Education
This invite-only convening will bring together practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and funders to define a preschool research agenda and foster new partnerships. Practitioners will highlight the research they need to inform policy and practice. Researchers will then interpret these open questions into a research agenda, and policymakers will discuss how evidence produced through this collaborative can inform their decision making.
The goals of this kickoff are threefold:
All times in Central Time.
Registration
4:15 – 4:45 pm
Doors open at 4:15pm
Welcome
4:45 – 5:00 pm
Blueprint will outline the motivation and goals for the kickoff and for the collaborative more generally.
Pressing questions from the practitioner lens
5:00 – 6:15 pm
Guiding questions: 1) Have you participated in research in the past? What was beneficial and what do you wish had gone differently? 2) What do you not know about preschool policy and practice, but would like to know? 3) What new practices or initiatives are you trying out that you think merit further study? 4) How can we effectively solicit input from families, staff, educators, and other community stakeholders? 5) What do we need to be able to answer if we move toward universal preschool? What story do we want to tell?
Small group discussions: topics of interest
6:15 – 7:00 pm
Participants will discuss their own research questions of interest. Takeaways will be compiled and presented the next morning.
Dinner
7:00 – 8:00 pm
Breakfast
7:30 – 8:30 am
Welcome and Call to Order
8:30 – 8:45 am
Blueprint will share a summary of Day 1 sessions, including a session featuring practitioners’ perspectives on research and small group conversations.
What we know about preschool from lotteries
8:45 – 9:15 am
Jesse Bruhn will share a review of lottery-based studies.
How can practitioners’ questions be shaped into a research agenda?
9:15 – 10:30 am
Having heard practitioners’ questions and white paper findings, researchers will begin to interpret open questions into a research agenda. Guiding questions include: 1) Based on what you’ve heard from practitioners, what do you think are the highest priority topics to address? 2) What are other pressing topics that you think are worthy of study? 3) What kind of study design and methods can we use to address these questions? 4) What do you believe are the biggest barriers researchers will face in conducting this type of research? 5) Tell us about your experience conducting research on preschool, or education more broadly. How can your work inform (or has it informed) policy? What are the challenges in doing that?
National Institute for Early Education Research
Break
10:30 – 10:45 am
What questions are we missing in the state/federal landscape? A policymaker perspective.
10:45 am – 12:00 pm
Guiding questions include: 1) How have you used (or how do you hope to use) research to inform policymaking? 2) What do you not know about the preschool sector but would like to know? 3) What new initiatives do you have that you think are worthy of further study? 4) What barriers do you face to using and participating in research? More generally, how do you think research can be used to inform state and federal policymaking?
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
District of Columbia Association for the Education of Young Children
Opportunities for All Branch at the California Department of Education
Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation
Lunch
12:00 – 12:45 pm
Crafting an inclusive research agenda
12:45 – 1:30 pm
Guiding questions include: 1) Can you share about your engagement in research-practice partnerships? What went well, what was challenging? 2) How could research be helpful or useful to your communities? What barriers do you face to using research? 3) Who do you believe are the main audiences this research should support? How can we ensure their voices are reflected in the research agenda? 4) How can we bring diverse stakeholders into the research process? Which stakeholders should we prioritize in our outreach?
National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)
National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Association for the Education of Young Children
Matchmaking session
1:30 – 2:45 pm
Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers will have the opportunity to connect and discuss potential areas of collaboration.
Closing
2:45 – 3:00 pm
Attendees will participate in a closing activity.
The Virgin Hotel is located at 1 Music Square W, Nashville, TN 37203. The event will be held in the Manor Ballroom on the second floor.
The event will take place at the Virgin Nashville hotel. We have a room block available to book here. Room block rooms MUST be booked by October 23, 2023. If you prefer to call to book your room, please mention you are with MIT Blueprint Labs.
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