Research Projects Archive
Evaluation of Educare, Colorado
Gail Zellman and Michal Perlman
RAND will conduct a five-year evaluation of Educare, a public-private partnership created to improve child care quality for Colorado's children. With OMNI, a Denver-based non-profit research institution, RAND will examine the three key Educare activities:
- public awareness and parent education media campaign;
- development of and application of a four-star rating system for child care provider sites; and
- direct assistance to the rated sites based on an assessment of site needs.
The first two activities are expected to increase public support for child care quality improvements and increase both parents' awareness of child care quality and their motivation to seek out and pay for quality care. The third activity is expected to improve the star ratings that child care providers earn and the quality of care provided.
The evaluation's key questions are whether sites assisted by Educare provide higher quality care for children than "usual care" sites, and whether children who receive care at Educare sites experience improved outcomes, including cognitive and emotional development and school readiness, when compared to children enrolled in "usual care" sites. RAND-OMNI also will conduct analyses of the costs of the Educare intervention.
(Completed October 2002)
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