Report Prepared for The Foundation for Child Development.
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
Executive Summary
In 1990, the nonprofit Child Care Services Association in North Carolina began an education and compensation scholarship program for 21 child care workers in three counties. As of August 2003, the program, now known as the T.E.A.C.H. (Teacher Education and Compensation Helps) Early Childhood® Project, had spread to 23 states and is annually providing more than 15,000 scholarships. This report analyzes how a program started by a nonprofit in one state gets transferred to a nonprofit in another state. Specifically, it examines factors that supported, promoted, and challenged the transfer of the T.E.A.C.H. model to four states. In contrast to other literature on the diffusion of public policy innovation, this research shows that effective policy diffusion from nonprofit to nonprofit consists of multiple stages and often involves more than one policy advocate.
The study was conducted in Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Washington. These states were selected to reflect the variety of situations in which the transfer of T.E.A.C.H. has taken place. States were chosen based on when T.E.A.C.H. was adopted, the type of group that initiated the process, the type of organization that implemented the program, funding sources, and the political environment. In the four states, on-site and telephone in-depth interviews were conducted with 74 leading figures in the transfer, development, funding, and implementation of T.E.AC.H. Interviewees included nonprofit child care administrators, child care providers, state and city agency administrators, legislators, governors' and legislative assistants, business leaders, foundation officials, and early childhood educators and advocates. The report is intended for a broad audience of practitioners, policymakers, and funders in the early childhood community.
Child care advocates seeking to replicate nonprofit child care programs across states can learn a number of lessons from the experience of transferring the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Project to Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The following is a summary of specific lessons learned according to the stages of nonprofit policy diffusion:
I. Diffusing the policy idea to a state:
1) A policy idea must be perceived as "good" (i.e., evidence provided must foster the view that the idea is effective) for it to travel to and be accepted by other states.
2) Networks of national professional organizations help facilitate the broad diffusion of an idea.
3) Groups seeking and initiating new policy arise out of state environments that are primed for a particular child care issue.
4) Public-private partnerships are helpful in initiating a new policy idea in a state.
II. Replicating the policy model:
5) Training and technical assistance provided by the originating nonprofit facilitate effective replication of the policy model in another state.
6) Groups initiating policy transfer within a state can subsequently act as supportive mediators for the implementing nonprofit.
7) Positive outcomes of the originating nonprofit are more likely to be replicated if the model that is transferred is flexible enough to be adapted to a new environment yet fixed enough in key areas to maintain program integrity.
III. Achieving broad funding:
8) Appropriate framing of a new initiative is important to gain the support of different groups (including potential funders).
9) Existing state and federal policy may provide reasons for why a new initiative should be supported (i.e., T.E.A.C.H. scholarships help child care providers meet state-mandated child development associate [CDA] credential requirements) and may be an important source of public funding.
10) The structure of the state government system influences ways of targeting advocacy efforts in a given state.
11) After the program has been initiated, participants in the new program are valuable advocates for generating support for additional public or private funding.
IV. Taking the program statewide:
12) The ease of statewide implementation depends on existing service provider systems (such as community colleges in the case of T.E.A.C.H.).
13) In-state professional and other networks are important vehicles for marketing the program within the state.
14) Lead staff with appropriate management skills and the expansion of the implementing nonprofit are important factors in expanding administrative capacity to take the program statewide.
15) Ongoing training, technical assistance, and monitoring by the originating nonprofit can provide a level of assurance that the transferred program maintains its integrity over time.
The report also highlights the key roles of individuals found in the stages of nonprofit policy diffusion including:
a. policy originator—originates and develops a solution to a problem into a viable program, disseminates information about it, and guides its replication;
b. researcher advocate—seeks out and researches different program options to address specific problems and advocates for those deemed most appropriate;
c. program operationalizer—responsible for the setup and day-to-day management of the replicated program, including taking it statewide;
d. state agency insider—occupies an influential leadership position within a state agency and is supportive of the replicated program;
e. lobbyist advocate—advocates for public funding of the replicated program in the state legislature and among other state government officials.
It was found that roles in the different stages were not always limited to one person. A role could be shared by more than one person, or one person could fill several roles. Therefore, the report identifies key roles rather than specific individuals.
This research shows that the transfer of a policy innovation from a nonprofit in one state to a nonprofit in another state differs from the diffusion of government policy in that it consists of multiple stages and a number of "policy advocate" roles. The report also highlights the importance of concurring events in the successful diffusion of nonprofit programs. In the case of T.E.A.C.H., a policy solution developed in North Carolina came together with a growing national awareness of the problem of poor quality in child care and federal funding opportunities such as the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Groups of child care advocates formed in response to increasing awareness of the problem and seized on what appeared to be a proven "off-the-shelf" model to address it. The convergence of the problem of poor quality in child care, the T.E.A.C.H. project as a solution, and a favorable policy environment for funding created a "policy window" of the type discussed in Kingdon's (1995) work on setting policy agendas.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Sue Russell and Edith Locke of Child Care Services Association for providing invaluable information and feedback for this report, as well as the many individuals interviewed in connection with the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Project in Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Funding for this research was provided by the Foundation for Child Development.
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