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Our Research

Research Projects

Since the inception of the ASPIRE PreK program, the Alliance has been committed to broadening the field's understanding of how to create high-quality, sustainable PreK programs in family child care homes. In addition, the Alliance is actively involved with partners around the state and country to support the growth of family child care. 

Project: Barriers, Supports and Costs Associated with Family Child Care Participation in Pre-K Expansion Requirements Under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future

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Description: Maryland has implemented a historic focus on early childhood with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. This legislation has created an unprecedented opportunity to expand preschool to all of the state’s
three- and four-year-old children through a mixed-delivery system across the continuum of public, center, and family child care (FCC) providers.


While the “Blueprint” brought many positive opportunities, including funding, for all early care and education professionals, it increased requirements for participation in Pre-K expansion grants. To understand the potential barriers in meeting the requirements under Blueprint, and potential unintended consequences from
implementation, the Family Child Care Alliance of Maryland commissioned this study. Using a mixed method research design, a survey sample of 294 responses were collected in English and Spanish with 171 fully completed from FCC providers across the state, accompanied by 25 focus group interviews and 8 individual cost-profile constructed models.

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Download: Executive Brief. Full Report.

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Project: Family Child Care Alliance of Maryland’s ASPIRE Pre-K Program: EVALUATION

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Description: The ASPIRE program is an example of a professional learning program for early care and
education (ECE) educators designed to increase equity and access to high-quality ECE. Using
academic and professional literature on FCC workforce development, ASPIRE program document analysis, and key informant interviews, the evaluation team at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Education examined the ASPIRE program’s efforts and impacts to develop recommendations for
program improvement, sustainability, and scalability.

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Download: Full report.

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Project: Family Child Care Apprenticeship

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Description: Design and implement an apprenticeship for new family child care providers. Apprenticeship will become part of the Maryland Apprenticeship and Training Program (MATP) and approved by the Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning.

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Project Leads: Jody Lamberti, Director of Operations, Alliance, and Dr. Debi Silverman, Johns Hopkins University

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Status: Completed.

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​Project: Coaching Framework for PreK in Family Child Care

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Description: Family child care is a unique educational setting, and there is very little research on how to help family child care providers deliver high-quality PreK instruction in their home businesses. This project, completed in partnership with Child Trends, created a coaching framework specifically designed to help educators in family child care homes develop high-quality PreK programs.

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Project Leads: Jody Lamberti, Director of Operations, Alliance, and Dr. Chrishana Lloyd, Child Trends

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Status: Completed.

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