Intensive support to inform sustainable systems change
Through Action Research Partnerships, the National ECE Workforce Center lends our technical assistance and research capabilities to leaders in states, territories, Tribes, and localities who are working to improve ECE career ladders, compensation, and workplace policies.
Grounded in our research-to-practice model, Action Research Partnerships are 12- to 18-month, intensive engagements designed to increase teams’ capacity to lead systems change through integrated learning and action.
We pair state and local program and policy leaders with a cross-disciplinary team of specialists from our Center who have ECE workforce research and policy content expertise and deep technical assistance knowledge. Together, the Action Research Partnership works collaboratively to leverage learnings from research and innovative policy strategies to create bold, sustainable change to support the ECE workforce.
Through these intensive engagements, the Center is committed to building evidence about what works to fundamentally shift systems in support of the ECE workforce and disseminating those learnings to the larger field.
Who are they for?
Action Research Partnerships engage cohorts of leaders from ECE oversight agencies who are ready to partner with state-/community-level “change teams” on specific practice and infrastructure changes that will improve ECE career ladders, compensation, and workplace policies.
Change teams include 10-12 people who represent multiple perspectives, experiences, and roles including:
- System/program leaders with administrative oversight and decision-making authority
- Educators with expertise working directly with children in center- and home-based settings
- Other relevant roles based on the Action Research Partnership topic (e.g., Head Start Collaboration Office lead, representative from an institution of higher education)
Action Research Partnerships require the commitment to contribute staff and leadership capacity consistently throughout the entire engagement. For those with less capacity to engage intensively or who are earlier in their journey to change career ladders or compensation, the Center will offer Communities for Action (see description below) and other supports.
How do they work?
We are looking to partner with change teams whose goals for impacting policy and practice for their ECE workforce align with the Center’s priorities for improving ECE career ladders, compensation, and workplace policies. Prospective change teams should be willing to engage in our Systems Change Framework approach to sustainable systems change.
Once teams are selected to participate, an Action Research Partnership has four phases:
Just as participating states will be learning to collect and use data to make changes, we’re also learning about how the Change Framework functions within different contexts. Our evaluation process will use storytelling through multiple case studies to explore the barriers and facilitators to systems change. We hope this information will not only inform our efforts but also be useful to other jurisdictions who might engage with the Change Framework in the future.
In addition to the Center’s skilled staff, the National ECE Workforce Center will leverage expertise from its collaborating partners, Integrated Policy & Research Fellowship fellows, Early Educator Advisory Board, and others to support change teams and ensure that the work is informed by multiple perspectives in the field.
Current offerings
In 2025, we will launch three Action Research Partnerships aligned to the following focus areas:
- Designing and implementing sustainable wage scales aligned with career pathways—As of June 2025, the National ECE Workforce Center is engaging a cohort of three states—Connecticut, Maryland, and Minnesota—in an Action Research Partnership to design a plan for funding, implementing, and sustaining an aligned wage scale and career ladder at scale. These states work with technical assistance specialists and collaborate with each other throughout the process. The Action Research Partnership provides intensive individualized support to each state as they work to align their wage scale and career ladder. In addition to these customized sessions, the three-state cohort meets quarterly in action labs where they share their progress and learn from one another.
- Revising existing career pathways to incorporate experience—Cohort of 3-4 states to launch in July 2025.
- Designing and implementing wage scales with Head Start programs and their communities—Cohort of 4-6 Head Start programs—recruitment to begin October 2025.
New Mexico Pilot
The National ECE Workforce Center piloted an Action Research Partnership with New Mexico from July 2024 to July 2025 to inform the development and implementation of a unified wage scale and career lattice for the state’s early childhood professionals in child care, pre-K, home visiting, and early intervention. The New Mexico Action Research Partnership was led by a cross-disciplinary team of technical assistance specialists, researchers, and content experts representing the Center’s core and collaborating partners. This team supported the New Mexico Change Team, which was convened in partnership with the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Advisory Council, and the Council’s Early Childhood Professionals Subcommittee.
The Change Team produced recommendations for a fully defined unified wage scale and career lattice with critical considerations for implementation that are informed by evidence-based practices as well as feedback and input from more than 200 direct service providers across New Mexico. The state will now seek approval from the Early Childhood Education and Care Advisory Council to implement the recommendations and will then as the New Mexico Legislature for funding.
Here’s what Change Team members said about their experience:
“[The National ECE Workforce Center] brings experience on a national level to enhance our state’s system/framework, gathers the right partners from all aspects of ECE to get their input, and integrates their ‘voice’ in the work being done.” – Cynthia Manos, Task Force Member, Western New Mexico University
“I found the National ECE Workforce Center to be professional and dedicated to hearing all the voices at the table, even when there was frustration or countering viewpoints. Having the multiple lived experiences was invaluable.” – April Spaulding, Task Force Member, Abrazos Family Support Services
“I am confident with legislative support the impact will result in livable wages and benefits for those working in the early learning field.” – Debra Baca, Task Force Member, New Mexico Voices for Children
Communities for Action (CFA) offer a targeted, six-month technical assistance experience for state, territory, and Tribal teams that are exploring or preparing for systems change to support the ECE workforce.
Through facilitated sessions, peer learning, and guided planning, CFAs support teams to deepen their understanding of complex challenges, build shared goals, and develop actionable plans grounded in evidence about what works to create change at a system level. Each cohort centers on a specific ECE workforce issue, creating space for community, reflection, and strategy development.
CFAs are ideal for teams in earlier phases of change who are building momentum toward long-term improvements in career pathways, compensation, and workplace conditions for ECE professionals.