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Finding quality early care and education is among
the most pressing concerns for American families living
in the United States and abroad. With the rising demand
for child care and the need to make the most of scarce
resources, providers and government agencies that support
early educational services are under increased legislative
scrutiny to provide better integration and coordination
and ensure that children enter school ready to learn.
ICF International and the ICF
Early Education Institute™ assist civilian
and military government agencies and private-sector
and nonprofit organizations to structure, standardize,
and evaluate their early care and education programs
to achieve the highest-possible quality and performance.
Selected Early Care & Education Projects
National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Child
Care Bureau
ICF provides oversight to NCCIC, a national clearinghouse
and technical assistance center that offers comprehensive
child care information resources and technical assistance
services to Child Care and Development Fund grantees,
other early care and education stakeholders, and the
public. NCCIC supports the early education field through
a variety of services, such as responding to more than
7,000 requests for information annually, providing
a nationwide network of technical assistance specialists
in each Administration for Children and Families region,
and housing a library containing more than 17,000 items,
most of which can be accessed through the NCCIC Web
site at http://www.NCCIC.org.
Head Start Technical Assistance System
Regional Offices (III and VII) of the Administration
for Children and Families
ICF provides regional management, content-specific
training, and technical assistance to approximately
300 Head Start and Early Head Start grantees. Our technical
assistance system is designed to support grantees in
all facets of program operations and quality enhancements
through a distinguished cadre of content experts and
technical assistance specialists. To foster enhanced
outcomes for children and families, the system encourages
the development and maintenance of partnerships among
Head Start, child care, pre-kindergarten, and other
early care and education programs, offering opportunities
for these programs to share strategies for implementing
federal initiatives (e.g., Good Start Grow Smart) and
Head Start Bureau priorities. Areas of focus include
program assessment, program evaluation, school readiness,
professional development, and Board of Directors governance.
On-site Training, Technical Assistance, and Accreditation
Assistance
U.S. Air Force, Family Member Programs
ICF provides on-site training, program observations,
and accreditation assistance for Air Force child development
programs at bases around the world. In one- or two-week
training sessions, our professional teams assist the
programs in program evaluation, formulating goals,
developing timelines, and monitoring progress toward
goal achievement, then follow up with intensive consultation.
We also serve as a continuous resource for programs
as they move through the stages of the National Association
for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation
process.
Inspection and Technical Assistance Services
U.S. Navy, Child and Youth Programs
ICF works within three Navy Regions (Southwest, Northeast,
and Europe) to conduct on-site inspections and provide
technical assistance to support the Navy’s Child
and Youth Programs in meeting U.S. Department of Defense
and Navy certification inspection standards. In collaboration
with the Department of the Navy, our staff conducts
thorough, objective inspections; assists in the development
of a detailed strategic action plan; and provides targeted
on-site training and technical assistance to facilitate
program compliance and program improvements and achieve
program objectives.
Professional Development Program for Infant/Toddler
Caregivers
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
On behalf of West Virginia’s Department of Health
and Human Resources, ICF developed a comprehensive
professional development program for caregivers of
infants and toddlers. The program was designed to standardize
and enhance training in all of West Virginia’s
early childhood program settings to improve the quality
of infant and toddler care statewide. The competency-based training program included
modules for caregivers, train-the-trainer modules,
and modules for program leaders and administrators.
We also developed a performance measurement model and
tools for quality assurance and helped programs develop
continuous quality improvement plans.
Performance Measurement On-Line Tool (PM-OTOOL)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau
In order to report performance data for five Children’s
Bureau discretionary grant programs (Abandoned Infants
Assistance, Adoption Opportunities, Child Abuse and
Prevention Treatment Act Research and Demonstration
Projects, Child Welfare Training, and Infant Adoption
Awareness Training), ICF developed the Performance
Measurement On-Line Tool (PM-OTOOL), a Web-based data
collection and reporting system, under the Child
Welfare Information Gateway contract. Using the
PM-OTOOL, grantees select performance measures (outputs
and outcomes), then submit data on these measures at
the end of each reporting period. Federal staff and
grantees can create reports that reflect and analyze
individual grantee data or aggregated data for a program
for a particular reporting period or across multiple
reporting periods. Grantees also can upload semi-annual
and final reports to PM-OTOOL. ICF provides training and technical
assistance to the Children’s Bureau and its
grantees about performance measurement and how to use
PM-OTOOL.
Head Start's 10th National Research Conference
Administration for Children and Families
ICF is developing and coordinating the upcoming Head Start Research conference, on behalf of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, in conjunction with the Head Start Bureau; Administration for Children, Youth and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and in partnership with Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Society for Research in Child Development.
The conference focuses on new "research to practice" studies relevant to practitioners and families with young children (0-8 years). The title of the Conference is Research on Young Children and Families: Launching the Next Decade for Policy and Practice. The central theme of the conference is sharing and using evidence of effective policies and practices for child development and families to improve early childhood settings and overall practices.
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