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 conducted a rigorous evaluation of its Early Childhood Educator Professional Development program, which ran from 2006 to 2009. The final results of this evaluation were released in February 2011.

In the spring of 2011, R2LP analyzed data provided by the Providence School Department showing that children who had participated in one or more R2LP programs outscored their peers when they entered kindergarten. An internal evaluation of our second Early Reading First progam documented sizable increases in early literacy and language skills among the participating children.

In 2004, R2LP conducted an ambitious 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, then Providence Mayor David Cicilline called the report “required reading” for everyone interested in the welfare and future of the city’s young children. Six of the indicators were updated in 2009, and in August 2010 R2LP released a comprehensive report detailing existing professional development opportunities in R.I., an indicator in the original document.