The growing importance of policy l studies and research in early childhood has emerged from the increasing recognition that public policy has a substantial role to play in the delivery of quality services to children and families. Some of the targets of such policy research are to discover how particular policies are formulated; how they gain official sanction and approval; and, perhaps most importantly, how such policies are implemented. One of the definitions of policy is:
Social policies are the rules and standards whereby scarce public resources are allocated to almost unlimited social needs. Such statements of social policy should provide the answer to four questions: (1) Who shall receive the resources? (2) Who shall deliver the resources? (3) What is the nature of the services to be delivered? and (4) What are the conditions under which the services will be delivered? (Gallagher 1994)
Most public policies are, in fact, social hypotheses--for example, "Certified teachers will provide better instruction," or "Special education will improve the social skills of children with special needs," or that "A lower teacher/child ratio will improve day care quality." Like scientific hypotheses, some of these policy hypotheses may be true, some false, and some partially true under certain conditions. Since such policies carry important implications for the allocation of those scarce resources, it becomes important to document the correctness of the various hypotheses, or to entertain some alternative hypotheses. Such policies cannot be treated as manifest truths without proper testing.
The goal of effective public policy is to maximize the positive benefits of particular programs or interventions. Such design increases the likelihood for favor able outcomes, but does not guarantee them. A standard for a low teacher/child ratio, for example, may make it more likely that good instruction will take place but will not, of course, guarantee it.
The early childhood field seems to face two well-established facts: first, the ingredients of child care quality are agreed upon by diverse professionals (see standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children); and second, when actual child care programs are studied, they often fall considerably short of the quality standards that knowledgeable professionals have set (see Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study Team, 1995). One set of questions then is: What keeps us from doing what we know we should do in such programs? Cost is surely one significant factor, but what about other factors--lack of adequate personnel preparation, professional rivalries with and across disciplines, consumer awareness of quality, inability to organize support systems for the existing programs, and cultural differences between client and provider.
Next Steps
The newly established National Research Center on Early Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a major policy studies component, which will--as one of its first investigations--pursue the policy barriers that block the delivery of quality child care services. As part of its investigation, and as a first step in exploring potential positive actions, Center staff will conduct and analyze a series of focus group discussions in four states with experienced professionals in leadership positions of early childhood programs in order to obtain their perceptions of existing barriers. These policy studies will complement other NCEDL research studies on the effects of cost on quality. These discussions, hopefully, will provide the Center with enough information to suggest some possible policy options that might be available to state and national leaders to improve the existing quality of such programs.
For more information about the policy studies, please contact James Gallagher or Robin Rooney, NCEDL, at (919) 962-7373 or fax (919) 962-7328.
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