The Foundation for Child Development is proud to present its new publication, Getting it Right: Using Implementation Research to Improve Outcomes in Early Care and Education. The publication provides insights into the value of including implementation research in the study of early care and education (ECE) interventions and its potential to improve programs and policies and achieve stronger outcomes for all young children.

Now is the moment for ECE researchers and policymakers to identify the critical components of effective ECE programs and policies and to engage in meaningful exploration of what works, for whom, and under what conditions. Issues of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, cultural/linguistic background, immigration status, and gender must be explicitly investigated in the context of program implementation. As more programs are brought to scale, our ability to achieve greater impacts for all young children rests on a more nuanced understanding of how ECE programs and policies are being implemented locally and the differential impacts on specific subgroups of children.

This publication brings together the perspectives of prominent ECE researchers and attempts to answer three key questions for the field: What does research tell us about the effectiveness and implementation of ECE programs across the birth to 8 continuum? What still needs to be understood? How do we get smarter in designing future research directions and approaches?

The contributing authors include: Margaret R. Burchinal, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Linda M. Espinosa, Dale C. Farran, Tamara G. Halle, Bridget K. Hamre, JoAnn Hsueh, Iheoma U. Iruka, Jacqueline Jones, Sarah Lazzeroni, Michelle Maier, Milagros Nores, Robert C. Pianta, Sharon Ryan, Jason Sachs, and Sara Vecchiotti.