EDC supports the development of engaging and safe educational programs for young children.
From birth to age eight, children take the first steps in a lifelong learning journey. EDC speeds them on their way by designing, studying, supporting, and scaling up programs that enhance school readiness and success. We have a special focus on meeting the needs of children from disadvantaged communities and dual language learners, engaging and supporting families, and building the capacity of educators and communities to sustain improvements.
In the United States, we work to create strong, coherent preK-Grade 3 systems and advance knowledge of how to improve early science, mathematics, and literacy learning. Around the world, we implement innovative early childhood programs that build literacy and numeracy skills, excite interest in learning, and help educators, volunteers, and parents enrich early learning.
Read "A Fair Start for Every Child" to learn more about EDC's work to support early childhood learning.
Learn about EDC’s work with Family STEM Communities.
Learn about EDC’s work to strengthen early childhood interventions with Continuous Quality Improvement.
Learn about the work of EDC’s Center for Children and Technology.
Related Content
A New Language for Mathematics
Young children often struggle to write down their mathematical ideas. Could computer programming be an easier language for them?
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What are some fun, easy activities that families can do to encourage math learning at home? (Hint: You are probably already doing some of them.)
Tapping, Swiping, and Learning Science
Research findings on The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!™ have implications for parents, educators, and educational media developers.
Helping All Children Learn and Thrive
EDC’s David Jacobson discusses his ideas for changing—and improving—early childhood services.
Tools to Support Preschool Learning
New resources support educators on integrating technology and working with emergent bilingual learners.
The Other Side of the Screen
As a researcher, Tiffany Maxon gets to help develop the next generation of children’s television shows.
Projects
Resources
Here are a few of our resources on early childhood development and learning. To see more, visit our Resources section.
This tool helps Head Start programs better understand the link between their school readiness goals and their health service plans.
Rwanda has made commendable efforts to improve basic education, including literacy in the early grades.
This study examines the effects of EDC’s interactive radio instruction (IRI) programming on student learning outcomes in classrooms in India, documenting the significant positive effects of the structured support for instructional improvement that IRI provides.
This brief can help you develop a continuous quality improvement (CQI) plan and communicate it to others in your organization. It explains what the plan should cover and includes a sample outline and template for drafting your plan.
This case study walks through a town's response to developing an early childhood prevention program by walking through how they conducted a needs assessment and developed their capacity building plan.
This factsheet provides an overview of some of EDC’s work to strengthen P-3 programs and systems to foster dual-language proficiency and improve outcomes for young dual-language learners.
This executive summary presents an overview of results from EDC’s evaluation study of Cha-Ching Money Adventures.
This resource focuses on how distance education technology benefits teachers and teaching.
This checklist provides early childhood educators with practical tips for supporting children’s bilingual learning within a rich classroom environment.
In this summary report, the authors share findings and recommendations from their review of existing research, exploration of teacher professional development programs, and interviews with teachers.