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The Partnership Impact Research Project adopted the QUILT project's taxonomy to categorize local partnership structures into three types:

Year One of the study focused on a qualitative analysis to explain partnership approaches at the state and local levels and to produce a report for national dissemination to a variety of audiences. During project Year Two and Year Three, the focus was on the influence of provider-level partnership practices on quality and access.

Year One Methodology

During the first year of the project, a standardized case study approach was used to analyze the state- and provider-level data in the QUILT partnership profiles database. Additionally, research literature about partnerships was reviewed as well as studies of state early care and education funding and policies. Two research questions framed the Year One analysis and writing: (1) How are states across the country supporting and promoting early care and education partnerships? (2) How are early care and education providers engaging in partnerships? To address these questions, two separate case studies were utilized:

State-Level Case Study: Data sources included reviews of documents produced by national organizations and by states as well as interviews with state child care administrators, Head Start-State Collaboration directors, state pre-k directors, and directors of agencies responsible for early care and education services. The state factual data include links to state early care and education web pages, state demographics, child care licensing regulations, eligibility criteria for early education programs, funding for early education programs, and numbers served, all of which are from secondary sources such as the census.

Provider-Level Case Study: Data came from the 65 partnership profiles in the database and provided factual information for each. Questions focused on: partnership approach, partnership hours and days, number of children served by the partnership, total numbers served by the center, ages of children served by the partnership and by partnering organizations, funding used to support the partnership, partnership setting, services offered, and the primary objective for partnering.

Years Two and Three Methodology

The second and third years of the project continued to examine the qualitative data across cross-cutting themes while also addressing questions about the influence of partnership on quality and access. In-depth longitudinal data collection continued and follow-up data was gathered from child care directors, teachers, parents, and from directors of Head Start programs partnering with child care centers. This portion of the project focused on: partnership processes, quality of services, parental access to services, duration of partnership, benefits/challenges of partnership, and child care quality. Additionally, detailed briefs were developed aimed at addressing specific questions posed by different audiences such as policymakers and providers.