Early Care and Education Leadership Study: Descriptive Study (ExCELS)

Mathematica and the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston, conducted a descriptive study within the Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS). ExCELS is funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the descriptive study is to develop a new measure of early care and education (ECE) leadership that has strong psychometric properties and examines associations among key constructs and outcomes on how ECE leadership could support quality improvements. In early 2022, the study team recruited 132 ECE centers serving children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (but who are not yet in kindergarten) and supported by Head Start grants or Child Care Development Fund subsidies. In spring 2022, the study team conducted phone interviews to collect center characteristics and learn about the center's staffing structure and leadership positions, and distributed surveys to center managers and teaching staff in recruited centers.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Leadership in Early Care and Education Centers

Detailed Description

Leadership is widely recognized as an essential driver of organizational performance and improvement, but little is known about its role in driving the quality of care and education centers provide and outcomes for staff, children, and families. ExCELS seeks to fill the definitional and measurement gaps to help the early childhood field understand how effective leaders can improve quality experiences for children in early care and education (ECE) settings.

The ExCELS descriptive study includes a purposive sample of 132 ECE centers from four states. These selected four states vary on administrator qualifications; quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) participation levels; licensing requirements to reflect the regulatory environment; funding sources (e.g., Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) or Head Start funding) to support access and quality; and geographic diversity. Within each selected state, centers were selected to achieve variability in funding sources, center size, and geography. The study includes ECE centers serving children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (but who are not yet in kindergarten) who receive at least 20 percent of their funding from Head Start grants or CCDF subsidies.

The study team conducted the following activities with the recruited centers:

1. An engagement interview with the primary site leader (the person in the building who is responsible for oversight of all that happens in the center on a daily basis) to collect center characteristics and confirm center eligibility for the study
2. A staffing structure and leadership positions interview with the primary site leader to understand the staffing structure and formal leadership positions at the center, and
3. Surveys of center managers and teaching staff to understand key leadership elements related to the care and education of young children (on who participates in decision-making, their values and beliefs, and what they do to support high quality practices, coordination among staff and with families, having a shared vision, along with efficient operations), the center's culture, climate, and communication (such as collaboration among staff or whether there is a culture of respect, shared growth, and learning), and outcomes for the center and staff (job satisfaction, staff well-being and mental health, and staff retention).

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 1164

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • District of Columbia
    • Washington, District of Columbia, United States, 20002
      • Mathematica

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Center-based early care and education settings that receive at least 20 percent of its funding from Head Start or the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and serve children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (not yet in kindergarten). Data collection included interviews with each center's primary site leader (the person in the building who is responsible for oversight of all that happens in the center on a daily basis) and surveys for select center managers and all teaching staff.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Early care and education (ECE) centers serving children whose ages range from birth to age 5, not yet in kindergarten, who are supported by Head Start or Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) subsidies. A center is defined as a specific physical location where ECE is delivered to children whose ages range from birth to age 5 (not yet in kindergarten) with at least two classrooms.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Classrooms operated by public schools
• Centers offering less than four hours of early childcare education each day
• Drop-in child care settings

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Job Satisfaction	Study-developed survey on job commitment (intention to continue to work at center); and satisfaction (enjoy job, make a difference, choose career again)	5 months
Staff well-being and mental health	Job stress; four-item scale with response options from strongly disagree to strongly agree with the stronger agreement indicating more job stress (Institute of Behavioral Research. (2005). TCU Survey of Organizational Functioning (TCU SOF). Fort Worth: Texas Christian University, Institute of Behavioral Research. Available at ibr.tcu.edu.)	5 months
Staff retention	Study-developed survey on teaching staff turnover over past 12 months	5 months
Teaching staff report of family involvement	Parent involvement measure from Essential 0-5 Survey (Ehrlich, Stacy B., Debra M. Pacchiano, Amanda G. Stein, Maureen R. Wagner, Stuart Luppescu, Sangyoon Park, Elizabeth Frank, Holly Lewandowski, and Christopher Young. "Organizing Early Education for Improvement: Testing a New Survey Tool." Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the Ounce of Prevention Fund, 2018.)	5 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Collaborators: Department of Health and Human Services; University of Massachusetts, Boston
• Investigators: Study Director: Gretchen Kirby, M.P.P., Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.; Principal Investigator: Lizabeth Malone, Ph.D., Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.; Principal Investigator: Anne Douglass, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Boston

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• G. Kirby, A. Douglass, J. Lyskawa, C. Jones, and L. Malone. (2021). Understanding Leadership in Early Care and Education: A literature review. OPRE Report 2021-02. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Helpful Links

• Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS), 2018-2023 - Overview
• Mathematica: Early Care and Education Leadership Study (ExCELS) 2018-2023

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 4, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 31, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): September 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 17, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 17, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): February 28, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 18, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2023
• Last Verified: September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Head Start; Preschool; Day care; Early child development; Leadership; Early childhood education; Child care; Infant-toddler care; Child care and early education
• Other Study ID Numbers: 50708

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The study team plans to archive a restricted-use data file at the Child and Family Data Archive for secondary analysis by qualified researchers. The study team will implement procedures to ensure that data are prepared in accordance with archive requirements, removing all linkable identifiers and geographic details as well as all open-ended text and verbatim responses from all data files.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will become available within 1 year of completion.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Applications for access to restricted-use data file include completing and adhering to a User Agreement.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No