ExCELS: Early Care and Education Leadership Study: Descriptive Study

Sponsor

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (Other)

Overall Status

Recruiting

CT.gov ID

NCT05258994

Collaborator

Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. Fed), University of Massachusetts, Boston (Other)

1,920

Enrollment

Location

2.9

Anticipated Duration (Months)

656.6

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Mathematica and the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston, will conduct a descriptive study within the Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS). ExCELS is funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the descriptive study is to develop a new measure of early care and education (ECE) leadership that has strong psychometric properties and examines associations among key constructs and outcomes on how ECE leadership could support quality improvements. Starting in early 2022, the study team will recruit 120 ECE centers serving children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (but who are not yet in kindergarten) and supported by Head Start grants and/or Child Care Development Fund subsidies. In spring 2022, the study team will conduct phone interviews to collect center characteristics and learn about the center's staffing structure and leadership positions, and distribute surveys to center managers and teaching staff in recruited centers.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Leadership in Early Care and Education Centers

Detailed Description

Leadership is widely recognized as an essential driver of organizational performance and improvement, but little is known about its role in driving the quality of care and education centers provide and outcomes for staff, children, and families. ExCELS seeks to fill the definitional and measurement gaps to help the early childhood field understand how effective leaders can improve quality experiences for children in early care and education (ECE) settings.

The ExCELS descriptive study will include a purposive sample of 120 ECE centers from four states. These selected four states vary on administrator qualifications; quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) participation levels; licensing requirements to reflect the regulatory environment; funding sources (e.g., Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and/or Head Start funding) to support access and quality; and geographic diversity. Within each selected state, centers will be selected to achieve variability in funding sources, center size, and geography. The study will include ECE centers serving children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (but who are not yet in kindergarten) who receive at least half of their funding from Head Start grants and/or CCDF subsidies.

The study team will conduct the following activities with the recruited centers:

An engagement interview with the primary site leader (the person in the building who is responsible for oversight of all that happens in the center on a daily basis) to collect center characteristics and confirm center eligibility for the study
A staffing structure and leadership positions interview with the primary site leader to understand the staffing structure and formal leadership positions at the center, and
Surveys of center managers and teaching staff to understand key leadership elements related to the care and education of young children (on who participates in decision-making, their values and beliefs, and what they do to support high quality practices, coordination among staff and with families, having a shared vision, along with efficient operations), the center's culture, climate, and communication (such as collaboration among staff or whether there is a culture of respect, shared growth, and learning), and outcomes for the center and staff (job satisfaction, staff well-being and mental health, and staff retention).

Study Design

Study Type:

Observational

Anticipated Enrollment :

1920 participants

Observational Model:

Other

Time Perspective:

Cross-Sectional

Official Title:

Early Care and Education Leadership Study: Descriptive Study

Actual Study Start Date :

Mar 4, 2022

Anticipated Primary Completion Date :

Jun 1, 2022

Anticipated Study Completion Date :

Jun 1, 2022

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Job Satisfaction [5 months]
Study-developed survey on job commitment (intention to continue to work at center); and satisfaction (enjoy job, make a difference, choose career again)
Staff well-being and mental health [5 months]
Job stress; four-item scale with response options from strongly disagree to strongly agree with the stronger agreement indicating more job stress (Institute of Behavioral Research. (2005). TCU Survey of Organizational Functioning (TCU SOF). Fort Worth: Texas Christian University, Institute of Behavioral Research. Available at ibr.tcu.edu.)
Staff retention [5 months]
Study-developed survey on teaching staff turnover over past 12 months
Teaching staff report of family involvement [5 months]
Parent involvement measure from Essential 0-5 Survey (Ehrlich, Stacy B., Debra M. Pacchiano, Amanda G. Stein, Maureen R. Wagner, Stuart Luppescu, Sangyoon Park, Elizabeth Frank, Holly Lewandowski, and Christopher Young. "Organizing Early Education for Improvement: Testing a New Survey Tool." Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the Ounce of Prevention Fund, 2018.)

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

N/A and Older

Sexes Eligible for Study:

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

Early care and education (ECE) centers serving children whose ages range from birth to age 5, not yet in kindergarten, who are supported by Head Start and/or Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidies. A center is defined as a specific physical location where ECE is delivered to children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (not yet in kindergarten) with at least two classrooms.

Exclusion Criteria:

Classrooms operated by public schools
Centers offering less than four hours of early childcare education each day
Drop-in child care settings

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	Mathematica	Washington	District of Columbia	United States	20002

Sponsors and Collaborators

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Department of Health and Human Services
University of Massachusetts, Boston

Investigators

Study Director: Gretchen Kirby, M.P.P., Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Lizabeth Malone, Ph.D., Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Anne Douglass, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Boston