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Project Description

The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation Evaluation project will plan, design, and implement an evaluation plan for early childhood programs and projects supported by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF).

As part of our work for MELF, we have developed a taxonomy of features of effective early childhood programs, essentially a framework to organize our knowledge about the current state of best practices in MELF-funded projects. We are also in the process of developing an early childhood measurement model that will help professionalize and raise the standards for early childhood assessment within the context of MELF work. 

As we delve deeper into these efforts, we and others have come to see the likely benefit of further refining these conceptual tools in ways that are useful for the broader early childhood community and its stakeholders locally, regionally, and nationally. These tools--a taxonomy of effective components of early care and education, a conceptual logic model that shows the interactions among these effective components in promoting school readiness, and a measurement model that guides assessment, evaluation, and research--can be used to describe the current state of early care and education, gaps between current and desired states of this system, and help guide strategic thinking about ways to develop, innovate, and refine programs and policies that will improve outcomes for individuals and groups.

Our work with the MELF has three major components:

• Evaluation of Innovation Grants
  The MELF is funding small- to moderate-sized innovation projects in early childhood programs throughout the state. CEED is responsible for working with each of these grantees to develop and implement an evaluation plan that describes the work and the results of each grantee’s efforts.
   
• Coordination of evaluation of the Quality Rating System
  With colleagues at Child Trends, CEED is monitoring and serving as a colleague for evaluation of Minnesota’s new Quality Rating System for early care and education programs.
   
• Coordination of evaluation of the Scholarship Pilot
  With colleagues from SRI, CEED is monitoring and serving as colleague for evaluation of the Scholarship Pilot to be held in St Paul from 2008 to 2011. CEED’s responsibility is to assist SRI in maintaining efficient coordination with other MELF evaluation activities underway.

In addition, we hope to use our work with MELF and its grantees to extend and expand CEED’s mission through related training, assessment, research, and outreach activities. Check back to this website for more information.

View a 30-minute video presentation on CEED's MELF Project, by Amy Susman Stillman and Scott McConnell:

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Related Resources

Poster presentation at the 2009 Society for Research in Child Development Conference (SRCD), April 2-4, Denver, CO. Godber, Y., Kovan, N., Susman-Stillman, A., & McConnell, S., Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF): The Influence of a Research-Based Taxonomy on Funding and Evaluation Efforts, (pdf, 1 page)

Poster presentation at the 2009 Society for Research in Child Development Conference (SRCD), April 2-4, Denver, CO. Susman-Stillman, A., McConnell, S., & Godber, Y., Using a Common Conceptual Framework to Coordinate Evaluation of MELF Initiatives,  (pdf, 1 page)

MELF Annual Report, April 2008 (pdf)

MELF in a Minute (pdf)

Minnesota Early Learning Foundation web site

Article: Getting kids kindergarten-ready: A profile of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, by Ericca Maas, in CommunityDividend, 2007 Issue No. 4, http://www.minneapolisfed.org/pubs/cd/07-4/melf.cfm 

Project Staff

Scott McConnell, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator, 612-624-6365, smcconne@umn.edu

Amy Susman-Stillman, Co-Principal Investigator, 612-624-3367, asusman@umn.edu

Yvonne Godber, Research Associate, 612-626-9527, ygodber@umn.edu

Sarah Friese, Database Coordinator, scfriese@umn.edu

Nikki Kovan, Research Associate, kovan003@umn.edu

Shannon Rader, Coordinator, rade0081@umn.edu