This research brief by Mara Tieken, Joyce Parker, and the Greenville Early Childhood Collaborative describes an early childhood education collaborative in Greenville, Mississippi. Formed to raise early childhood education (ECE) participation rates and support high quality ECE programming, the collaborative consists of participants representing a variety of stakeholder groups: the public school district, the district-run
pre-kindergarten and kindergarten schools, Head Start, daycare centers, and Mississippi Valley State University. The collaborative is convened by Citizens for a Better Greenville, a community group supporting student and parent organizing for strong and equitable public education, and supported by the Family Leadership Design Collaborative, a network of community organizations and researchers partnering to co-design change processes focused on educational justice.
Drawing upon analysis of collaborative meetings and participant interviews, this research brief describes Greenville and its ECE challenge and the collaborative and its purpose, and then explores themes related to its key elements and the changes it has produced. These summaries and themes are illustrated with representative quotes and examples from interviews and collaborative meetings.
