Building Child Care Research Capacity

With the right tools, resources, and supports, Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agencies in states, tribes, and territories can better evaluate their programs and use data to make informed policy decisions. Using and conducting high-quality, rigorous research is a growing part of CCDF Lead Agencies’ work as they seek to improve services for children, families, and providers. 

With funding from the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, the Urban Institute operates two centers that develop resources to help CCDF Lead Agencies build their research and evaluation capacity. These resources cover a range of topics, including basic tools for capacity building, administrative data, data collection, stakeholder engagement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and grantee reports.

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Featured Content

• Research and Evaluation Capacity Building: A Resource Guide for Child Care and Development Fund Lead Agencies (Resource Guide)
  This guide provides a concise, curated list of written and online resources to support CCDF Lead Agencies seeking to build research and evaluation capacity.

• Working with Administrative Data in Early Childhood and Related Fields (Resource Guide)
  This list includes resources that explain how to acquire, use, manage, link, and analyze administrative data in early childhood or related fields.

• Procuring Research and Evaluation Services (Research Report)
  This guide aims to help CCDF Lead Agencies understand some basics about procurement. It defines key procurement terms, reviews key steps for procuring research and evaluation services, and provides a checklist for easy reference.

• “A List of COVID-19 Child Care Surveys and Data Analyses” (Resource Guide)
  This list compiles surveys and data analyses that examine the needs of child care providers and families during the pandemic and recovery. The list describes each resource and its methods, providing a link to the public URL or a contact name if the public URL is not available. Users have the option to sort and filter the listed resources.

• “Tips on Developing Surveys of Child Care Providers” (Research Brief)
  This brief discusses best practices for developing and testing surveys of child care providers. A one-page tip sheet lists suggestions for writing strong survey questions.