3-147 - Research-Practice Exchanges for the Next Decade of Pre-K Evaluation

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Integrative Statement

Evaluations of large-scale, public pre-K programs have captured public and policy attention. They also provide rich territory for examining the potential benefits and risks associated with connecting scientific discoveries with applications aimed at improving human lives (SRCD Strategic Goal #2). This process of translation has involved networks of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and communication experts in efforts to maximize the potential for pre-K programs and their evaluations to inform both knowledge about child development and pre-K improvement efforts. This conversation roundtable, moderated by Deborah Phillips, will assemble representatives from each of these groups who have been at the forefront of pre-K design, evaluation, and research translation efforts. The central question to be addressed is: What are the opportunities and challenges associated with designing and evaluating public pre-K programs to provide maximally valid and practical evidence for future pre-K research, practice, and policy? Among the specific issues to be discussed are: (1) The challenges of communicating complex evaluation evidence to public, practitioner, and policy audiences, (2) The relationship between careful program design and implementation and possibilities for mounting strong and useful program evaluations, and (3) The value of drawing upon experiences with designing and improving pre-K programs at the state and school district levels to inform the focus and design of future pre-K evaluations. Broader lessons for research-practice-policy exchanges as they shape responses to (and research on) critical child and family issues facing the nation, as well as for public understanding of the value of developmental science, will also be drawn.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Moderator

• Deborah Phillips, Georgetown University

Panelists

• Christina Weiland, University of Michigan

• Haskins Ron, Brookings Institution

• Jason Sachs, Boston Public Schools

• Susan Bales, FrameWorks Institute