Guilford Readiness of Children for School (ROCS) Study

Project

Overview

Project Overview

Children’s life prospects are substantially shaped by their circumstances between birth and age 3, so the earliest years of life present promising opportunities to disrupt cycles of poverty. Children growing up in families with low incomes acutely experience the disadvantages of poverty, and they disproportionately remain at the bottom of the economic ladder as adults. The Ready for School, Ready for Life initiative seeks to get the families of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers what they need, when they need it, by implementing a connected system of care that will deliver a wide range of services for the 6,000 children born each year in Guilford County, North Carolina.

The Guilford Readiness of Children for School Study (Guilford ROCS Study) seeks to understand what works best for families as the initiative unfolds over time. MDRC will evaluate the implementation of the initiative and the outcomes it aims to affect in Guilford County.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Families with Children

Focus Area: Child Care and Early Education, Two-Generation Programs

Population: Families, Children and Schools, Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: Children 0-5, Preschool Children, Elementary and Middle School Students, Single-Parent Families, Two-Parent Families

Locations: North Carolina

Intervention: School Readiness, Case Management, Coordinated Care/Care Management, Home Visiting

Agenda, Scope, <br> & Goals

Agenda, Scope, and Goals

Guilford ROCS is an evaluation of the Ready for School, Ready for Life initiative, a community-wide early childhood initiative in Guilford County, North Carolina.

As of early 2023, the Ready for School, Ready for Life initiative’s prenatal-to-age-three phase encompasses three broad areas: (1) Building a System of Care, (2) Expanding and Improving Services, and (3) Changing Systems and Building Public Will. Ultimately, the goal of the initiative is to improve outcomes across the population and reduce disparities among individuals so that every child in Guilford County enters school developmentally on track and ready to succeed.

The Guilford ROCS study will evaluate the implementation of the initiative and the outcomes it aims to affect in Guilford County, addressing the following research questions:

How is the initiative being implemented?
How are the initiative’s values and principles seen in the implementation?
What factors affect how the initiative is implemented?
What kinds of services and activities do families with young children participate in? What do they think about these experiences?
How are children’s literacy skills, social skills, behaviors, and health changing over time?
How are differences in outcomes for subpopulations changing over time?

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Families with Children

Focus Area: Child Care and Early Education, Two-Generation Programs

Population: Families, Children and Schools, Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: Children 0-5, Preschool Children, Elementary and Middle School Students, Single-Parent Families, Two-Parent Families

Locations: North Carolina

Intervention: School Readiness, Case Management, Coordinated Care/Care Management, Home Visiting

Design, Sites, & <br> Data Sources

Design, Sites, and Data Sources

The Guilford ROCS study will consist of mixed-methods implementation research alongside an outcomes monitoring study. The study, which runs from 2023 through 2029, will collect and analyze information from many data sources, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and administrative data sources.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Families with Children

Focus Area: Child Care and Early Education, Two-Generation Programs

Population: Families, Children and Schools, Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: Children 0-5, Preschool Children, Elementary and Middle School Students, Single-Parent Families, Two-Parent Families

Locations: North Carolina

Intervention: School Readiness, Case Management, Coordinated Care/Care Management, Home Visiting

Funders & <br />Partners

Funders

Blue Meridian Partners

The Duke Endowment

Partners

James Bell Associates

MDRC Staff

Shira Kolnik Mattera
Senior Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Mattera’s research focuses on early childhood education and intervention and children’s development. She currently works on impact and implementation evaluation for both preschool interventions and projects focused on children from birth to age 3.
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Desiree Principe Alderson
Senior Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Alderson is currently the data manager for the Get Ready Guilford Initiative, which is a county-wide initiative to improve outcomes for children in Guilford, North Carolina.
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Tahsin Amin
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Rebecca Davis
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Davis conducts research on programs and policies that seek to foster positive child development, expand access to high-quality education, and mitigate the hardships of poverty for children and families. She specializes in cost methodology, program evaluation, and implementation research.
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Carolyn Hill
Senior Fellow, Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment
Hill joined MDRC in 2014 from Georgetown University, where she was a tenured associate professor of public policy.
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Virginia Knox
President
Virginia Knox became President of MDRC on October 15, 2019. Prior to being named president, Knox served as vice president and as leader of the organization’s Families and Children Policy Area.
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Emily Pelles
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Sydney Roach
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Anne Warren
Research Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Warren has 10 years of experience processing and analyzing quantitative data from programs focused on health care and employment.
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Samantha Wulfsohn
Senior Associate, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development
Wulfsohn is a senior field liaison and licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience working alongside staff in the field to continually strengthen program implementation at all stages of the evidence-building cycle.
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Project

STATUS: Current

Basics

STATUS: Current

Basics

STATUS: Current

Basics