Educare Learning Network

Educare Best Practices Training Pilot

In 2015, The Educare Learning Network-a partnership between core partners (the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, and Educare organizations across the country), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other national and local philanthropies-launched the Educare Best Practices Training pilot, an effort to broaden the impact of the effective Educare model of early learning beyond the walls of Educare organizations by systematically sharing lessons learned and best practices through collaborations with community-based organizations.

The Educare training pilot extended best practices in three of the four Educare model core features (Data Utilization, Embedded Professional Development, and High-Quality Teaching Practices) by building the capacity of Educare organizations to serve as professional development hubs to improve quality among the larger field of early childhood providers. 

ORS Impact evaluated the development and implementation of the Educare training pilot for learning and improvement in two phases. The first phase, conducted between September and December 2015, focused on project design, installation, and initial implementation. The second phase was conducted between January and December 2016. It focused on the selection of Educare Best Practices Training hubs, final development of the Educare Best Practices Training modules, and implementation of the Best Practices Training for the first core feature, Data Utilization. The evaluation relied on data from interviews with Network staff and Educare hub leadership, focus groups with training facilitators and a sample of participating community-based organizations, a document review, and secondary data developed and collected by the Network. 

The ELN team's commitment to learning for the purposes of improvement was critical to successful implementation of this pilot project. ORS Impact facilitated three learning conversations with the ELN team at critical decision points, bringing relevant data to address learning questions for future implementation. For one of the conversations we used an Emergent Learning framework which draws from complexity theory to leverage collective knowledge using real-time data to support learning with actionable results, explore alternative futures, and deter repeat failures. At the end of the project, we facilitated a strategic learning debrief where we reflected on data regarding participant changes to generate implications for future action.

The evaluation provided evidence to inform modifications (or improvements). It also raised strategic questions for the ELN team to consider in taking the Educare training pilot into the broader early learning community.