This session will highlight a professional learning/coaching approach in early intervention (EI) that is being implemented to support the use of evidence-based practices by EI personnel. The approach has been co-developed by a university team, along with state EI partners, to promote family engagement and infant/toddler outcomes. We will highlight opportunities and challenges in implementing the approach, including perspectives from practitioners and share outcome data from EI personnel and families.

This presentation aims to share lessons learned and strategies for partnering and collaborating with Early Head Start/Head Start programs to co-refine and adapt a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI), Cultivating Healthy Intentional Mindful Educators (CHIME-HS), to make the intervention effective and internally sustainable for EHS/HS programs. We present information on ways to use community-engaged research to co-refine and adapt the program and share some of the barriers, challenges and successes of refining CHIME.

Around the world, city leaders are recognizing the need for development of community spaces to improve the lives of young children and their families. The Omaha Urban Thinkscapes project is one city’s approach to integrating playful thinkscapes through an inclusive participatory research design. Current findings reveal the input of children, families and community partners on how to design public play spaces based on the question: How do you play?

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer opportunities for researchers and early childhood practitioners to engage in collaborative problem-solving and use educational data for improvement. In this presentation, we will discuss the partnership between Educare schools in Nebraska that each represent unique populations and settings, and their local research partners who work together to conduct continuous program evaluation and help inform training, policy and advocacy work both at the local and national level.

When inclusive programs are developing a system to facilitate smooth transitions for children with and without disabilities, they need reliable and valid tools. Our project examined an assessment-based approach to supporting the transition of children who speak Spanish from rural Head Start programs to public school kindergarten(s), as well as the psychometric properties (i.e., validity and reliability) of a new measure used for educational transition purposes.

(1) This longitudinal study examined how economic hardship during the early pandemic impacted children’s cognitive development via parents’ well-being and parent-child interaction quality. Findings revealed that economic challenges worked through parents’ mental health to impact parenting behaviors and children’s later cognitive skills. Family cohesion was a compensatory factor, supporting positive parenting and children’s executive functions. The study advocates for targeted interventions to support disadvantaged families, urging a family systems approach in early childhood practice and policy.

(2) Getting Ready is an evidence-based family engagement approach used by home- and center-based early childhood educators that has been adopted as part of statewide early childhood system improvement efforts. Moving the intervention to scale has required modifications in implementation, including online training and coaching, and limited field-based contact. Evaluation data collected from educators indicate improved family engagement skills; partnerships with families; and enhanced parent-child interactions. Implications for translating research to practice will be shared.

(3) The Nebraska Department of Education provides leadership, professional development and technical assistance to schools for improving student behavior outcomes through an integrated schoolwide systems change approach. A small (n=5) cohort of districts are receiving targeted implementation support to ensure evidence-based practices implementation. Systems specialists encourage cohort schools to include Pre-K when evaluating and improving their systemic practices. Results of efforts to align policies, practices, curricula and assessments across Pre-K and elementary grades will be discussed.

Collaborations between community partners and researchers are essential for building new early childhood knowledge, including ways to support young children’s social-emotional well-being and early childhood workforce development. Join this listening session to share your successes and challenges on initiating and sustaining meaningful connections and learn from colleagues about opportunities and barriers.

Longstanding challenges faced by the early care and education workforce include perennially low wages and high turnover rates. In this convergent mixed methods study, Head Start grantees completed surveys and focus groups, allowing for creating two groups of interest: high burnout/likelihood to leave and low burnout/likelihood to leave. Data demonstrate the complexity of factors contributing to well-being over and above compensation.

Inspired by principles of behavioral science, this project used a simple observation tool coupled with goal setting and text messaging to support adoption of evidence-based practices (EBP) in child care settings. Using a randomized design, we found strong positive impacts of text messaging and goal setting on EBP in child care settings. Early childhood professionals rated the program positively and endorsed its use for supporting children's development.

In this session, First Five Nebraska will provide an update on the latest early childhood legislation and policy in Nebraska. There will also be discussion on the successful research/policy partnerships that have been formed through the NAECR Policy Fellows program. The session will conclude with reflections from the Policy Fellows and First Five Nebraska on the intersection of research and policy, creating connections between the research and policy communities, and lessons learned from the Policy Fellows program.

Nebraska early childhood professionals participated in 13 focus groups (nine with n=98 English-speaking participants and four with n=23 Spanish-speaking participants) to examine well-being, experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and experiences with systems and resources designed to support them and their work to better understand their lived experiences and gain insights regarding how their well-being (i.e., mental, physical, economic) intersects with broader systems (e.g., health, regulatory, economic).

We will highlight ongoing work between researchers at UNO, UNK and others from around the world as part of the SUNRISE study. This epidemiological work aims to bring together researchers from 60 low-, middle- and high-income countries to assess the movement behaviors of preschool-aged children according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

To understand the level of collaboration among stakeholders involved in the Superintendent’s Early Childhood Plan, researchers employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach. Surveys revealed differences in perceived collaboration across stakeholder types. Interviews identified facilitators to collaboration to include perceptions of support, communication, trust and shared vision. Challenges to collaboration include clarity of expectations, time commitment and goal alignment. Use of a collaboration evaluation can allow organizations to elucidate progress and pitfalls and support strategic decision-making.

(1) National reading data show that students are struggling to develop adequate reading skills. University researchers partnered with the Nebraska Department of Education to develop the Nebraska WORDS Project that aims to accelerate post-pandemic reading development for K-3 students in rural Nebraska. The purpose of this study is to evaluate teachers’ perceptions of WORDS. Findings suggest that large-scale, collaborative projects between researchers, state agencies and school districts are perceived by teachers to be meaningful and effective.

(2) An important task for parents of young children is to teach them how to manage negative emotions. In our study, mothers who believed men should be tough were less likely to say they would teach their daughter to let out her emotions openly. This implies that what women believe about ideal behavior for men matters for how they interact with other girls or women.