education providers engaging in partnerships?
To address these questions, two separate case studies were utilized:
State-Level Case Study: Data sources included reviews of documents
produced by national organizations and by states as well as interviews
with state child care administrators, Head Start-State Collaboration
directors, state pre-k directors, and directors of agencies
responsible for early care and education services. The state factual
data include links to state early care and education web pages, state
demographics, child care licensing regulations, eligibility criteria
for early education programs, funding for early education programs,
and numbers served, all of which are from secondary sources such as
the census.
Provider-Level Case Study: Data came from the 65 partnership
profiles in the database and provided factual information for each.
Questions focused on: partnership approach, partnership hours and
days, number of children served by the partnership, total numbers
served by the center, ages of children served by the partnership and
by partnering organizations, funding used to support the partnership,
partnership setting, services offered, and the primary objective for
partnering.
Years Two and Three Methodology
The second and third years of the project continued to examine the
qualitative data across cross-cutting themes while also addressing
questions about the influence of partnership on quality and
access. In-depth longitudinal data collection continued and follow-up
data was gathered from child care directors, teachers, parents, and
from directors of Head Start programs partnering with child care
centers. This portion of the project focused on: partnership
processes, quality of services, parental access to services, duration
of partnership, benefits/challenges of partnership, and child care
quality. Additionally, detailed briefs were developed aimed at
addressing specific questions posed by different audiences such as
policymakers and providers. |
