Co-constructing and Designing an Early Learning Alliance Evaluation: Elevating Center Director Voice

• In Event: Encuentros, Pláticas, y Testimonios for Imagining New Visions of Early Childhood Research

Abstract

Purposes
This session describes a collaborative co-constructed mixed methods evaluation between an early learning alliance of child development centers, a lead agency (removed for review) and an external evaluation team. This alliance began in 2019 and is part of a larger city-wide initiative to strengthen and support the early childhood community from birth through pre-K. Attendees will learn about how to co-construct an evaluation using center director’s perspectives based on this example.
Perspectives
The evaluation seeks to understand alliance engagement, benefits, challenges, and ongoing participation from the perspectives of participants. It also empowers participants to understand and use data to inform decision making and request tailored supports from the lead agency. Longstanding center directors, the lead agency’s executive leadership, and the evaluation team met to co-create a logic model and engage in discussion to better understand the partnership and its goals. Based on this, it was necessary to incorporate mixed methods into the evaluation to fully understand the alliance and its goal. Using only one or multiple methods would provide an incomplete picture of this unique work since the qualitative components will contextualize the quantitative results. The focus of this session is to discuss how center director voice was critical in the co-construction of a focus group protocol. To honor the expertise and value directors bring to the work, they were compensated for their time.
Methods and Data Sources
To design a protocol to better understand new directors’ perspectives and experiences in the alliance, a series of focus groups were conducted. The first focus group was conducted with longstanding directors to understand how the alliance has helped them, the benefits and challenges they’ve encountered, and the aspects that have been most valuable. We also asked longstanding directors what they esteem as important topics to ask new directors. To ensure our team accurately captured their voices and perspectives, a second focus group was conducted to engage in member checks. A total of 11 directors participated in the first focus group and 10 directors participated in the second. Focus groups were recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis and open coding was used to analyze the data.
Results
We cocreated the interview protocol with longstanding center directors. We will share focus group interview results from the new directors. We will also offer lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations so that attendees will walk away with ways to incorporate these techniques into their co-constructed evaluation efforts.
Scientific Significance
This session highlights how incorporating director voice provides valuable insights to direct and inform an ongoing evaluation. Engaging in this co-construction process will result in a richer focus group protocol to better capture the new directors’ perspectives than what the lead agency and the evaluation team would have obtained alone. The longstanding directors' feedback underscore the significance of collaborative networks in enhancing the quality of early childhood education and care.

Authors

• Emily A. Diaz, Westat

• Larrisa Wilkinson, Pre-K 4 SA

• Sarah Nelson Baray, Pre-K 4 SA

• Lauren Elizabeth Decker-Woodrow, Westat

• Cynthia Castillo, Pre-K 4 SA