Research-Practice Partnerships in Early Education: Examples from Wisconsin

The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison works closely with state agency partners to foster an ongoing research-practice partnership supporting Wisconsin’s early child care and education system. In this presentation, IRP associate director and ITP alumna Hilary Shager will discuss how the partnership has grown over time; findings from recent studies of the state’s use of federal child care stabilization funding and child care supply and demand challenges; as well as future directions for research, evaluation, and data resource development as IRP partners with the state to implement its recently awarded Preschool Development Grant. Hilary will also discuss how such work is supported by IRP’s Wisconsin Administrative Data Core (WADC), one of the richest collections of linked administrative data in the country.