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—Launched in June 2025, the National ECE Workforce Center is engaging a cohort of three states in an Action Research Partnership to design a plan for funding, implementing, and sustaining an aligned wage scale and career ladder at scale. The states are engaging with technical assistance specialists and each other in the work. 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: now recruiting (see information below) 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.
Open applications
Apply by June 23, 2025
The National ECE Workforce Center is recruiting participants for two upcoming technical assistance opportunities designed to support states, territories, and Tribes in advancing effective career pathways. Find more details, a link to apply, and information session registration below.
Community for Action
Revising existing career pathways to incorporate experience
This targeted technical assistance offering supports states, territories, and Tribes that are preparing to update their career pathway but are at an earlier stage of exploration.
- The goal: By the end of the six-month engagement, teams will deepen their understanding of the policy context, explore strategies for systems change, and build actionable plans for revisions to career pathways to better support the current workforce.
- The benefits: With monthly sessions and collaborative learning, Communities for Action provide structured technical assistance in a supportive, flexible environment.
- The cohort: This opportunity is ideal for teams preparing to advance significant reforms in the coming years. We are recruiting up to six states, territories, and/or Tribes for this Community for Action. Only individuals affiliated with a state, territory, or Tribal ECE agency need apply.
Action Research Partnership
Revising existing career pathways to incorporate experience
Designed for states that are already engaged—or entering a phase of active work—on embedding credit for prior experience within their career pathways, this Action Research Partnership will provide long-term, research-based technical assistance supports through an immersive cohort model.
- The goal: By the end of the 12-month engagement, each team will have designed or enhanced their state’s early childhood career pathways to recognize the experience of the existing workforce while aligning to professional standards.
- The benefits: Participants will receive individualized technical assistance, research, and policy support along with cohort-based peer learning opportunities.
- The cohort: Best suited for states poised for immediate action and work towards systems-level change, we are recruiting up to four states for this opportunity. Only individuals affiliated with a state ECE agency need apply.
Apply
Application resources:
New Mexico Pilot
The National ECE Workforce Center is piloting an Action Research Partnership with New Mexico to inform the development and implementation of a wage scale and career ladder for the state’s early childhood professionals in child care, pre-K, home visiting, and early intervention. The New Mexico Action Research Partnership is led by a cross-disciplinary team of technical assistance specialists, researchers, and content experts representing the Center’s core and collaborating partners. This team supports the New Mexico Change Team led by the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD).
By the end of June 2025, the Change Team will have recommendations for a fully defined wage scale and career ladder with an implementation plan that it informed by research on promising practices from other states and communities and evidence-based systems change approaches.
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.