Conducting Research and Raising Awareness

Ready to Learn Providence is a strong believer in the value of evidence-based decision-making. What this means is that whether you are choosing a preschool curriculum, a training program for providers, or the best use of funds to meet a particular need, well-conducted research should be your primary guide.

While national research is often useful, R2LP also looks to local data before moving in a particular direction or making a recommendation. For this reason, R2LP devotes considerable resources to research and data collection.

R2LP’s most ambitious research project to date has been a study on the well-being of Providence’s youngest children. Titled How Ready Is Providence? this 75-page report examines 24 indicators that figure prominently in a child’s health and readiness for school. Where possible, data were gathered and analyzed on a neighborhood level. At its official release in March 2005, Providence Mayor David Cicilline called the report “required reading” for everyone interested in the welfare and future of the city’s young children.

Funding received by The Providence Plan in September 2007 from the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) and Annie E. Casey Foundation is enabling R2LP to re-examine data from How Ready is Providence within a national context. Through May 2008 we will examine data related to school readiness and early grade success locally and share findings about our research and analysis with eight other participating cities. The initial phase of the work, submitted to the Urban Institute in January 2008, is entitled Child Well Being Data in Providence: A Comparison of Urban Institute and R2LP Criteria to Measure School Readiness.

The professional development committee, policy committee, and report committee have helped to guide R2LP’s collection of information. Through surveys administered by the policy and professional development committees, R2LP has learned about center capacity in Providence, use of curricula in the city’s early-education programs, and the use of assessments by child-care centers. The results of these surveys have driven broad policy recommendations and decisions about training.  The ad hoc report committee guided development of How Ready Is Providence?. 

Also part of R2LP’s mission is raising awareness – not just about the challenges facing the city’s children and caregivers but also about the many positive steps being taken to address identified needs.  This is accomplished partly through R2LP publications, such as How Ready Is Providence?, a quarterly newsletter, and the work of our committees. Perhaps even more valuable, however, are R2LP’s many constituents and partners in the community.  Parents, providers and others who participate in R2LP activities return to their neighborhoods as ambassadors, serving as local experts on school readiness issues and generating enthusiasm for their importance.

Please use the links for fuller descriptions of R2LP’s efforts in research and awareness.