Research & Evaluation
We conduct original program and policy research to understand problems, link policies to wellbeing, and describe the return on state leaders’ investments. Through mixed methods, we balance the use of qualitative and quantitative data to both maintain methodology rigor and highlight the nuance behind the data. This balance helps us describe why programs do or do not work. We perform benefit-cost analyses, data analyses, and impact studies. We help clients understand the implications of our findings, and we help clients translate our findings for a variety of audiences.
Latest Research
Original Research: The Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study
Families across the United States are struggling to find and afford child care. Policymakers, advocates, and researchers have documented the scope of that struggle at the national level for years. What has been far harder to answer is a simpler question: what is happening in any given community?
A new five-part research series from our Center provides that kind of local understanding for greater Nashville, Tennessee. Conducted the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study in partnership with United Way of Greater Nashville, Raising Readers Nashville, and the Nashville Early Education Coalition. The study draws on original data collected through the Davidson County Child Care Provider Experience Survey, fielded in Summer 2025 to all licensed child care programs in greater Davidson County, Nashville, Tennessee.
The study examines the supply of center-based and home-based child care across the region, the size and composition of the local early childhood education workforce, and the estimated true cost of providing high-quality care for children under age 5.
Findings are presented across an executive summary and five research briefs.
Additional Research
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