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Early Childhood Development and Learning
Improving early learning opportunities and outcomes
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?
EDC Talks: Making Time for Family Math
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.
Studies
This snapshot presents findings from an EDC study on child care collaboration conducted in Maryland and Vermont.
Reports
Authored by EDC and the National Institute for Early Education Research, this brief looks at state policies and regulations regarding pre-K expansion that have the potential to positively impact child care quality and access for low-income working families.
White papers
This article explores the effects of EDC’s Tikichuela early childhood mathematics initiative, developed with the government of Paraguay.
Reports
This study provides states and schools with information about the use of kindergarten entry assessments nationwide and offers contextual information to state-level administrators as they select, de
Reports
This report, intended for early childhood educators, identifies promising practices to support emergent bilinguals in a variety of early childcare settings.
White papers
In this research brief, the authors present findings from an online national survey of Child Care and Development Fund administrators, Head Start State Collaboration Office Directors, and State Departments of Education Early Childhood Specialists.
Reports
This is the summary of a report that presents the results of a first-of-its-kind national survey of parents, who were asked about the types of early science educational activities they do with their young children.
Reports
This report presents findings from the Prekindergarten Transmedia Mathematics Study.
Reports
This report presents findings from a study that examined whether child care providers that partnered with Head Start programs showed improvements in the quality of their services compared with similar child care providers that did not partner with Head Start. The authors report that partnership predicts improved classroom quality; partnership duration predicts observed quality; and partnership predicts some improvements in school readiness outcomes.
Reports
This report explores the potential benefits of theory-based logic models in trauma-informed initiatives