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Insights, Ideas, and Resources for Early Learning
Welcome to the Think Small Blog, your go-to destination for valuable insights, innovative ideas, and inspiring stories in the field of early learning. Dive into a treasure trove of articles crafted by our team of experts, dedicated to empowering child care providers, educators, and families.
Discover practical tips, evidence-based strategies, and the latest research findings to support children aged 0-5 on their journey to kindergarten readiness. From fostering social-emotional development to promoting cognitive skills, our blog covers a wide range of topics, ensuring you stay informed and equipped to make a positive impact on young lives.
Ramsey County Early Childhood Academy: Ecotone Analysis
Ramsey County, like all communities across Minnesota and the country, is currently facing significant shortages in childcare options for young families. This is not a new issue families are experiencing, ...
Pathways to Quality FINAL REPORT
Pathways to Quality (P2Q), launched in 2016 by Think Small and Generation Next, aims to improve the quality of early care and education (ECE) programs and outcomes for children younger ...
Parents Detail Kindergarten Transition Experiences
By Kristie Thorson, Communications Specialist The first of its kind in Minnesota, a new study examines how families transition their children from an early childhood education provider to kindergarten. The ...
Early Childhood Transition Executive Summary
This study is intended to help Think Small and Generation Next understand how families gather information, weigh factors, and make an Early Care and Education (ECE) and Kindergarten enrollment decisions ...
Pathways to Quality: Build Your Own
The availability of and access to quality child care has reached crisis levels throughout Minnesota, including the Twin Cities. Between 2005 and 2015, the state lost about 30% (over 3,000) ...
Pathways to Quality: Social and Emotional Coaching and Training
In recent years, we’ve seen a disturbing number of children suspended or expelled from child care programs as a result of disruptive behaviors and social-emotional challenges, and children of color ...
Pathways to Quality: Think Small ParentPowered Text Messages
Think Small, in partnership with ParentPowered, implemented a text-based program in Minnesota in 2017. This program is based on the research of Benjamin York and Susanna Loeb (One Step at ...
Pathways to Quality: Minnesota Executive Function Scale
One of the promising results from the Year 2 report of Think Small’s Pathways to Quality (P2Q) project stemmed from a small pilot measuring children’s executive functions using the Minnesota ...
Pathways to Quality: LENA Start
LENA Start is a program for parents and their young children that supports positive interactions and promotes development of early language. Based on more than 20 years of research, starting ...
Pathways to Quality: Learning Communities
Think Small’s experience working with early learning providers demonstrates that many benefit from additional, targeted support both prior to and during the Parent Aware rating process. Through Learning Communities, Think ...
Pathways to Quality: Focus on Licensed Family Child Care
Parent Aware, Minnesota’s early learning quality framework, allows all types of early care and education programs to voluntarily receive a quality rating based on the extent to which they adhere ...
Pathways to Quality: Family and Community Engagement Tools
Family and Community Engagement Tools (FaCET) provide a vehicle for parents and staff from diverse cultures to better understand each other and to create an environment where all children thrive. ...
Pathways to Quality: Cultural Adaptations
Part of the Pathway to Quality intervention strategy was to target providers that serve low-income and ethnically-diverse families. As Think Small began to implement these interventions, we recognized when adaptations ...
Pathways to Quality: Business Leadership Learning Community/Website Training
Supporting family child care providers to stay in business and sustain quality business practices. Pilot of website training, where providers create a business website. Click to View Full Report
Pathways to Quality: Licensed Family Child Care Post-Closure Survey Results
The purpose of this report is to highlight key findings from a survey of former licensed family child care (LFCC) providers in Minnesota. The survey was part of Think Small ...
Pathways to Quality: Parent Aware Retention Incentives
Think Small and Generation Next implemented the Parent Aware Retention Incentive program in early 2017. The purpose of the incentive is to retain and reward Parent Aware–rated licensed family child ...
Pathways to Quality: Closing the Achievement Gap
Minnesota has one of the worst achievement gaps in the nation, which research shows starting in children as young as 18 months old. Improving the kindergarten readiness best practices in ...
Learning from the Data We Seek
Think Small’s mission as a nonprofit is to advance quality care and education of children in their crucial early years. We do this by preparing providers, strengthening families and catalyzing ...
An Encouraging Find: Another Potential Benefit of Parent Aware
“The survey results show that Parent Aware-rated programs across all parts of Minnesota were twice as likely to have stayed in business than non-rated programs.” High-quality early learning, as defined ...
Pathways to Quality, Annual Report: Year 2
Pathways to Quality (P2Q), launched in 2016 by Think Small and Generation Next, aims to improve the quality of early care and education (ECE) programs and outcomes for children younger ...
Using LENA to Help Close the Word Gap
By: Gerri Fisher This month marks one year since the start of the Think Small blog. To celebrate, we’re using January to highlight information and initiatives from Think Small and ...
Brain Development in Infants and Toddlers
90% of brain development occurs by age 5. 80% of the brain is developed by age 3. These eye-catching statements sound impressive but can be confusing and misleading. Learning certainly ...
Closing Opportunity Gaps to Shrink Achievement Gaps
By: Maya Fanjul-Debnam The opportunity gap is one of the biggest obstacles our education system faces today. As highlighted in a Minnpost op-ed written by Think Small President, Barbara Yates: ...
Pathways to Quality: LENA Start Fall 2016 Update
By age three, it’s estimated children from low-income families hear 30 million fewer words than their more well-off peers. This word gap contributes to children from low-income families being less ...
Word Pedometers Brought to Minneapolis to Help Close Word Gap
By: Maya Fanjul-Debnam Minnesota is heralding in an innovative program to help close the word gap. The word gap–a 30 million word deficit between children from low income families and ...
Voters Agree: Early Education is a Top Priority
By: Maya Fanjul-Debnam In this current political climate, tensions are running high between parties, and it appears as if there’s nothing we can agree on. Nothing that is, except early ...
Poverty's Immense Impact on Brain Development During Childhood Explored
By: Maya Fanjul-Debnam More than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, $23,550 a ...
Learning Starts at Birth: Implications for a Lifetime
By: Maya Fanjul-Debnam From the moment they are born, children are learning from their surroundings. Everything from brain growth to approaches to life are shaped by what does—or does not–happen ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota's Quality Rating & Improvment System - Year 4 Implementation Report
This is the fourth annual report conducted by Child Trends about the statewide rollout of Parent Aware. Funding is provided by Parent Aware for School Readiness (PASR), the Greater Twin ...
County by County, Here’s What Child Care Looks Like Across Minnesota
We must close gaps first by supporting early learning programs already in place to reach our most at risk children. Child Care is an essential and large piece of this ...
Parent Aware Provider Perceptions Report - April 2016
The purpose of this report is to present findings from surveys with ECE providers about Parent Aware. Surveys were administered to gather data from currently-rated Parent Aware providers about their ...
Quality of Early Childhood Programs Improving with Parent Aware
Children attending a Parent Aware rated program are making significant gains in the skills they need to succeed in kindergarten, according to a third party evaluation of the Minnesota programs.
Early Learning Key Component to Closing Gaps in AAPI Community
Nationally, Minnesota ranks 46th for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) high school graduation and is home to one of the largest white-AAPI proficiency gaps for fourth-grade reading. A new ...
Parent Aware Validation Study
Parent Aware is Minnesota’s voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for early care and education (ECE) programs. In 2015, Parent Aware became available statewide after a gradual rollout that ...
New Evaluation Highlights Positive Impact of Early Learning Scholarships
The Minnesota Department of Education delivered an evaluation of Early Learning Scholarships to the Minnesota Legislature this week, which found that children who receive Early Learning Scholarships are making significant ...
Partnership Brings Reading Corps into Child Care Settings
We are very proud to partner with Minnesota Reading Corps to bring early learning experts into family child care settings to work directly with children and child care providers on ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota's Quality Rating & Improvment System - Year 3 Implementation Report
The purpose of this report is to analyze Parent Aware activities and outcomes from the third year of statewide expansion. The findings in this report include an analysis of the ...
The Economics of Early Childhood Care and Education in Minnesota – Report of the Itasca Project Task Force on Early Childhood Development
Early childhood is a critical time for determining life success for individuals. It is increasingly clear that a high quality early childhood care and education system is a key competitive ...
Provider Perceptions of Parent Aware
The purpose of this report is to present findings from surveys with ECE providers about Parent Aware. Surveys were administered to gather data from currently-rated Parent Aware providers about their ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota's Quality Rating & Improvement System - Year 2 Implementation Report
The purpose of this report is to analyze activities and outcomes from the second year of statewide expansion. A previous report produced after the first year of expansion focused primarily ...
Provider Perceptions of Parent Aware
The purpose of this report is to present findings from surveys with ECE providers about Parent Aware. Surveys were administered to gather data from currently-rated Parent Aware providers about their ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota's Quality Rating & Improvement System - Year 1 Implementation Report
The purpose of this report is to provide a descriptive portrait of Parent Aware in the first year of statewide expansion. It focuses primarily on features of implementation and serves ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Final Report: Year 4, 2008-2011
This is the fourth and final report about the evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program. In this report, data are presented about how the ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota’s Quality Rating and Improvement System Pilot, Year 4 (2011) Evaluation Report
This report is the fourth to be produced from the evaluation of Parent Aware being conducted by Child Trends and funded by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF). It covers ...
Minn-LInK/CEED Data Partnership Feasibility Study
The purpose of the study is to track the progress of children in MELF funded programs as they age to see if their participation in quality early care and education ...
Early Education Reform Blueprint
The first portion of the Blueprint provides background on why the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) formed, and the exciting things it has learned in its pilot projects. But in ...
Parental Preferences and Reasons for Choosing Licensed Early Care and Education
Every year from 2008 to 2010 the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) funded a survey of a select group of parents with preschool-aged children receiving primarily licensed childcare in the ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Issue Brief 4: Findings from Focus Groups with Participating Parents
The evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program includes both process and outcome components. This report is the fourth issue brief and it describes a ...
Kindergarten Follow-Up
For the past 3 years, the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), in partnership with state and local agencies, has funded a number of innovative approaches to early care and education. ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Annual Report: Year 3, 2010
This is the third annual report on the evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program. The report begins with an overview of the scholarship model ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation: Fact Sheet, Uses and Benefits of Scholarship Funds
This fact sheet summarizes responses to a program survey about how scholarship funds impacted participating programs. Click Here to View the Fact Sheet
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota’s Quality Rating and Improvement System Pilot, Year 3 (2010) Evaluation Report
This report is the third to be produced from the Evaluation of Parent Aware being conducted by Child Trends and funded by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF). It covers ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Issue Brief 3: Summary of Implementation in Year 3, 2010
The evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program includes both process and outcome components. This is the third issue brief; it covers the perspective of ...
Timing of Early Childhood Education: Is there an optimal time to intervene in a young child's life to improve readiness for school?
This review is focused on center‐based ECE programs serving children who are developing at a typical rate and who may or may not be low‐income. Outside its scope are large ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota’s Quality Rating and Improvement System Pilot, Year 2 (2009) Evaluation Report
This report is the second to be produced from the Evaluation of Parent Aware being conducted by Child Trends and funded by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF). It covers ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Annual Report: Year 2, 2009
This is the second annual report on the evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program. The purpose of this annual report is to describe how ...
Parent Priorities in Selecting Early Care and Education Programs: Implications for Minnesota's Quality Rating and Improvement System
In the United States non-familial early care and education have become normative experiences for children, birth to age five. Six million children under three and 66 percent of four-year olds ...
Final Evaluation Report: Lessons Learned from the MELF Community Grants
The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) set out in 2007 to increase the evidence base on which early care and education practices effectively promote the school readiness of children from ...
Pre-Kindergarten Allowances Project: Final Evaluation Report
In this final evaluation report, the implementation and outcomes (numbers of children served, amount of funds dispersed and how funds were used) of the Pre-K Allowances Project are described. Data ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Issue Brief 2: Implementation in Year 2, 2009
The evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program includes both process and outcome components. This is the second issue brief; it covers the time period ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Annual Report: Year 1, 2008
This is the first annual report on the evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program. It covers the period from January to December 2008, the ...
Evaluation of Parent Aware: Minnesota’s Quality Rating and Improvement System Pilot, Year 1 (2008) Evaluation Report
This report is the first to be produced from the Evaluation of Parent Aware being conducted by Child Trends and funded by the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF). It covers ...
Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program Evaluation, Issue Brief 1: Early Implementation in Year 1, 2008-2011
This is the first annual report on the evaluation of the pilot of the Saint Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program. It covers the period from January to December 2008, the ...
Early learning conditions among low-income families in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Blue Earth and Nicollet counties
This study serves as the baseline of early learning conditions before MELF-funded activities in these counties and could be repeated to examine changes in these early learning measures following MELF-funded ...
A Proposal for Achieving High Returns on Early Childhood Development
For well over 20 years, economic development has been a major preoccupation for most state and local governments. Around the country, billions of public dollars are spent each year to ...
Ready for School
The cover of this Report poses a question in pictures: which pumpkin was colored by a child who was socially and intellectually ready to succeed in school? There is a ...
Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return
Early childhood development programs are rarely portrayed as economic development initiatives, and we think that is a mistake. Such programs, if they appear at all, are at the bottom of ...
Early Childhood Education Programs
Minnesota funds and regulates a variety of child care and education-related programs that are targeted to prekindergarten children. We examined three large early childhood education programs—Head Start, Early Childhood Family ...