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 and Start Early work 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.
A variety of child assessments (PPVT, PLS–5) are used to assess children's language development. Classroom observations have included the ITERS-3, CLASS Toddler and CLASS Pre-K, along with the QCIT. In addition, parent surveys, DECAs, and ITLAs are collected annually.
Principal Investigator is Dr. Diane Horm; Co-Principal Investigator is Dr. Wonkyung Jang; Project Director is Melissa Acton; Research Associates are Irving Martinez Hernandez, Jennifer Petty, Bianca Pineda, Jenny Shaw, and Karen Vega.
