Introducing the Issue

High-quality early childhood education programs can have lasting impacts, particularly for children in low-income families or families that have been historically marginalized.¹ Beyond their direct benefits for children, early childhood education (ECE) programs also support families and the economy by providing safe, warm environments for young children while their parents work—an attribute that recently gained new significance when COVID-19 upended in-person instruction. But even though the promise of early education—for children, for families, for equity, and for society—is widely recognized, delivering effective ECE programming at scale remains elusive. Findings from promising research studies rarely make their way into early childhood practice; at the same time, policy and practice decisions are often made without research evidence to guide them. Many large-scale ECE programs don't consistently offer the types of high-quality experiences that research suggests support development, and thus they don't deliver on their promise to ameliorate poverty-related and other inequalities.² The discrepancies between what we know, what decision makers need, and the reality of children's experiences have caused many researchers, policy makers, and practitioners to wonder if there's a better or faster way to produce change.

To build a system of high-quality early care accessible to all children, some early education research must pivot to questions, methods, and timelines that align with the needs of policy makers and practitioners who are making high-stakes, systems-level decisions. At the same time, research must stay firmly rooted in the science of how children develop.³ This issue of the Future of Children argues that research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are a particularly promising strategy for doing both well, and thus offer another critical tool to support high-quality early childhood education.

RPPs are long-term collaborations between researchers and policy makers and/or practitioners that are designed to improve educational outcomes through sustained collaboration and commitment.⁴ These partnerships are defined by their longevity, mutual decision-making and compromise, and the commitment of both parties to larger-scale, systems-level problem-solving, rather than a single project or research question.⁵ When done well, RPPs can produce research that's both more relevant and useful to policy makers and more rigorous and/or innovative than the studies that researchers could undertake outside of a formal partnership.

But this work isn't easy. Researchers and policy makers are used to operating with very different timelines, goals, and incentive structures, and these differences can present challenges for effective partnership. A clear understanding of what partnership work requires, and strategies for overcoming these hurdles, are essential for creating the kind of long-term, open relationship that results in better policy and stronger scholarship. This issue explores these challenges as well as the potential of partnership work for helping to transform ECE systems.

Unlike a typical Future of Children issue, which describes what's already known about a topic that affects children's lives, this issue focuses on an approach to research and practice. We aim to distill lessons from existing ECE partnerships and to provide a road map for researchers and policy/practice leaders who want to collaborate. The articles examine both the challenges and the opportunities of partnership work, and show how partnerships may, in some instances and when carefully designed, pave the way for systems-level change. Each article is centered on a major challenge or opportunity, such as creating a research or funding agenda, developing tools, taking innovation to scale, navigating different timelines, finding a balance between rigor and feasibility, and building capacity. Three commentaries, written by a university dean, a practice leader, and policy organization researchers, describe how the contexts in which policy makers and researchers work—universities, state systems, and research firms, respectively—can effectively support RPP work. As a whole, the issue sets the stage for strengthening and investing in partnership work in early education.

Historical Role of RPPs in Early Education

ECE research has its roots in RPPs. The three major studies whose results have driven much of the public investment in ECE—the Perry Preschool...