Abstract for: Challenges and opportunities of intervening in an early childhood education system

Early Childhood Education (ECE) holds the promise for positive impact both at individual and community level. Benefits include a more productive workforce, generation of social capital, decreased crime rates, and intergenerational family stability. The impact is even greater for children who grow up in families living in poverty. However, equitable access to high quality ECE is incredibly challenging. This paper describes development of the model based on engaging key ECE stakeholders including parents, teachers, directors of ECE centers, and ECE leaders in the region. Much work has been done by the community to develop a set of potential policy interventions to improve access to high quality ECE. The goal of this study is to test the impact of those policy interventions. Results suggests that there is no silver bullet and interventions must be designed to impact different aspects of the ECE. Additionally, there is significant policy resistance and interventions need to be implemented strategically to yield positive system change.