Educare Implementation

Educare Implementation Study

The ECEI is the Local Evaluation Partner for Tulsa's Educare schools. The Educare model is a research-based approach for providing high quality education for infants, toddlers and preschoolers growing up in low-income families. The Buffett Early Childhood Fund works with local public and private partners in communities across the country to establish Educare centers. These centers comprise the growing consortium known as the Educare Learning Network. The Tulsa Educare centers are part of this network. The Educare Implementation Study was designed by researchers at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute to document the features of Educare and how implementation of the model contributes to program quality and links to child and family outcomes.

The PLS-5 child assessment is used to assess children's language development. Classroom observations include the ITERS-3 and CLASS Pre-K, along with the QCIT. In addition, parent surveys, DECAs, and ITLAs are collected annually.

Principal Investigator is Dr. Kate Gallagher; Co-Principal Investigator is Dr. Cara Kelly; Project Director is Melissa Acton; Research Associates are Irving Martinez Hernandez, Karen Vega, Jennifer Petty, and Bianca Pineda.

EIS Publications

Read more about the great data that has come out of our partnership:

Kwon, K.A., Jang, W., Ford, T., Horm, D., Yazejian, N., & Bryant , D. (2025). A longitudinal study of Head Start teacher turnover trends and factors. Teaching and Teacher Education, 156, 104916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104916
Horm, D. (2024) High-quality early childhood education is worth the investment. Oklahoma Education Journal, 2(3), 13–20.
Frechette, L., Castle, S., Jeon, S., Horm, D., Martinez, I., Vega Ruvalcaba, D., & Schaefer, S. (2023). Effects of family and neighborhood vulnerability on dual language learner and monolingual children’s preschool outcomes. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.955967
Horm, D. M., Jeon, S., Clavijo, M. V., & Acton M. (2022) Kindergarten through Grade 3 outcomes associated with participation in high-quality early care and education: A RCT Follow-Up Study. Education Sciences, 12(12), 908-930. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120908
Laurin, D. E., Guss, S. S., & Horm, D. (2021). Caregiver-infant and toddler interactions during diapering: Caregiver responsiveness and child well-being and involvement. Infant Mental Health Journal. http://doi:10.1002/imhj.21933
Yazejian, N., Bryant, D., Kuhn, L., Burchinal, M., Horm, D., Hans, S., File, N., Jackson, B. (2020). The Educare Intervention: Outcomes at Age 3. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 53, 425-440.
Raikes, H. H., White, L., Green, S., Burchinal, M., Kainz, K., Horm, D., Bingham, G., St. Clair, L., Greenfield, D., & Esteraich, J. (2019). Use of the home language in preschool classrooms and first- and second-language development among dual-language learners. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 145-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.06.012
Soliday Hong, S., Yazejian, N., Guss, S., Stein, A., Connors, M., Horm, D., Kainz, K., & the Educare Learning Network (ELN) Investigative Team. (2019). Broadening the definition of collaboration: Review of the literature and examples from the Educare Learning Network. Early Education & Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2019.1656987
Choi, J., Castle, S., Burchinal, M., Horm, D., Guss, S., Bingham, G. (2018). Peer effects on low-income children’s learning and development. Journal of School Psychology, 71, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2018.10.002
Guss, S.S., Morris, A.S., Bosler, C., Castle, S.L., Hays-Grudo, J., Horm, D.M., & Treat, A. (2018). Parents’ adverse childhood experiences and current relationships with their young children: The role of executive function. Early Child Development and Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2018.1513921
Horm, D., File, N., Bryant, D., Burchinal, M., Raikes, H., Forestieri, N., Encinger, A., & Cobo-Lewis, A. (2018). Associations between continuity of care in infant-toddler classrooms and child outcomes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 42, 105-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.08.002
Horm, D.M., Yazejian, N., Kennel, P., & Stringfellow, C. (2018). Educare: A model for U.S. early childhood. In L. Miller, C. Cameron, C. Dalli, & N. Barbour (Eds.). Sage Handbook of Early Childhood Policy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Yazejian, N., Bryant, D., Hans, S., Horm, D., St. Clair, L., File, N., & Burchinal, M. (2017). Child and parenting outcomes after 1 year of Educare. Child Development, 88(5), 1671-1688. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12688
Horm, D. (2017). Educare as a model of multi-site, collaborative, policy-relevant research. In N. Barbour & B. A. McBride (Eds.). The future of child development laboratory schools: Applied developmental science in action. NY, NY: Routledge.
Guss, S., Jones-Harden, B., Stein, A., Yazejian, N., Forestieri, N. (2016). Relationship of adversity to indicators of child well-being in a high quality early education context. NHSA Dialog, 18(4).
Guss, S., Jones-Harden, B., Yazejian, N., Weeden, S., & Ladner, J. (2016). Addressing adversity to support family and child well-being. NHSA Dialog, 18(4).
Alley-Melchior, K., Guss, S.S., & Horm, D.M. (2014). Common themes impacting quality of early care and education environments for toddlers. Zero to Three, 34(3), 21-27.
Guss, S.S., Horm, D.M., Lang, E., Krehbiel, S., Petty, J., Austin, K., Bergren, C., Brown, A., Holloway, S. (2013, July). Using classroom quality assessments to inform teacher decisions. Young Children, 68(3), 16-20.
Guss, S.S., Norris, D.J., Horm, D.M., Monroe, L.A., Wolfe, V. (2013). Lessons learned about data utilization from classroom observations. Early Education & Development, 24(1), 4-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2013.739543