Most children in the U.S. spend time in some form of early childhood education (ECE) program prior to entering kindergarten. In fact, children spend an average of 25 hours per week in nonparental care, including center-based care and informal family, friend and neighbor care. Children develop a foundation for learning during these early years, so…

The Department of Early Learning (DEL) is directed by the state legislature to use currently collected data to compare state-funded child care compensation rates to market rates, cross-compare child care programs in other states and make biennial recommendations to the legislature on compensation models to attract high quality professionals. For…

About one in five Minnesota children under age 8 has a parent who speaks a language other than English at home. These Dual Language Learners (DLLs), who numbered 136,000 in 2011-15, come from a wide array of national, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds--a reflection of Minnesota's sizeable refugee communities from East Africa and Southeast Asia…

Reflecting the growing momentum in support of quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) as a key strategy to improve early care and education quality, significant amounts of public dollars have been devoted to their development and implementation. In this brief, the authors report on their investigation of both quality rating and improvement…

This study discusses the racial and ethnic composition of Minnesota's children and child care providers, focusing on the need for more multi-ethnic, culturally-appropriate programming for the increasing number of children of color in the state. A 1992 survey of 1,003 day care centers and 35 Head Start programs found disparities between numbers of…