Preschool Quality Grant

CU Denver, NORC at the University of Chicago and Tarrant Consulting have been awarded a $704,441 grant from the Walton Family Foundation. Diana Schaack, assistant professor at SEHD, and Vi-Nhuan Le at NORC serve as co-PIs for the grant. Their work will support the State of Arkansas in scaling high-quality pre-kindergarten programs in order to support young children’s social-emotional, cognitive and language skills. First, they will investigate the current early childhood data landscape in Arkansas and make recommendations regarding the creation of an integrated early childhood data system. Next will come a pilot study that examines the key features of pre-kindergarten programs associated with children’s kindergarten readiness to help provide guidance to policymakers about potentially impactful strategies for improving pre-kindergarten along dimensions that may bolster children’s academic and language skills.