Author: Todd A. Grindal
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The Impacts of Extreme Weather Disasters on the Implementation of Head Start Services
The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather disasters pose significant challenges to the delivery of Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS) services, impacting children’s access to early childhood education. This study investigates how extreme weather events disrupt EHS/HS programs and their implications for enrollment and service delivery.
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Improving Participation in High-Quality Early Care and Education for Young Arkansas Children: Perspectives of Resource Parents and Early Childhood Educators
This brief presents key findings from focus groups and interviews with resource parents (that is, foster parents), ECE center-based program directors, and ECE home-based providers about their experiences caring for children ages birth through 5 in foster care.
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A New Approach to Supporting the Quality of Early Care and Education Programs in Arkansas: Case Studies of Array
Case studies of early care and education programs participating in Arkansas’s Array initiative describe the benefits of proactively providing entire program staff with social-emotional-focused professional development that is tailored to the program’s needs.
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Reducing Exclusionary Discipline in Early Care and Education Programs: An Examination of the Arkansas Model
Survey findings from early childhood program directors and teachers provide insight into the implementation of Arkansas’s policy and supports designed to prevent suspension and expulsion in early care and education settings.
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Reimagining Instructional Coaching: Developing Observation Tools to Support Instructional Coaching in Pre-K Classrooms
Instructional coaching can improve teaching quality in early learning classrooms. SRI Education, in collaboration with Substantial and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, created a Target Product Profile detailing the ideal features of observation tools to support instructional coaching.
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Sound Town Evaluation Report
Digital learning programs are a promising tool to support teachers in providing students with strong early literacy instruction, but more research is needed to understand their effectiveness. This report describes an experimental study that examined the impact of Sound Town, a digital early literacy program, on prekindergarten students’ early literacy skills.
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Sparking Connections: Evaluations of Mobile Messaging on Responsive Caregiving
Mobile messaging programs are a low-cost, scalable approach to building parents’ knowledge and capacity to support their children’s development. These programs directly deliver simple and straightforward information, tips, and activities that parents can incorporate into daily routines.
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Associations of teacher characteristics with preschool suspensions and expulsions: Implications for supports
Preschool children subjected to suspension and expulsion miss valuable educational opportunities and are more likely to experience academic failure and grade retention. These forms of exclusionary discipline are more frequent in preschool settings than in K–12 education classrooms.
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Early Childhood Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Experiences of Arkansas Educators
This brief, which represents the second of two reports, highlights findings from a second sample of Arkansas (AR) educators who completed surveys and focus groups in spring 2021.
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Early Childhood Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Experiences of Arkansas Educators
SRI International and the National Center on Children in Poverty collected information on how Arkansas early care providers are implementing state COVID-19-related guidelines and coping with the challenges related to these guidelines.
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Comparing Parent Report and Telemetry Measures of Child Media Use
Accurate measurement of children’s media use is critical for understanding media effects on child outcomes.
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Using Arkansas’ Administrative Data to Inform Suspension & Expulsion Prevention Policy Implementation
This report summarizes the existing administrative data infrastructure and recommendations for the Arkansas Suspension and Expulsion Work Group with the next steps to support better use of administrative data.