ABOUT

Early Childhood Associates, Inc. (ECA) is a nationally recognized, women-owned social science research firm located in Boston Metrowest. ECA has over 25 years of expertise in program research and evaluation, strategic planning for schools and communities, developing the Pre-K to 12 workforce, and program quality and consultation – all with an eye toward improving the quality of our children’s education and informing federal, state and local education policy.

ECA’s team includes researchers with PhDs and in-depth experience in advanced quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation techniques. ECA has expertise in virtually every mode of research and evaluation methodology applied to education, from child and adult assessments in a wide range of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic populations, to environment and classroom observations, focus groups, interviews, online surveys of varying scale, longitudinal studies and webinars.

• ECA staff bring a wealth of expertise conducting actionable, strategic planning and policy work in partnership with state agencies, think tanks, and foundations focused on pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 education.
• ECA knows that the development of children is directly linked to the development of the adults who work with them. We have conducted ground-breaking research to better understand the benefits of coaching in workforce development and to analyze how to improve coaching methods.
• ECA has provided technical leadership to nearly one-third of the nation’s State Departments of Education. Our team has extensive knowledge of early childhood rules and regulations as well as Core Knowledge and Core Competencies for early educators.