EDC Feature Articles: EDC Researcher Selected for Childcare Fellowship

April 2004

EDC Researcher Selected for Child Care Fellowship

Costanza Eggers-Piérola Named Schott Foundation Fellow

Costanza Eggers-Piérola has taken her research expertise from EDC's Center for Children and Families (CC&F) into the political arena in her new role as a Caroline and Sigmund Schott Foundation Fellow. The one-year fellowship allows Eggers-Piérola to apply her research skills-which focus on access to quality early care and education programs-to state-level politics and policymaking.

The Cambridge (Mass.)-based Schott Foundation, which focuses on equity in education and child care, uses the Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education to bring together eight early childhood leaders from across Massachusetts for a year of policy research and advocacy. The goal is to enhance the effectiveness of early childhood advocates around the state so that they can better guide lawmakers in developing services and programs for young children and families. "We are learning to become more strategic and political in advocating for an early childhood agenda in Massachusetts," says Eggers-Piérola.

A highly-experienced qualitative researcher, Eggers-Piérola has contributed to numerous large-scale studies on the needs of children and families. In 2002 she was called upon to give expert testimony at the Commission Hearing of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Currently, she is writing a book and designing trainings to help preschool programs better serve our country's rapidly growing population of Latino children. "At CC&F we have a national perspective on policy issues that affect children. The Fellowship gives me an opportunity to share this national perspective with local colleagues and policymakers and to learn from their experiences," she says. "I see the Fellowship as a two-way learning opportunity."

This year the Fellows are focusing their attention on improving local and state agency collection and use of child care data. Improvements might involve streamlining data collection, enhancing responsiveness to diverse communities, and making the findings user-friendly for legislators and center and agency staff, according to Eggers-Piérola. The Fellows will ultimately develop policy recommendations for statewide improvements and a campaign to see them enacted.

"Data collection is very expensive and unwieldy," explains Eggers-Piérola. "People in the agencies are looking for ways to save money, cut down on redundancies, and guarantee that they are getting good and accurate information." Piérola points to intake forms at child care centers that track family demographics as a typical source of data. "This sort of data collection is mandated by the state to determine constituent need and evaluate program effectiveness. Legislators rely on it to inform themselves and develop programs and services for children and families. We want to ensure that they are getting the best information available."

Data are also central to understanding the needs of the early childhood workforce by tracking information like teacher education levels, salaries, and rates of turnover. "We believe that a more effective data system will both reduce expenditures to the state and target resources more effectively. Data can be a powerful tool for the industry when collected and used correctly," says Eggers-Piérola.

For more information, visit:

The Center for Children and Families

Improving Access and Opportunity for Latinos in Early Childhood

The Schott Foundation

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Newsroom

Costanza Eggers-Piérola

Costanza Eggers-Piérola reflects on her work with child care providers

I was visiting a child care center a couple of months ago, and stopped to chat with a teaching assistant. We are both native Spanish speakers, so naturally we were conversing in Spanish. A young child who was playing with some blocks was watching us for a while and then walked over and said to me, "Usted sabe hablar español." (You know how to speak Spanish.) He said it more as a statement than a question. The teaching assistant said in Spanish, "Yes, Dr. Eggers is Latin American and she is my teacher." The boy, wide-eyed, asked his teacher, "You are learning too?" She said yes, and I said, "And I am learning too, all the time." He took my hand and said, "Let me show you something," leading me to where he had been stacking blocks. He had realized that the assistant and I were both teachers and learners, and he wanted to share what he had discovered with us. This excitement about learning and teaching is what inspires me in my work with teachers.

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